Community Громади | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Mykhailo Drahomanov (until 1886) |
| Founded | 1859 (1859) |
| Dissolved | 1917 (1917) |
| Preceded by | Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius |
| Succeeded by | Ukrainian Radical Party |
| Ideology | Liberalism Federalism Europeanism Ukrainian nationalism |
| Political position | Left-wing |
Ahromada (Ukrainian:[ɦroˈmɑdɐ]ⓘ, 'community') was an organization acting as part of a network of secret societies of theUkrainianintelligentsia that appeared soon after theCrimean War. The societies laid a groundwork for emergence of the Ukrainian political elite and national political movement, which intensified with theJanuary Uprising and issuing of theValuev Circular. Many members of the hromadas had earlier belonged to the disbandedBrotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius.
In parallel to the development of hromada networks in theRussian Empire,Prosvita (Enlightenment) societies sprang forth in the Ukrainian-populated parts of theAustro-Hungarian Empire.
Important hromadas existed inSaint Petersburg,Kyiv,Poltava,Chernihiv,Odesa,Ternopil,Lviv,Chernivtsi andStryi.
The first hromada was established inSaint Petersburg where the original members of theBrotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius returned from their exile. An important publication of the Petersburg hromada was the magazineOsnova (Basis) that was published for a short time in 1860s.
Due to student unrest and other revolutionary activity the Russian minister of internal affairsPyotr Valuev arrested several hromada leaders (Pavlo Chubynsky,Petro Yefymenko and others) and exiled them toSiberia.[1] In 1863, after the publication of thePylyp Morachevskyi's New Testament in Ukrainian, Valuev banned most of Ukrainian publications and issued his secretValuev circular as an instruction to the minister of education. That same year most of the western regions of theRussian Empire rebelled in theJanuary Uprising.
The most important hromada was created in Kyiv and became better known as the Old Hromada. It was created sometime in 1870s and was based on a secret club ofchlopomans ("lovers of commoners").
As a reaction to the hromada movement, the Russian government issued the well knownEms Ukaz in 1876 prohibiting the use ofUkrainian language.
In 1897 on initiative ofVolodymyr Antonovych andOleksandr Konysky Kyiv hosted a congress of Hromada members, which established the General Ukrainian Non-partisan Democratic Organization.[2] The new organization involved all members of Hromada that were active in 20 cities of the Russian-ruled Ukraine.[2] Separate Hromada societies continued to exist until theFebruary Revolution in 1917.[2]