Paper title:
 Omelyan Popovych – Political Portrait in the Context of Social Life in Bukovina (Last Third of the 19th Century – Early 20th Century)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4316/CC.2025.02.04
Published in:
Issue 2 (Vol. 31) / 2025
Publishing date:
2025-12-31
Pages:
389 - 408
Author(s):
Oleksandr Dobrzanskyi
Abstract:
 The article examines the political career of Omelyan Popovych, a renowned Ukrainian civic and educational leader in Bukovina. It highlights that even as a student – first in a gymnasium and later in the teacher’s seminary – he was deeply engaged in community work and served as President of the youth organisation “Soglasie” (Entente). Although he initially showed Muscophile inclinations, Popovych gradually shifted to Ukrainophile views under the influence of senior colleagues and his own introspection, eventually becoming one of the key figures of the Narodovtsi movement in Bukovina. The article offers an indepth exploration of his contributions to Ukrainian cultural and educational societies, several of which he chaired. It discusses his work as an editor for Narodovtsi newspapers and the Bukovina Orthodox Calendar. Omelyan Popovych played a formative role in establishing Ukrainian political parties in Bukovina, and his initiatives to create the Ukrainian Progressive Party and the Ukrainian National-Democratic Party are reviewed. The study also traces Popovych’s activities during World War I. Although he spent two periods in emigration, first in Vienna and later in Prague, he continued to closely monitor developments in Bukovina. He published the “Bukovyna” newspaper, which became the region’s principal Ukrainian newspaper during the war. His involvement in forming the Ukrainian National Council in Lviv, the Bukovinian regional committee, organising the Ukrainian assembly on November 3, 1918, and participating in the governance of Northern Bukovina, as well as in the leadership of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic, has also been analysed.

Keywords:
 Austria-Hungary, Bukovina, Popovych, Ukrainian movement, cultural, educational societies, political parties, Vasylko, Smal-Stotsky.




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