Ukrainian Physicians’ Association in Czechoslovakia

Ukrainian Physicians’ Association in Czechoslovakia (Спілка українських лікарів у Чехословаччині; Spilka ukrainskykh likariv u Chekhoslovachchyni). Founded in 1922 in Prague, the association aided émigré doctors in their professional endeavors. Its founder and first president was Borys Matiushenko (1922–35); he was followed by Yu. Dobrylovsky (1935–40) and M. Zavalniak. The association was disbanded in September 1940. Its membership was approximately 120; in 1923–8 the members were allocated stipends by the Czechoslovak government. Six issues of the medical journal Ukraïns’kyi medychnyi vistnyk were published (1923–5), and in 1926 a Ukrainian-Latin medical dictionary appeared, compiled by Martyrii Halyn and edited by Matiushenko and Vasyl Nalyvaiko (re-edited in the United States of America by Paul Dzul in 1969).

The association participated in medical conventions in Lviv and Prague, published scholarly articles in the medical journal Likars’kyi vistnyk (Lviv), and edited the medical reference book Knyha zdorov’ia (Book of Health), which went unpublished because of the Second World War. Members of the association participated in the founding and activities of the Ukrainian Scientific Society in Prague and played an active civic role in numerous Ukrainian organizations in Czechoslovakia (eg, in collecting funds for the construction of the Ukrainian hospital of the Narodnia Lichnytsia in Lviv). They took part in organizing conventions of the All-Slavic Medical League in Belgrade, Warsaw, and Prague. They were also active in non-Ukrainian organizations, in attending conventions, and in publishing in Czechoslovak and German medical journals. In 1990 the association was revived (headed by Ya. Babiuk) as a member of the World Federation of Ukrainian Medical Associations (see Medical scientific societies).

Pavlo Pundii

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