Ukrainian Real Gymnasium in Czechoslovakia

A gymnasium providing secondary education to Ukrainian émigrés’ children

The Ukrainian Gymnasium in Czechoslovakia emerged in Prague in March 1925 as part of the Mykhailo Drahomanov Ukrainian Higher Pedagogical Institute (R0036). Its central idea was both educational and social: Ukrainian émigrés’ children received systematic secondary education in their native language, while future teachers could practise with pupils. In the Czech educational environment, this was a specific institution, rather than a general name for all émigré schools. [GY01; GY04]

The school’s life demonstrates a sustained effort to preserve educational continuity amid political defeats, lack of money, relocations and war. Its pupils left more than personal files and report cards: they created journals, held cultural evenings and participated in youth associations. For a cultural-historical platform, this is a separate story of young people, rather than an appendix to famous professors’ biographies. [GY01; GY04]

Background: schools, courses, Plast and the need for an institution

In its special-collection description, the National Library of the Czech Republic names a Ukrainian scouts’ school at Szczypiorno near Kalisz in Poland as a predecessor; some pupils subsequently joined the gymnasium. There were also gymnasium and matriculation courses in Josefov, Poděbrady and Prague. This origin does not justify asserting that all graduates of those courses automatically became pupils of the new gymnasium. [GY01]

The Plast connection matters, but requires different relationship types: educational_predecessor, student_membership_in_youth_movement and school_periodical_published_by_students. Institutions could interact without legal subordination; these distinctions make a reliable graph with R0047 and R0036 possible. [GY01; GY04]

Establishment in 1925 and the practical-pedagogy project

The Slavonic Library collection has reference T-UGM and, according to its public description, contains a plan to establish the gymnasium from February 1925, in unit inv. č. 1. In March the school began operating as part of the Ukrainian Higher Pedagogical Institute. Students’ teaching practice was its initial function, but the institution soon had its own educational and economic problems, including a need for premises. [GY01]

TsDAVO’s public archival description identifies a statute dated 29 April 1926 and reports for the 1925/26 school year in fond 4102, inventory 2. Approval of a statute does not necessarily equal the actual start of classes. Both events must exist as separate chronology rows. [GY03]

1927 or 1928: how the Řevnice discrepancy arose

The Czech National Library’s Slavonic Library catalogue says that financial difficulties prompted the gymnasium’s move from Prague to Řevnice in 1927. By contrast, the TsDAVO guide to fond 4102 gives its location in Řevnice from 1928. TsDAHO’s archival exhibition mentions a 1927/28 school-year report dated 1928, already marked “in Řevnice”. [GY01; GY02; GY04]

These descriptions are not necessarily mutually exclusive: the move may have occurred in stages, legal documents and the school calendar may have recorded different years, and the town’s name may have appeared in the following calendar year’s report. However, until the school journal, rental agreements and class lists are examined, the website must display move_to_Revnice: 1927/1928 disputed, rather than an unverified “exact building opening date”. [GY01; GY02; GY04]

Heads and changing educational models

The Czech National Library gives the succession of heads: Yakym Yarema (1925–1928), Ahenor Artymovych (1928–1930), Ivan Kobyzkyi (1930–1933), followed by Marko Khliur, who led the school in 1933–1936 as deputy while the director’s position was vacant, Hryhorii Omelchenko (1936–1940) and Avhustyn Shtefan (1940–1945). Recording Khliur simply as “director, 1933–1936” without specifying his status would therefore be incorrect. [GY01]

TsDAHO’s archival exhibition reproduces a letter from pedagogical institute rector Vasyl Simovych to Artymovych concerning appointment as director, dated 3 February 1928, with the exact reference TsDAHO, fond 399, inventory 1, file 13, folio 1. This shows how one dated administrative letter can specify a personal connection without conjecture about friendship or personal motives. [GY04]

Pupil and teacher statistics: what is counted

The Slavonic Library reports 69 teachers who worked at the school across the whole period described and over 700 pupils who passed through it. These are neither simultaneous child headcounts nor a proven number of graduates holding leaving certificates. Meaningful history requires separate series: enrolled_student_total, yearly_headcount, graduates, teachers_across_lifespan and statistics by class. [GY01]

