Publishers and publishing
Publishers and publishing. Publishing began in Ukraine soon after the emergence of printing and became active in periods of cultural and national renaissance. The more noted publishers of the late 16th and the 17th centuries included Prince Kostiantyn Vasyl Ostrozky (from the early 1580s; see Ostroh Press), the Lviv Dormition Brotherhood (from 1586; see Lviv Dormition Brotherhood Press), Bishop Hedeon Balaban and F. Balaban in Striatyn (see Striatyn Press), Mykhailo Slozka in Lviv, the Kyivan Cave Monastery (from 1617; Kyivan Cave Monastery Press), S. Sobol in Kyiv, Archbishop Lazar Baranovych in Novhorod-Siverskyi (from 1674; see Novhorod-Siverskyi Press and Chernihiv Press), and the Univ Monastery (1660–1770). In the 18th century, Ukrainian publishing houses declined because of bans imposed by the Russian government.
When the Ukrainian national movement revived in the early 19th century, the few Ukrainian books published were produced by Russian houses or through the offices of individual Ukrainian sponsors. These included the works of Petro Hulak-Artemovsky and Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko, as well as a number of almanacs of the romantics in the 1830s and 1840s. They appeared mainly in Kharkiv. When the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood was disbanded in 1847, there was a further crackdown, but publishing resumed in the early 1860s (with the publishing activity of Panteleimon Kulish, Oleksander Konysky, and others). The Valuev circular of 1863 and the Ems Ukase of 1876 made it virtually impossible for anything to be published in Ukrainian within the Russian Empire. Apart from individual exceptions, works by Ukrainian authors were published elsewhere, mostly in Austrian-ruled Lviv and by other émigré publishing houses, such as Mykhailo Drahomanov’s Ukrainian Press in Geneva.
In Austrian-ruled Galicia there were no government proscriptions to contend with. The first sporadic attempts at publishing occurred in the 1830s (the works of Mykhailo Levytsky, Markiian Shashkevych, Mykhailo Luchkai). The Halytsko-Ruska Matytsia publishing house was established in 1848. The Prosvita society began to publish in 1877, and the Russophile Kachkovsky Society in 1874. The 1860s to 1880s saw the emergence of full-time periodicals (such as the journal Pravda, Dilo, Hazeta shkol’na), as well as of publishing houses of various political parties, the Ridna Shkola society, the Basilian monastic order in Zhovkva (in 1895), and so on. Textbooks were published by the Knyzhky Shkilni press, Prosvita, the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh), and other publishers. Publication series began to be issued, such as the Dribna Biblioteka (Little Library) series (1877-81), edited by Ivan Franko; the Biblioteka naiznametnishykh povistei (Library of the Greatest Stories; 1881–1900) of Dilo; the Rus’ka istorychna biblioteka (Ruthenian Historical Library, 1886–1904); Yakiv Orenshtain’s Zahal’na biblioteka (General Library, 1903-18); Fed Fedortsiv’s Novitnia biblioteka (New Library, 1912–23); Dmytro Nykolyshyn’s Zahalna Knyhozbirnia (General Book Collection, 1914–33); and the NTSh’s Ukrainsko-rus’ka biblioteka (Ukrainian-Ruthenian Library).
In Bukovyna the Ruska Besida in Bukovyna society published the Biblioteka dlia molodezhy, selian i mishchanstva (Library for Young People, Peasants, and Burghers) series and other items. In the 1900S a number of similar series were issued. The Ukrainska Shkola society published textbooks.
In Transcarpathia publishing efforts were more limited. They were initiated in 1850 by Oleksander Dukhnovych through the Prešov Literary Society and later continued by the Society of Saint Basil the Great (1864–1902).
The Ukrainian-Ruthenian Publishing Company, established in 1899 under the direction of Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Ivan Franko, and Volodymyr Hnatiuk, played an important part in Galician publishing in the early 20th century. It issued many scholarly and popular works and in 1905 took over the publication of the Literaturno-naukovyi vistnyk. The NTSh was also active at this time; it issued approximately 1,200 titles with reproductions.
