Foundation to World War I It was founded in 1873 in Lemberg (today
Lviv), at that time the capital of the
Austrian
crown land of
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, as a literary society devoted to the promotion of
Ukrainian literature, and initially bore the name
Shevchenko Society. Established soon after another cultural society,
Prosvita (Enlightenment), from the very beginning it attracted financial and intellectual support of writers and patrons of Ukrainian background from the
Russian Empire, where all publications in
Ukrainian language had been
prohibited. The idea to create the Shevchenko Scientific Society belonged to writer
Oleksandr Konyskyi and Shevchenko's contemporary
Dmytro Pylchykov, and it received financial support of
Yelyzaveta Myloradovych-Skoropadska. In 1893 the Shevchenko Scientific Society changed its statute and was transformed into a real scholarly multidisciplinary academy of sciences. The society issued its own publication
Zapysky NTSh (Notes of the Shevchenko Scientific Society) and continued to be specialized in
Ukrainian Studies. Throughout most of its history it had three sections: historical-philosophical, philological, and mathematical-medical-natural scientific. Under the presidency of historian
Mykhailo Hrushevsky, it greatly expanded its activities, contributing to both humanities and physical sciences, law and medicine, but continuing to specialize chiefly on Ukrainian studies. At the turn of the 20th century, together with the Cultural-Historical Museum, the Society and its head Mykhailo Hrushevsky took an interest in the history and archaeology of Ukraine. Leading archaeological experts in this work were
Bohdan Janusz,
Kateryna Antonovych-Melnyk and
Volodymyr Antonovych. One of the society's most prolific contributors was the poet, folklorist and literary historian
Ivan Franko, who headed its philological section. During that period the society created several museums, libraries, and archives. By 1914, several hundred volumes of scholarly research and notices had been published by the society including over a hundred volumes of its
Zapysky.
World War I to World War II First World War interrupted the society's activities, particularly during the Russian
occupation in 1914-1915, when its collection of works and print shop were destroyed. After the war and the
Polish-Ukrainian conflict,
Western Ukraine became part of
Poland. During that time, the society lost its government subsidies, and was forced to carry on a precarious existence. Its major contributors were historians
Vasyl Shchurat,
Kyrylo Studynsky and
Ivan Krypiakevych. One of the most important projects undertaken by the society was the publication of the first general alphabetic encyclopedia in the Ukrainian language. The
Soviet Union annexed the eastern part of the
Second Polish Republic, including the city of
Lviv, which
capitulated to the
Red Army on 22 September 1939. Upon their occupation of Lviv, the
Soviets dissolved the society. Many of its members were arrested and either imprisoned or executed. Among the perished members were academicians as R. Zubyk, former Ukrainian minister I. Feshchenko-Chopivsky, parliamentarian
Petro Franko, Kyrylo Studynsky and many others. During
Nazi occupation, the society was unable to fully restore its activities.
Exile and return to Ukraine In 1947, on the initiative of geographer and
Nazi collaborator Volodymyr Kubiyovych, it was re-founded as an émigré scholarly society in
Munich; the Society's European center was later moved to
Paris. Other branches were also founded in
New York City (1947),
Toronto (1949) and
Australia (1950), and throughout the
Cold War it functioned as a federation of semi-independent societies. During its period in emigration, under the editorship of Volodymyr Kubiyovych, the society published the great
Entsyklopediia ukrainoznavstva (
Encyclopedia of Ukrainian Studies), consisting of four major series: a Ukrainian-language thematic
encyclopedia in three volumes, a Ukrainian-language alphabetic encyclopedia in 11 volumes, an English-language thematic encyclopedia in two volumes, and an English-language alphabetic encyclopedia in five volumes. The latter compilation, published in
Canada under the title
Encyclopedia of Ukraine, is available online. In 1989 the society was reactivated in its Ukrainian homeland in Lviv, and once again undertook a large-scale research and publication program. Branches were soon founded in other Ukrainian cities and membership exceeded a thousand, including 125 full voting members. ==Presidents==