Ivan Franko personal life. Our dear mother Ukraine will rise

Franko Ivan Yakovlevich (1856-1916) - Ukrainian writer and poet, scientist. Led revolutionary movement in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On his initiative, the “Russian-Ukrainian Radical Party” was created in Austria. For your creative achievements in 1915 he was nominated for Nobel Prize in literature, but due to the death of the writer, his candidacy was not considered. The city of Ivano-Frankovsk (formerly Stanislav) and the urban-type settlement of Ivano-Frankovo ​​(formerly Yanov) are named in his honor in Ukraine.

Childhood

Ivan was born on August 27, 1856 into a wealthy peasant family in the village of Naguevichi, Lviv region. My father worked as a blacksmith. Mom belonged to the Kulchitsky noble family and was 33 years younger than her husband.

Ivan later described his early childhood in his works as the most happy years. In 1865, his father died. Mom got married for the second time. His stepfather, Grin Gavrilik, treated little Vanya as his own son and actually replaced his dad. Franco was then friends with his stepfather until the end of his life.

School and gymnasium

Little Vanya began studying in 1862 at a rural school in Naguevichi, but then he was transferred to a school in the neighboring village of Yasenitsa-Solnaya.

Two years later, Ivan’s mother and stepfather sent him to the city of Drohobych, where he continued his studies at the school at the Basilian Monastery. Their distant relative Koshitskaya lived on the outskirts of Drohobych, the boy settled in her apartment. The owners had a carpentry workshop, and Ivan often had to spend the night in wooden coffins.

In 1867, Franko entered the gymnasium (now it is the Drohobych Pedagogical University). The entire period of study in schools and gymnasiums was subsequently vividly reflected in autobiographical stories writer:

• "Pencil";
• "In the carpentry";
• "Calligraphy";
• "Gritseva school science".

In them, the writer showed the atmosphere of schools of that time, when corporal punishment and moral humiliation of students were used. From Franco's works it is clear how difficult it was for a gifted boy from a simple background to get an education. peasant family.

In 1872, Ivan’s mother died. He loved her very much and later dedicated his memories to this woman in poems: “Nasty things on the border”, “Song and practice”.

Ivan was then raised by his stepfather and stepmother. The teenager came to them summer holidays, helped in field work, herded cattle. And although these people were actually strangers to him, to Ivan staying with them seemed like paradise compared to the gymnasium. The child suffered mental trauma for the rest of his life from uneducated and rude teachers who indulged the children of the rich and tortured simple village boys. Forever, Franco took from the gymnasium hatred of human oppression.

Despite all the bullying from teachers, both at school and at the gymnasium, Franco was the first among the students. Already during his studies, his phenomenal abilities manifested themselves: he knew the entire “Kobzar” by Taras Shevchenko by heart, he could repeat the teacher’s hour-long lecture to the children verbatim after a lesson, homework By Polish language did it in poetic form.

Ivan read a lot, mainly books on history and cultural studies, natural science works, and European literature. He absorbed the content of the works he read very deeply, and, as it turned out later, he remembered all the books until the end of his life. Franco collected a fairly decent library for a high school student; it contained about 500 copies of books on different languages.

While still studying at the gymnasium, Ivan took up poetic translations of Western European (Polish, German, French) and ancient writers (Euripides and Sophocles), the Bible, and carried out these works in his native Little Russian language. The Galician poet Marianne Shashkevich and Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko. Through their poems, he comprehended all the beauty and richness of the Ukrainian language. Franco began collecting folk songs and legends, and in 1874 he made his first independent travel in Subcarpathia, where he recorded samples of folklore.

University

In July 1875, Franko graduated from high school with excellent marks, received a certificate of maturity and went to Lviv to continue his studies at the university. Here he entered the Faculty of Philosophy. To the best of their abilities, Ivan was helped by his stepfather and stepmother. Also financial assistance he was assisted by the Galician linguist, professor of the Ukrainian language Emelyan Osipovich Partitsky, who at that time worked in Lvov at a teachers’ seminary.

During this period, Franco wrote many poems, which he began publishing in the university student magazine “Friend”:

• "My song";
• « folk song»;
• “Petria and Dovbuschuk” (his first big story).

