Student press

Student press (студентські часописи; studentski chasopysy). The first Ukrainian-language student periodicals were handwritten and circulated clandestinely among members of the Kyiv Student Hromada: ‘Samostaine slovo’ (1861–2), which defended the Ukrainian culture, and the humorous ‘Pomyinytsia’ (1863–4). The first printed publications put together primarily by students were Druh (1874–7) and Hromads’kyi druh (1878) in Austrian-ruled Lviv; both were under the influence of Mykhailo Drahomanov and socialist in orientation. Also published in Lviv decades later were the first exclusively student journal, Moloda Ukraïna (1900–3); Shliakhy, the literary-cultural organ of the Ukrainian Student Union in 1913–14; and the journal Vidhuky (1913), which advocated that students undergo military training in preparation for war. In the early 20th century there were attempts to establish Ukrainian student papers in the Russian Empire; these included Vistnyk Ukraïns’koï kyïvs’koï students’koï hromady (one issue in 1903, two in 1905) in Kyiv and Ukraïns’kyi student (two issues in 1913, one in 1914) in Saint Petersburg.

During the First World War and the subsequent Ukrainian struggle for independence (1917–20), conditions did not allow a student press to develop. Only a few periodicals appeared: Sterno (1917) in Kyiv, Vistnyk Drahomanivs’koï orhanizatsiï (1917) in Lviv, and Nova dumka (1920) in Kamianets-Podilskyi.

Under Soviet rule, student newspapers in Ukraine were completely subordinated to the regime and their function as carriers of new ideas was replaced by their adherence to and advocacy of the Communist Party line. The first journal to appear was the short-lived Russian-language Studentcheskii vestnik (1919) in Kyiv. The most important journal of the interwar period was the Central Union of Proletarian Students’ Student revoliutsiï (1922–33). Student journals at institutes of people's education, such as Molodi zahony in Kyiv and Robitnyk osvity and Studenty zhovtnia in Kharkiv, were published or copublished by the Communist Youth League of Ukraine (Komsomol) and were therefore directed at a much wider audience of young people than just students. Since the Second World War the only republican periodical directed specifically at students has been Students’kyi hart (est 1969), a supplement (30 times a year) to the Komsomol paper Molod’ Ukraïny. Only after the late 1980s a student press not controlled by the regime was able to develop. In neighboring Poland, Ukrainian students in Warsaw published the quarterly Zustrichi from 1984.

In interwar Lviv in the early 1920s, the lithographed periodicals Nash shliakh (1922), Students’ki visty (1923, 1926), Informatsiinyi lystok (organ of the Ukrainian Provincial Student Council), and Istorychnyi visnyk (1923) were circulated secretly. They promoted the Lviv (Underground) Ukrainian University and Ukrainian political aspirations. The sanctioned Catholic monthly Postup (Lviv) (1921–30) was called a student herald until 1927. Russophile students published four issues of the semiannual Razsvet (1923–4, ed B. Trush and Ya. Kmitsikevich) in Russian.

Many student journals were established in the major centers of Ukrainian émigré life in the 1920s, especially in Czechoslovakia. Their number in that country was a reflection of the dynamism of Ukrainian student and political life there, which was not subject to the restrictions imposed by the Polish authorities in Western Ukraine. Students’kyi visnyk (1923–31), the monthly organ of the Central Union of Ukrainian Students, was published in Prague. The Ukrainian Academic Hromada in Prague published the journal Ukraïns’kyi student (1920–5). Students at the Ukrainian Higher Pedagogical Institute in Prague published a student hromada bulletin and the journal Spudei (1925–6, ed Borys Homzyn). The Democratic Alliance of Students there issued Ob’iednannia; socialist students published the irregular Zhyttia (1924–5) and Vartovyi (1926–9). Soviet citizens studying in Prague published Vpered. Students at the Ukrainian Husbandry Academy in Poděbrady published the annual Zapysky Ukraïns’koï akademichnoï hromady (1923–5), the semimonthly Nasha hromada (1923–35), the humor magazine Podiebradka (1923–4), and the bibliographic journal Ukraïns’ke knyhoznavstvo (4 issues, 1922–?). The nationalist Group of Ukrainian National Youth, a student organization, issued the monthly Natsional’na dumka (1924–7) in Prague. In Brno the Ukrainian Student Association published Hurtom (1925–6).

