Working Alliance of Progressive Students

Working Alliance of Progressive Students (Ділове об’єднання поступового студентства; Dilove obiednannia postupovoho studentstva, or ДОПС; DOPS). A semilegal Sovietophile union of Western Ukrainian students which existed in 1924–8. The alliance was formed in 1924 when five delegates walked out of a conference of the Central Union of Ukrainian Students (being held in Poděbrady, Czechoslovakia) because of political disagreements and formed their own student organization. DOPS had branches in Berlin, Vienna, Cracow, and Prague. It was based initially in Prague and later in Lviv. The group maintained a strong pro-Soviet stance and was linked with the Communist Party of Western Ukraine. Among active members of the alliance were Bohdan Dudykevych and S. Oleksiuk (pseudonym: Stepan Tudor).

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