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composer, was elected to be the first head of
“Prosvita”. Branches of the society were
organized in all district cities; they were
engaged in organization of people’s reading
halls and publication of popular books in
different subjects, school textbooks and other
written works.
1873 The Shevchenko Literary Society was
founded in Lviv. It put it as its goal to
promote the Ukrainian language and literature
development. O. Barvinsky, a teacher and
historian, headed it. He was an ardent opposer
of Moscowphiles. The society emerged by the
initiative of
O. Konysky, M. Dragomanov and D.
Pylchyvyk on the money of Yelyzaveta
Myloradovych, a Poltava landlady. The
development of the Ukrainian language and
culture was complicated by Valuyev decree of
1863. After reorganization in 1892 it was
turned into Shevchenko Scientific Society
(SSS). From 1897 till 1913 SSS was headed
by M. Hrushevsky. The society, in fact,
became an unofficial Ukrainian Academy of
Sciences that included three sections:
historical-and-philosophical, philological and
mathematical-natural-medical. It was active
till the year of 1939; it was closed after Soviet
power occupied Western Ukraine. It was
reestablished in October, 1989.
1874 It was allowed to teach in Ukrainian in
secondary schools. However, it was
necessary to get the resolution of the regional

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