Svitlo (Kyiv)

Svitlo (Kyiv) [«Світло»; Light]. The first and only Ukrainian-language pedagogical journal in Russian-ruled Ukraine before the Revolution of 1917. It was published nine times a year by the Ukrainskyi Uchytel society in Kyiv, from September 1910 to August 1914 (a total of 36 issues). The founder and first editor was Hryhorii Sherstiuk; he was succeeded after his death in 1911 by his wife, L. Sherstiuk. Svitlo contained articles on educational theory and preschool education, elementary education, secondary education, and extramural education; prose; poetry; news; literary criticism; and book reviews. It advocated teaching in the Ukrainian language in elementary schools and worked to organize Ukrainian teachers and cultural workers. Among the contributors were prominent pedagogues, cultural figures, and writers. The journal was frequently confiscated by the tsarist authorities. It was closed down after Russia entered the First World War.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]