After a long period of prohibition, the pressure of censorship in Russian-ruled Ukraine began to lighten in the late 1890s. Literature as well as popular works began to appear. On the initiative of Borys Hrinchenko and with funding from I. Cherevatenko, the publishing house in Chernihiv issued close to 50 titles with pressruns of 5,000 to 10,000 in the years 1894–1909. In 1895 Oleksander Lototsky, Serhii Yefremov, Vasyl Domanytsky, and others established the Vik publishing house in Kyiv. Although it was subjected to Russian censorship, the Vik publishing house managed to put out 140 titles in 560,000 copies (mainly reprintings of Ukrainian literary classics) by 1914. Other ventures included Kievskaia starina and operations in Odesa, Kharkiv, Saint Petersburg (the Philanthropic Society for Publishing Generally Useful and Inexpensive Books), and elsewhere. After the Revolution of 1905, a number of publishing houses were opened in Kyiv, notably the Chas publishing house, Krynytsia, Ranok, Dzvin, Nasha Kooperatsiia, and Lan. The Ukrainske Vydavnytstvo was opened in Katerynoslav; Dnister began operations in Kamianets-Podilskyi. Books were also put out by the Kyiv and Katerynoslav branches of Prosvita, the Ukrainian Scientific Society in Kyiv, and various co-operatives, zemstvos, and private publishers.
Ukrainian publishing was interrupted by the First World War, the repressions of the Russian imperial government, and persecution (in Galicia) by the occupying forces of the Russian army. It resumed in Western Ukraine toward the end of the war, largely through the efforts of the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine and Mykola Zalizniak in Vienna.
The Revolution of 1917 revived publishing in Kyiv and other cities in spite of adverse economic conditions. Individual publishers established themselves (A. Kashchenko, E. Cherepovsky, and others), as well as community and co-operative operations, such as the Chas publishing house, Dzvin, Krynytsia, the Vik publishing house, the Ukrainian Co-operative Publishing Union (Knyhospilka), the All-Ukrainian Teachers’ Publishing Company, Dniprosoiuz, Siaivo, the Rukh publishing house (Kharkiv), and Ukrainske Vydavnytstvo in Katerynoslav. The Ukrainian-Soviet War, 1917–21 markedly limited publishing activity, although in Right-Bank Ukraine (mainly in Kamianets-Podilskyi) the ministries of the Ukrainian National Republic continued to issue books and periodicals.
After the Bolshevik occupation in 1920, all Ukrainian publishing houses were closed. Then, during the period of Ukrainization and of the New Economic Policy, publishing expanded dramatically. By the 1930s the many new operations had managed to produce a large number of titles of new and old Ukrainian literature, scholarly publications, textbooks, dictionaries, and so on. Work in the 1920s was concentrated in the State Publishing House of Ukraine (DVU, 1919–30) and in the co-operatives Knyhospilka, the Rukh publishing house, Chervonyi Shliakh (Kharkiv), the Slovo publishing house (Kyiv), Siaivo, and Kultura. Specialized publications were issued by Radianskyi Selianyn, Ukrainskyi Robitnyk, Naukova Dumka, the press of the People’s Commissariat of Justice, the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, and other presses. In 1930, as a result of increasing government pressure, Soviet Ukraine’s publishing industry was largely reorganized. The DVU was turned into the State Publishing Alliance of Ukraine (DVAU); it included the specialized presses Literatura i Mystetstvo (books on literature and art), Radianska Shkola (textbooks), Molodyi Bilshovyk (books for young people), Ukrainskyi Robitnyk (books for workers), and Na Varti (military publications). In 1934 DVAU was itself dissolved, and the entire network of Soviet Ukrainian publishing houses was handed over to the central state publishing operation in Moscow.
