Svoboda (Lviv)

Svoboda (Lviv) (Freedom). A newspaper of political and economic affairs, published in 1897–1919 and 1922–39; after Dilo one of the longest-running Ukrainian newspapers in Galicia. The organ of the National Democratic party and, from 1925, the Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance, it was published in Lviv except during the Russian occupation of 1915, when it appeared in Vienna, and in 1919, when it was published in Stanyslaviv (now Ivano-Frankivsk). Its periodicity varied, but for most of its existence it appeared weekly. In its early years Svoboda devoted particular attention to rural issues and published practical advice on farming and the prices of agricultural products. It featured regular reports from correspondents throughout the countryside and reports on the activities of the Prosvita society and various co-operatives. Later it devoted more attention to international political affairs. The editors of Svoboda included prominent political figures, such as Kost Levytsky, Volodymyr Okhrymovych, Viacheslav Budzynovsky, Lonhyn Tsehelsky, Volodymyr M. Bachynsky, Mykola Zaiachkivsky, Hryts Hladky, Stepan Baran, Mykhailo Strutynsky, Oleksa Kuzma, and Volodymyr Tselevych. The paper had a pressrun of 1,850 in 1897, 6,500 in 1912, 9,500 in 1913, 8,500 in 1917, and 2,350 in 1930.

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