THE ACTIVITIES OF THE BRANCHES OF THE “PROSVITA” SOCIETY IN THE GALICIAN HUTSUL REGION AT THE END OF THE 19TH – THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Abstract

The article highlights the activities of the branches of the “Prosvita” society on the territory of the Galician Hutsul region at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries.

The statutes of “Prosvita” regarding the organization of the work of the cultural and educational society in the last third of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries have been analyzed. With the help of discovered archival materials of official authorities and periodicals of the time, the prerequisites for the creation of the society’s branches were traced and their activities in the Galician Hutsul region were characterized. The dynamics of growth in the number of cultural and educational centers of the Galician Hutsul Region are shown, and a comparative characterization of these indicators with other neighboring counties of the region is carried out.

Despite the remoteness of the natural and geographical location of the Galician Hutsul Region, the problematic nature of the communication routes, the too low state of development of education among the local population, the insufficient number of intelligentsia in this region, the educational movement gradually and confidently began to spread at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. and into these hard- to-reach areas of the Ukrainian land.

The “Prosvita” society was concerned not only with educational problems, but also paid attention to the improvement of the region’s economy, founding insurance, business, and credit institutions. The activities of loan offices and shops that helped peasants and burghers take affordable loans, order and buy cheaper goods, bypassing the shops of Jewish moneylenders, spread.

The “Prosvita” reading rooms of the Galician Hutsul region often encountered various difficulties, such as delays in registering their statutes, solving organizational issues, inadequate number of necessary premises, insufficient supply of literature and press. Their work was hindered by representatives of local authorities, who delayed the opening of reading rooms and wrote complaints about their activities to the highest governing state institutions. But the most acute problem in the functioning of “Prosvita” centers in the territory of the region was the question of their proper material maintenance and financing. Financial difficulties sometimes led to the complete decline of reading rooms, which endangered the quality development of the educational movement in the Galician Hutsul region at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries.

The main means of influencing public opinion and raising the cultural level of the inhabitants of the region became the branches of the “Prosvita” society. Its participants found in the urban and rural environment people capable of intellectual work, involved in social and political activities with subsequent transformation into leaders of the Ukrainian nation.

Key words: “Prosvita”, reading room, affiliate, Galician Hutsul region, statute, cultural and educa- tional work, library.