Ruska Rada society

Ruska Rada society [Руська рада]. A Bukovynian political organization founded in Chernivtsi in 1870 by members of the Ruska Besida in Bukovyna society. Its first president was Rev Vasyl Prodan. The society’s members informed the Ukrainian public about political matters and organized election campaigns. Until 1885 the society was dominated by Russophiles and thereafter by populists (led by Ivan Tyminsky, Yerotei Pihuliak, Omelian Popovych, and I. Okunevsky), who published the organs Ruska rada (1898–1908) and Narodnyi holos (1909–11). From 1904 to 1914 the president was Stepan Smal-Stotsky. After the creation of Ukrainian parties in Bukovyna in 1906, the society’s political role was diminished. In 1913 it had 842 members. The society was banned by the Romanian regime in 1923.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]