Union of Ukrainian Progressive Youth

Union of Ukrainian Progressive Youth (Союз української поступової молоді ім. М. Драгоманова «Каменярі»; Soiuz ukrainskoi postupovoi molodi im. M. Drahomanova ‘Kameniari’). A Galician youth organization founded in 1929 and popularly known as the Kameniari (Stonecutters) after the poem by Ivan Franko. The organization had a radical-democratic and ethical-socialist ideology and was under the influence of the Ukrainian Radical party. Its headquarters was in Lviv. In 1930 the union had 48 branches throughout Galicia, in 1933, 108 branches, and in 1936, 291 branches, with over 15,000 members. Local branches organized study circles, sports activities, theatrical groups, and choirs. Annual district sports meets were organized at the district level. The union had two journals, Kameniari (Lviv) and Molodi kameniari, and published several organizational handbooks. The union belonged to the International Workers Sports Union (headquarters in Brussels) and participated in two of its olympiads. The head of the union was Andrii Hryvnak, and the secretary-general was P. Kostiuk. The organization ceased to exist with the Soviet occupation of Galicia in 1939.

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