Actual life stories can be reconstructed through applicants’ personal files inv. č. 46–55 (1928–1931 and 1943–1945) and staff service files inv. č. 2–43. The descriptions mention social-status information, opening the subject of housing difficulties and school assistance. Invented biographies of “typical” pupils must not replace work with these holdings. [GY01]

Who paid for the school and how it became independent

The new gymnasium needed assistance fundraising, family contributions, émigré institutions’ support and arrangements with the Czechoslovak administration. In the Slavonic Library, financial files inv. č. 57–66 contain draft budgets and other everyday administrative and economic documents. TsDAHO separately mentions an assistance committee report for 1931–1934 — fond 405, inventory 1, file 62, folio 25. [GY01; GY04]

The Czech library catalogue states that the gymnasium became independent in 1932; TsDAHO’s archival exhibition describes its transfer to the Czech-Ukrainian Society of Friends of Ukrainian Schools after the pedagogical institute’s liquidation in 1933. These facts concern different forms of separation — organisational and administrative — and should not be artificially compressed into a single day. [GY01; GY04]

Renaming on 23 May 1934: not a new school

The TsDAVO guide records a historical name change: until 23 May 1934, “Private Ukrainian Reformed Real Gymnasium”; thereafter, “Community Ukrainian Real Gymnasium”. The register should retain both names with time intervals, rather than create separate R identifiers. Evidence of legal succession should be sought in the statute, correspondence with the Ministry of Education and governing-body records. [GY02; GY03]

For public history, this episode explains why different names appear on covers, stamps and school certificates. The interface should show a “Name at the document’s date” switch linked to the relevant act, rather than rewrite old documentary names to match a later one. [GY02]

Pupil journals as evidence of cultural initiative

TsDAHO’s archival exhibition lists specific pupil publications: «Пластове життя» (1930), «Наше слово» (1930) and «Золоті ворота» (1937), with exact locators fond 405, inventory 1, file 61. Other named journals include «Дитяча Зірка» and «Всячина Те-й-Се». These documents can provide persuasive stories about the children themselves — how they edited, drew, organised celebrations and learned the language. [GY04]

The publisher, journal title, issue, individual pupil’s authorship and the sheet’s physical repository must be distinguished. The title «Пластове життя» does not prove all contributors belonged to Plast; «Золоті ворота» of 1937 must not automatically share Publication identifiers with any later books bearing similar titles. [GY04]

Modřany and the trajectory after 1945

In 1937, the gymnasium moved to Modřany, now part of Prague. During the Second World War it continued teaching; the Czech library catalogue mentions director Avhustyn Shtefan’s work in difficult occupation conditions, but this is the source’s assessment, rather than permission to attribute every political choice to him. [GY01; GY04]

In April 1945, a substantial proportion of pupils and teachers were evacuated to Augsburg, where teaching continued. Approximately two years later the gymnasium was divided among three new schools; after 1956, only the Mittenwald school remained active among them. It is important to establish when the Czechoslovak legal school itself ended and when its successors’ educational network ended, rather than include postwar camp-school children as “pupils of the Prague gymnasium of 1925”. [GY01]

Archival collections, covers and material evidence

The principal Czech collection is held in the Czech National Library’s Slavonic Library under reference T-UGM: 134 inventory units, six boxes. Specific units include the opening plan no. 1, teachers’ personal files nos. 2–43, applicants’ and employees’ files nos. 46–55, budget documents nos. 57–66, teaching council minutes no. 125, correspondence with the state Ministry of Education nos. 79 and 108, and correspondence with the pedagogical institute nos. 94 and 121. These precise references come from the library catalogue, rather than actual personal examination of each document. [GY01]

The main Ukrainian archive is TsDAVO, fond 4102 (45 files, 2 inventories, 1925–1943). Important parallel evidence includes TsDAHO, fond 269, inventory 1, file 448, containing a book about the gymnasium, a report and appeals to parents; fond 405, inventory 1, file 61, pupil periodicals; fond 399, inventory 1, file 13, folio 1, the letter about Artymovych’s appointment. The National Library also identifies a collection in Prague City Archives and documents in the National Archives and Charles University Archive. [GY01; GY02; GY03; GY04]

A teaching-staff photograph, journal covers and scanned pages of the school dining-room budget would serve the future website. Each image’s licence must be established separately; a photograph’s presence in a public catalogue does not grant permission for arbitrary republication. Private pupil information is presented only to a historically justified extent. [GY01; GY04]