Society of Ruthenian Ladies

Society of Ruthenian Ladies (Общество руских [русских] дам; Obshchestvo ruskykh [russkykh] dam). A Russophile women’s organization. Founded in Lviv in 1878, the society was the first legal organization of Ukrainian women. Its original aims were to decorate the altar of the Dormition Church in Lviv, to provide educational scholarships for needy Ukrainian girls, and to engage in general philanthropic work. In the mid-1880s it had about a hundred members. It published the children’s fortnightly Vinochek (1904–8).

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