In 1920–39 in Galicia, under Polish occupation, the principal publishing firms were those of Ivan Tyktor, Mykhailo Taranko, Roman Paladiichuk, Mykhailo Matchak, the Ridna Shkola society, Chervona Kalyna, Dilo, the Shevchenko Scientific Society, Bystrytsia, the journal Vistnyk, and co-operatives, such as the Audit Union of Ukrainian Cooperatives, Silskyi Hospodar, Maslosoiuz, and the Vidrodzhennia temperance society. In Bukovyna the conditions of Romanian occupation proved limiting; Yu. Hlynka’s Publishing Company was the most active. In Czechoslovak-ruled Transcarpathia the Prosvita society, the Teachers' Society of Subcarpathian Ruthenia, the Teachers' Hromada of Subcarpathian Ruthenia, and other societies issued publications. In interwar Bohemia, Ukrainian émigré academic and professional societies and organizations published their own periodicals; the Ukrainian Civic Publishing Fund and individuals such as Vasyl Koroliv-Stary, Mariia Omelchenko, and Stepan Rosokha had their own publishing houses in Prague. Other active émigré firms included Ukrainske Slovo (Berlin, 1921–4), Yakiv Orenshtain’s Ukrainska Nakladnia (Berlin–Leipzig, 1919–32), and a number in Warsaw, including Nasha Kultura, Variah, and the Ukrainian Scientific Institute in Warsaw.
During the Second World War, when publishing in Ukraine was largely paralyzed, the most active houses were Ukrainske Vydavnytstvo (Cracow) in Cracow and Lviv, those of the Ukrainian National Alliance and Holos in Germany, and Proboiem and Yurii Tyshchenko’s operation in Czechoslovakia.
After the war there was a brief period (1946–50) of resurgence in publishing, conducted by émigré individuals and organizations in the displaced persons camps. Subsequently the more notable publishers have been the Shevcheko Scientific Society; the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the US; Molode Zhyttia, and Dniprova Khvylia in Munich; the Basilian monastic order presses in Rome, Toronto, and Prudentopolis; the Ukrainian National Association and Svoboda Press in Jersey City; Knyhospilka (New York); Yurii Tkach (Bayda Books) in Australia; Oleksander Mokh’s Dobra Knyzhka press in Toronto; the Prolog Research Corporation in New York; Smoloskyp in Baltimore and Toronto (later Kyiv); the Slovo Association of Ukrainian Writers in Exile in New York and Toronto; Mykola Denysiuk in Buenos Aires; Mariian Kots in Philadelphia; the Ukrainian Publishers Limited in London; Suchasnist’ in Munich and New York; Ukraïns’ki visti in Neu-UIm and Detroit; the First Ukrainian Press in Paris; the Trident Press and Ivan Tyktor in Winnipeg; and Novi dni in Toronto. English-language scholarly works have been published by the Ukrainian Academic Press (Littleton, Colorado), the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press (Edmonton and Toronto), and the Ukrainian Language Education Centre (Edmonton).
In postwar Soviet Ukraine the main publishers were the State Publishing House for Literature (Derzhlitvydav), Dnipro and Radianskyi Pysmennyk (belles lettres), Mystetstvo (art books), Molod (young people’s books), Vyshcha Shkola (postsecondary textbooks and monographs), Radianska Shkola (textbooks and pedagogical literature), the Ukrainska Radianska Entsyklopediia press (encyclopedias), Tekhnika (technical books), Urozhai (agricultural books), Muzychna Ukraina (music books), Veselka (children's literature), Zdorovia (medical and health books), Politvydav Ukrainy (political propaganda), Radianska Ukraina (the publishing house of the CC CPU), Naukova Dumka (scientific publications), the Kyiv University, Kharkiv University, and Lviv University presses, and several oblast houses (eg, Kameniar in Lviv, Tavriia in Simferopol, Karpaty in Uzhhorod). Through the administration of the Ministry of Culture of the Ukrainian SSR that co-ordinated all publishing, from 1949 all presses were subordinated to the Chief Administration of the Printing Industry, Publishing, and Book Trade of the USSR Council of Ministers in Moscow. After Ukraine gained independence in 1991 many of the aforementioned institutions continued to function, some of them under new names.
(See also Book publishing and Press.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Roman Senkus
[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]