Stepan Haiduchok

Stepan Haiduchko's collection includes 30 albums. His daughter handed it over to the family friend, historian Ivan Krypyakevych, for storage.

Stepan Haiduchok (1890-1976) was a professor of physical education, a member of the Ukrainian sports fellowship "Sokil," and the Sports Association of university students "Ukraina," one of the organizers of the sports movement in Halychyna. His professional and public activities determined his interest as a collector.

He collected and stored materials on the history of public and sports life, the events of  World War І, printed photographs of ethnography and local lore, postcards, printed materials that accompanied sporting events, newspaper clippings. He designed all photos and postcards into thematic albums. The central part of the materials is devoted to the activities and development of the Sokil-Batko society, but also with the nearby socities of Prosvita, Luh, and Syanova Chaika. The albums feature landscapes of the Carpathians: mountains, rivers, bridges, postcards with photos of residents engaged in traditional occupations.

The photos show such famous figures as Ivan Bobersky, Andrei Sheptytsky, Stepan Rudnytsky. Significant events such as the First Regional Meeting of “Sokil” members in Lviv in 1911, football competitions with Polish clubs were recorded. The collected photos show what Lviv and the region looked like in the pre-war and interwar period, where the houses of the societies were located; gymnasiums (or high schools), where the celebrations of religious holidays (Pentacost and Epiphany) took place.

As he recalls, Stepan Haiduchok bought some of the materials from his student Stepan Rozhankivsky, and some were given to him by Halychanyn families.
From 1960-1970, Stepan Haiduchok wrote descriptions and explanations for each of the photographs in the albums. These descriptions are presented on the City Media Archive website to preserve the author's original vocabulary. They are put in context because they often contain information about the later fates of those depicted, their achievements, and the political climate of an event.
The authors of some photos are known, which helps to understand more about amateur photography at that time.
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Stepan Haiduchok