Skala

Skala (Скала; The Rock). A Ukrainian Catholic reading-room society organized in the Stanyslaviv eparchy of Galicia by Bishop Hryhorii Khomyshyn in 1931 as part of Catholic Action. Skala reading rooms were similar to those of the Prosvita society. They were normally under the jurisdiction of the local parish priest. In 1936 there were 187 branches of Skala, with some 5,500 members, and by 1939 there were some 3,075 branches, with a membership of 360,000. With the Soviet occupation of Western Ukraine in 1939, Skala was banned by the authorities.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]