Ukrainian Free University

Why this is one of the atlas’s central institutions

The Ukrainian Free University (UFU) is a unique story of institutional continuity: founded in Vienna on 17 January 1921, it moved to Prague that same year, becoming a leading academic centre of Ukrainian emigration in 1921–1945; from 1945 it resumed work in Munich. The story for Czech audiences is how support from the state and Charles University helped preserve Ukrainian higher education after the loss of statehood. [U01; U02; U03]

This history can be shown in three ways: as the university’s timeline, as a network of professors and students, and as a digital archival exhibition with original documents. The Central State Archive of Public Associations and Ukrainian Studies has already prepared an exhibition with specific archival references: the 1921 draft statute, university resolutions, admission materials, Senate minutes and the rector’s 1940 letter about reductions in paid hours. This provides a much stronger evidential basis than repeating general biographical statements. [U02]

Profile and periodisation

Background, establishment and state support

Vienna 1921. Ukrainian scholars and émigré figures created the UFU following the events of the Ukrainian Revolution. The university’s official history names Mykhailo Hrushevsky and Oleksandr Kolessa among its founders. The university began as an academic initiative intended to provide teaching and research in Ukrainian outside Ukraine. [U01; U03]

Move to Prague. Relocation became possible through conditions provided by the Czechoslovak government and Charles University. The latter supplied classrooms; Ukrainian professors and students gained access to an active university environment. The history should not be reduced to a single politician: faculties, administrations, teachers and Ukrainian civic institutions also matter. [U01; U03]

Funding. The Ukrainian Institute of National Memory reports an initial monthly subsidy of 500,000 Czech crowns. For academic publication, this amount must be dated to a precise budget period and confirmed by a government resolution or accounting report: it cannot automatically be extended over all of 1921–1945. [U03]

Structure and teaching. The university had faculties of philosophy and law and economics. The UFU’s official history reports over 700 attendees in the first Prague semester; the Ukrainian historical calendar specifies audience numbers for different periods. Statistical charts must distinguish registered attendees, regular students, graduates and degrees awarded, rather than presenting them as one “student” count. [U01; U03]

The Prague period: scholarship, people and documents

Academic environment. Historians, philologists, legal scholars and researchers associated with the UFU included Oleksandr Kolessa, Dmytro Antonovych, Ivan Horbachevsky, Dmytro Doroshenko, Stanislav Dnistriansky, Stepan Smal-Stotsky and Andrii Yakovliv. Their roles in different years should appear as separate dated records (professor_at, dean_of, rector_of); a list of professors should not automatically be applied to every year. [U01; U03]

Scholarly and publishing centre. The university published research and supported émigré intellectual life. The archival exhibition presents a list of its publications dating no earlier than 1931 and a description of literature received from the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. This is a particularly valuable connection between Prague and Ukraine through actual book exchange, rather than personal biographies alone. [U02]

A network of related institutions. The Ukrainian historical calendar mentions a Ukrainian legal society (1923), a historical and philological society (1923) and initiatives to preserve a Ukrainian archive. However, these must remain separate organisations with their own statutes and leadership; the UFU page can be their network node, rather than a legal “parent” organisation without evidence. [U03]

The Senate and faculties in documents. The central archive describes the draft university statute (1921), resolutions, minutes of the Faculty of Philosophy meeting on 15 June 1931, Senate minutes of 26 March 1935 and a notice of the professors’ meeting on 6 June 1935. These artefacts can provide illustrative website pages: “How a university in exile was governed”. [U02]

Conditions before and during the war. In a letter of 4 June 1940, Rector Ivan Borkovskyi wrote to professors about a forced reduction in paid hours. This is important evidence that the Prague period was not an unchanging “golden age” from beginning to end: support changed, while work continued under increasingly difficult external circumstances. [U02]

Evacuation and continuation. In 1945, some staff and professors left Prague; activities resumed in Munich. According to the official history, Vadym Shcherbakivsky played a key role and became the first UFU rector in its German stage; Bavarian recognition of degrees was secured in 1950. The Munich university is not a separate contemporary “new UFU” in the database, but the same historical object with a dated change of location. [U01]

The archives’ fate. The scholarly journal «Архіви України» describes dispersal of Prague-period documents among archives in Ukraine, Czechia, Germany and elsewhere. This makes the archival_holding model important: original institution, current custodian, fond, inventory, file and page. [U04]

Graph: teachers, institutions and documents

Archival exhibits with exact references

All references come from TsDAHOU’s digital exhibition; the existence of a description does not mean unconditional permission to publish archival images. [U02]

Statistics, contradictions and context

Attendee numbers. First Prague semester: “over 700” in the UFU’s current history. Other historical surveys give similar but non-identical figures. A chart needs a table from the original university register defining “attendee”. [U01; U03]

Initial funding amount. The 500,000 crowns is a report from UINP; there is no basis for asserting uninterrupted payment of this amount until 1945. [U03]

Rectors. The source documents contain a broad list of rectors with repeated terms. The dossier does not reproduce an unverified complete chronology; it requires academic yearbooks and Senate documents. [U02]

The UFU and other higher schools. Do not merge the UFU, the Poděbrady Academy and the Drahomanov pedagogical institute into a single organisation; these are separate legal and educational objects. [U03]

Prague’s “golden period”. This is a retrospective assessment of success in the 1920s–1930s, rather than a claim that the institution faced no difficulties in the 1940s. The 1940 document attests reductions in paid work. [U02]