In Berlin students published four issues of Spartak (1926–8), the organ of the youth wing of the Communist Party of Western Ukraine, which was smuggled into Western Ukraine. Ukrainian student journals in Vienna included the monthly Molode zhyttia (1921), the pro-communist Nash stiah (1921–3?, ed Roman Rozdolsky) and Novyi shliakh (1924–6), and the satirical Ieretykon (1924–5). Dumka (1924–?) appeared briefly in Graz, and the humorous Smikhomet (1924) was published by students at the Danzig Polytechnic. In Warsaw the Ukrainian Student Hromada published Na chuzhyni (1924–5), Students’kyi holos (1927–31), and the irregular Chornomore (1928–33). Transcarpathian students in Prague published four short-lived Russophile journals in the 1920s and the nationalist Proboiem (1933–44). In Bukovyna repression by the Romanian authorities retarded the development of a Ukrainian student press. Ukrainian students were, however, involved in the publication of the literary monthly Promin’ (Chernivtsi) (1921–3). Later the Union of Ukrainian Student Organizations in Romania published Students’ki visty (1935–7) as a supplement to the paper Chas (Chernivtsi) and then the journal Samostiinist’. In Canada students living at the Mohyla Ukrainian Institute in Saskatoon issued the bimonthly journal Kameniari (1918–19).

The Ukrainian student movement, and with it the student press, declined in Central and Western Europe in the 1930s, owing to the Depression and the consequent lack of a stable community of university students. As a result Lviv re-emerged as the center of the student press. Published there were Students’kyi shliakh (1931–4), the monthly organ of the Union of Ukrainian Student Organizations under Poland and then of the Central Union of Ukrainian Students, and its successor, Students’kyi vistnyk (1935–9); they were closely allied with the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. Both were banned after the 1939 Soviet occupation of Galicia. During the Second World War, under the German occupation Students’kyi prapor (1943–4) was published in Lviv as the monthly organ of the Labor Alliance of Ukrainian Students, and the Nationalist Organization of Ukrainian Students published Biuleten’ NOUS-u (1942–3, ed V. Rudko) for students in Germany.

After the war, over 20 student periodicals were established by Ukrainian displaced persons and refugees studying in Germany and Austria; most were published in Munich. They included Students’kyi shliakh (1945–7), Stezhi (1946–7), Students’kyi visnyk (1947–8), Visti TseSUSu (1948–55), and Visnyk TseSUSu (1946–7), all of them organs of the Central Union of Ukrainian Students; Students’kyi informator (1945), Student (1945–6), Students’ki visti (1946–7), Students’ki obriï (1946–7), and Students’ke zhyttia (1949–50); Students’ka dumka (1946–7) in Augsburg; Students’ka dumka (1946–8) in Regensburg; Students’kyi shliakh (1945–7) in Innsbruck; Students’kyi prapor in Graz; the journal Bohoslov (1948–9) of the Student Society at the Theological Academy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church; Biuleten’ (1949–56) of the Ukrainian Student Society of Mikhnovsky; the Catholic journal Obnova (1947–9); Seminariini visti (1946) at the Greek Catholic Seminary in Hirschberg; the Zarevo Ukrainian Student Association’s monthly journal Zarevo (1949–50); Iunats’ka borot’ba (1947–8), the student organ of the Ukrainian Revolutionary Democratic party; and the satirical wall gazette Elita (1947–51) at the Ukrainian Student Center in Louvain, Belgium.

After the mass resettlement of the refugees in other Western countries, student periodicals were established there. Feniks (1951–74) was published by the pro-OUN (Bandera faction) Ukrainian Student Organization of Mikhnovsky, and the pro-OUN (Melnyk faction) Smoloskyp organization and Zarevo Ukrainian Student Association issued Smoloskyp (1950–68) and Rozbudova derzhavy (1949–57) respectively; all three were begun in Europe and moved to the United States of America. The Federation of Ukrainian Student Organizations of America published a regular page in the newspaper Svoboda (130 issues in 1954–72), the annual Horizons (1956–68), and irregular newsletters. The bilingual (Ukrainian and English) and often provocative Student (est 1968) was the longest-running Ukrainian student organ, although it did not always appear regularly. In the early 1990s a new student paper, Studenets’, edited by S. Bandera, Jr, surfaced in Toronto. The Union of Ukrainian Student Societies in Europe published an irregular bulletin. In Argentina the Union of Ukrainian Students published Students’ke zhyttia (20 issues, 1959–61). In Australia the Ukrainian Student Hromada in Victoria published Students’ke oko (25 issues, 1969–73). In Brazil students at the Basilian monastic order seminary in Curitiba have published the irregular magazine Tsvirkun since 1945. Local student groups have issued various ephemeral periodicals. Notable among them was New Directions (1969–74) in New York and Vitrazh (1977–80?) in London. (See also Press.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ianiv, V. ‘Ukraïns'ka students'ka presa (Istorychno-bibliohrafichnyi narys),’ in Studiï ta materiialy do novishoï ukraïns'koï istoriï, vol 2 (Munich 1983)

Volodymyr Yaniv

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]