Kievskii telegraf

Kievskii telegraf («Киевский телеграф»; Kyiv Telegraph). Kyiv’s first newspaper, a political, scientific, and literary semiweekly published from August 1859 to July 1876. It was founded by A. Yunk, who was its first publisher and editor. Printed in Russian, from 1864 it began to appear thrice weekly. In 1860–3 it published a literary supplement. It lacked any clear editorial policy, but showed a pro-Ukrainian attitude. In 1874 the paper was purchased by Ye. Hohotska, the wife of Sylvestr Hohotsky, who relied on Yu. Tsvitkovsky and his Ukrainophile friends to edit the paper. Kievskii telegraf became the unofficial paper of the Hromada of Kyiv. Its new policy was worked out by Mykhailo Drahomanov. Ukrainian scholars such as Volodymyr Antonovych, Viliam Berenshtam, Fedir Vovk, M. Drahomanov, Mykola Ziber, Volodymyr Navrotsky, Serhii Podolynsky, Oleksander Rusov, Pavlo Zhytetsky, Pavlo Chubynsky, and Yakiv Shulhyn became its main contributors. It covered political developments in the Russian Empire and in other Slavic countries, the Ukrainian literature and literary movement, the theater in Kyiv and Kyiv gubernia, and the evolution of Ukrainian language and culture. Constant denunciations by influential Russian reactionaries prompted the authorities to apply the provisions of the Ems Ukase and to close down the paper on 5 July 1876.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]