Svoboda (newspaper)

Svoboda

Type	Weekly newspaper from July 3, 1998 (Daily prior to this)
Owner(s)	Ukrainian National Association, Inc.
Publisher	"Svoboda" Printing Office
Editor	Zenon Snylyk
Founded	15 September 1893
Language	Ukrainian, with some English
Headquarters	Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
Circulation	7,524 + available online
Sister newspapers	The Ukrainian Weekly
ISSN	0274-6964
OCLC number	1766932
Website	svoboda-news.com

Svoboda (in Ukrainian: «Свобода» — "Liberty"^[1]) is the oldest existing Ukrainian newspaper and the most widely read in the Western world.^[2]

History

Svoboda was founded in Jersey City, New Jersey^[3] on 11 September 1893 by Father Hryhoriii Hrushka. It became a bi-weekly newspaper on 1 March 1894, a tri-weekly on 8 August 1914, and a daily on 3 January 1921. Svoboda was an important 'mouthpiece" for Ukrainians in North America, and played an important role in the discussing and solving of immigrant difficulties. Prior to the establishment of Ukrainian-Canadian periodicals (for example the Kanadiiskyi Farmer ("Canadian Farmer")), it was the only Ukrainian-language newspaper of any note in Canada.^[4]

Ukrainians not only in the United States and Canada, but also in Brazil, Galicia, and Bukovyna, subscribed to it. It provided a channel of communication for those of the intelligentsia concerned with emigration of Ukrainian peasants and life in the New World.^[4]

The Ukrainian intelligentsia, through Svoboda, sought to prepare the peasants for an improved lifestyle, and to offer advice in regard to breaking out of the peasant mold and to conform to the ideals of European civilization. Through a program of enlightenment, Svoboda promoted the establishment of Ukrainian schools, the learning of Ukrainian language and history.^[4]

At one time it had a circulation of approximately 18,000, the largest among Ukrainian papers in the West.^[2]

References