Dilo (The Deed), Ukrainian daily, published in Lviv (Lwow) in interwar Poland, 1918-1939 | Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust

Dilo (The Deed). A leading Galician newspaper, the oldest and for many years the only Ukrainian daily. Dilo was published in Lviv from 1880 to 1939. At first it was a semiweekly (1880–2), then a triweekly (1883–7), and finally (from 1888) a daily paper. Its publication was interrupted during Russia's occupation of Galicia (1914–15) and during Poland's control of Lviv after the retreat of the Ukrainian forces (29 November 1918 to 1920). During the first interruption Dilo was published as a weekly for a brief period in Vienna. In 1920–3 its name and editors were changed in order to avoid suppression. In 1920 its name was changed to Ukraïns’ka dumka (Lviv) and Hromads’ka dumka and was edited by Fed Fedortsiv. In 1921 it was called Ukraïns’kyi vistnyk and Hromads'kyi vistnyk. Its editor was Mykhailo Strutynsky. In 1922 (as Svoboda) and 1923 (as Hromads’kyi vistnyk and from September again as Dilo) it was edited by Oleksa Kuzma. After the outbreak of the Second World War on 1 September 1939, three more issues were published. When the Red Army entered Lviv, Dilo was closed down.

From its inception Dilo propagated the ideology of the populist camp, then from 1899 the ideology of the National Democratic party, then of the Ukrainian Labor party (1919–23), and from 1925 the program of the Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance. Yet Dilo was not an official organ of these parties. It often criticized the practical policies of party leaders. As a national paper with its own independent viewpoint, Dilo often offered its pages to representatives of various parties. Almost every notable public figure or writer in Western Ukraine contributed to the paper. Dilo played an important role in the national life of Galicia and of the northwestern regions (Volhynia, Podlachia, Polisia, the Kholm region) in the interwar period. It shaped national democratic opinion and, more than any other newspaper, reflected the events that occurred in all Ukrainian territories. It remains one of the best sources of the history of Ukrainian political thought and life.