The First Issue of the Trade Union Periodical "Praca" (1878) as a Document of Professional Communication Among Printers of Eastern Galicia

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to identify the content-related, functional, and communicative characteristics of this publication in the context of the formation of the organised printers’ movement and the development of professional press in the second half of the nineteenth century. The methodological framework is based on the principles of historicism and objectivity, as well as source studies methods, structural and functional analysis, and content analysis of periodical publications. The research is grounded on the examination of the original text of the first issue of Praca preserved in the collections of the Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv, with the involvement of historiographical works devoted to professional and trade-union press. The analysis demonstrates that the structure of the issue combines programmatic and manifesto texts, informational and chronicle materials, as well as organisational and documentary communications, which indicates the multifunctional nature of the periodical. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that the first issue of Praca is examined not only as a historical source on the history of the printers’ movement, but also as an integral document of professional communication that performed ideological, informational, and organisational functions. The conclusions.  The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the first issue of the trade-union periodical Praca, published in Lviv on 1 July 1878, as a document of professional communication among printers of Eastern Galicia. The periodical itself was published in Polish twice a month during the period 1878–1892. The periodical Praca played a significant role in shaping professional solidarity among printers, consolidating the sectoral environment, and developing documentary communication within the socio-professional space of Eastern Galicia at the end of the nineteenth century.