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[DEFENDING UKRAINIAN SCHOOLS: A GLIMPSE INTO NATIONAL EDUCATION AMID INTERWAR POLONIZATION REFORM] Kaliendaryk Uhytelskoi hromady Tovarystva uchyteliv vyshchykh shkil u Lvovi na 1925 rik [i.e. Calendar of the Teaching Community of the Association of Teachers of Higher Schools in Lviv for the Year 1925]

TSEHELSKYI, R (ed.).

Item #2921

Lviv: Drukarnia naukovoho tovarystva im. Shevchenka for “Uchytelska hromada”, 1924. 10,5 × 10,5 cm. 56 pp., tbls. Period cloth.

In Ukrainian.

Good to very good. Skillfully restored. Light blue period cloth with embossed gilt title and vignette on the front board, showing minor fading and rubbing consistent with age. Faint stains, bumped extremities. Partially absent rear flyleaf (likely as issued). Owner’s mark in pencil on the front flyleaf, also with ink on the title: “Prof. Shnytkovskyi” (?). Complete with 56 pp. but the last ad. list mentioned for a library copy by Ilnytska (2015) not preserved, likely due to the binding process specifics.

Calendars, whether supplemented with additional materials like literary excerpts or religious event descriptions or not, constituted an established niche in Interwar Western Ukraine. Misylo provides a (probably incomplete) list of 148 calendars printed 1918 to 1939, i.e. 7 calendars per year on average (1991, pp. 172–187). Calendars aligned with the traditional way of life among the diaspora were in demand and covered many target audiences. The present example, however, is not only a calendar per se, but a significant piece reminiscent of a rarely discussed local societal shift of the
1920s.

Independent national education was quite possibly the Holy Grail for the Ukrainian people during the XIXth and early XXth centuries, arguably even more important than the firm border of the state-to-be. This was even more so for the progressive Western Ukrainian nationalists, who were able to lead open discussions, prepare and introduce educational plans: including those based on the best Central European teaching practices. The first teacher’ unions were formed around the 1880s with the first professional periodical, Shkilnyi chasopys (later renamed as Uchytel), appearing in print 1884.

The education was growing slowly but steadily. Various research estimates that by the early 1920s the number of the Ukrainian schools in the whole Western Ukraine was between 2,400 and 3,600. But 1924 saw the introduction of Lex Grabski federal law. As the region was under Polish administration from 1923, the government decided to reform the education and introduce the utraquist schools and lower the minorityonly schools. Utraquist schools, mentioned in the present book as utrakvistychni shkoly, meant mixed bilingual education. Initially they represented a paradigm with education in Polish and German, later a version of Polish and Ukrainian emerged. On paper Lex Grabski allowed bilingual education. But in reality due to the stringent requirements and various bureaucratic barriers, the law quickly affected regional Ukrainian education for the worse. The number of Ukrainian schools drastically lowered within the two years.

This handbook is one of the tools among the strategy of active Tovarystvo uchyteliv [Teacher’s Comraderie] that confronted the change. During 1924 and 1925, teachers attempted to start a discussion with the government on the support of Ukrainian education. It was deemed possible with organizing the local interessants – mainly teachers – and a continuous dialogue with Ukrainians in the Parliament. With teachers and intellectual elite having invested in education for years, the union participants were understandably eager not to lose what they achieved with the published handbooks, newest primers, orthographic system and fiction for the youth.

The effort encompassed over a hundred of members and was led by the teacher O. Terletskii, however, it is Dr. Roman Tsehelskyi (1882–1956) who is mentioned as the editor of the brochure.

Pages 3–14 present a January to December calendar with “Ukrainian” and “Greek–Roman” holidays and commemorative dates listed side by 0side. The larger part, pp. 16—56, is divided into a handbook titled in Latin manner shematyzm – but using Cyrillic script. The shematyzm provides meticulously collected, labelled and verified information on Ukrainian educational institutions across the regional cities and villages.

Among institutions mentioned are overseeing bodies, private and statesupported schools, religious and secular institutions, Polish, Ukrainian and utraquist schools mentioned. Six types of schools can be identified based on the educational level and specialisation: himnazii, uchytelski seminarii, torhovelni and kupetski shkoly, tekhnichni and ahrotekhnichni shkoly. The book lists a total of 47 schools, of them 17 are private gymnasiums. It’s interesting to note that the oldest of schools mentioned is Akademichna Himnaziia u Lvovi, founded 1784 and five of the youngest schools were formed in 1923. Tsehelskyi also notes that some (in fact – a lot of them) educational institutions had not yet answered the questionnaire, thus were not included in the register.

Additionally, information on the teaching and administrative staff for each of the schools is provided: name, date of birth, position, specialisation. A separate list of teachers who perished in WWI mentions many renewed Ukrainian intellectuals.

Sadly, the year of 1925, even with an engaging distribution of such calendars and other periodicals, brought little success in attracting new active members. Hromada faced the reality with lack of initiative and funding from teachers. It rendered all those socio-political ambitions futile. By 1929, the union was barely active and, according to its papers, had on the balance only a chest, a table, two chairs, 36 kg of paper, and piles of unsold publishings, including this 1925 calendar, seemingly the only one printed. Overall, the edition is an outstanding source of multi-vectored foundational decades of the national Ukrainian educational system and the professionals who were at the forefront of the nation’s self-discovery. This Kaliendaryk is also an example of outstanding ability of self-organization of a tightly-knit professional community in the area.

Reference
1. Misylo, Yevhen. Bibliohrafiia Ukraunskoi presy v Polshchi (1918—39) i Zakhidno-Ukrainskii Narodnii Respublitsi (1918—19). Vol. 44 (Alberta, 1991). No. 1047.
2. Ilnytska, L. Ukrainska knyha v Halychyni, na Bukovyni, Zakarpatti, Volyni ta v emihratsii, 1914–1939. Bibliohrafichnyi pokazhchyk. Vol. III 1924—1927, Pt. 1 1924–1925 (Lviv, 2015). Item #4711.
3. Vovk, Lesia. Tovarystvo «Uchytelska Hromada»: orhanizatsiinyi rozvytok ta diialnist v umovakh polskoho vladnoho rezhymu (1923–1929 rr.) // Naukovi zapysky Ternopilskoho Natsionalnoho Pedahohichnoho Universytetu imeni Volodymyra Hnatiuka. Vol. 1, issue 2 for 2017. Pp. 94—99.

Scarce. Not located in WorldCat. Not located in KVK. According to Ilnitska, only one copy is held within the Ukrainian libraries, at the Stefanik National Scientific Library in Lviv.

Price: $750.00