Ivan joined the student academic circle, and in the magazine “Friend” he became not only an author, but also an employee. Soon he was the most influential person in the magazine's editorial office.

Having begun cooperation with the Lvov magazine “Friends”, Franko published in it a translation of N. G. Chernyshevsky’s work “What is to be done?”. The authorities did not like such democratic activities, and in 1877 he, along with members of the editorial board, was arrested and spent about nine months in prison.

After his arrest, Ivan was unable to continue his studies at the university; he graduated educational institution only fifteen years later, when he defended his dissertation.

Creative and social activities

After leaving prison, Franco and his comrades began publishing a new magazine, Public Leisure.

Here the poet published his patriotic poems:

• “To comrades from prison”;
• “Patriotic events”;
• story "Boa constrictor";
• "Kamenari";
• “My strіcha with Oleksa”;
• “Thought about Naum Bezumovich.”

In 1878, Franco headed the workers' newspaper "Praca", which published social program“What do the Galician robotic community want?” and his famous poem "Anthem" ("The Eternal Revolutionary").

In 1880, Ivan twice visited the Drohobych prison, which he later described in the story “At the Depths.”

Since 1881, Franco worked in the magazines “Svet”, “Delo”, “Zarya”. In them he published his stories “Zakhar Berkut” and “Borislav laughs”, as well as revolutionary poetry, which was later included in his famous collection “From Peaks and Lowlands”.

The poet really dreamed of having his own magazine; he traveled to Kyiv twice in the hope of receiving financial assistance from the literary community. But the Kyiv liberals only deceived him, making empty promises.

In 1889, Franco was arrested again, accused of trying to separate part of Galicia from Austria and annex it to Russia.

In 1893, the poet defended his dissertation and received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. In Lvov, he opened a “scientific reading room”, where he himself gave lectures on political economy and the history of the revolutionary struggle.

In 1898, Ivan became editor of the Lviv magazine “Literary and Scientific Newsletter”.

At the same time, he did not forget for a minute about his main calling - to write poetry. Every two years a new one came out poetry collection:

• 1896 – “The leaves are yawning”;
• 1898 – “My Izmaragd”;
• 1900 – “From the Days of Zhurby” and the wonderful story “Crossing Stitches”.

In 1905, in honor of the revolution, Franco wrote the famous poem “Moses” and the poem “Conquistadori”.

Personal life

In 1885, Ivan first came to Kyiv. He knew and heard a lot about the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, St. Sophia Cathedral, St. Andrew's Church, and now he saw all this with his own eyes. He walked around the city with friends and told them a story Kievan Rus. Franco came to Kyiv to raise funds for a new literary magazine. But it turned out that it was here that he met his wife.

Olga Khoruzhinskaya is an orphan from an impoverished family of nobles, originally from the Kharkov province, an ardent “sweatshirt” by conviction. She studied at the Kharkov Institute of Noble Maidens. Olya was pretty and funny, full of energy and cheerful humor, played the piano excellently and knew several languages ​​(English, German, French).

She seemed to Franco a worthy candidate for the role of wife. Moreover, for almost ten years he could not find a wife among the Galician girls. He set too high demands for his future life partner: first of all, Ukrainian and with a higher education, good-looking and with advanced views on family and marriage, and she must definitely be his assistant and friend.

Khoruzhinskaya immediately drew attention to him Western culture and deep intelligence. Before leaving, Franco wrote her a long letter in which he shared his views on family life. And already in next letter invited Olya to become his wife, but did not write a word about love.

In May 1886, Franco married Khoruzhinskaya in Kyiv in the St. Paul's Church. Immediately after the feast, the newlyweds went to Lviv and the first wedding night spent on the train.

In the fall of 1887, their first child, Andryusha, was born. Then, one after another, Taras, Petrus and Gandzia appeared.

Four children needed to be clothed and fed, and there was always not enough money. Many years of poverty eventually led to severe mental disorders in Olga. And in 1913, their first son Andrei died. As a child, he suffered a head injury, but despite this, he graduated from Lviv University and defended his doctoral dissertation, helping his father with his work. However, the consequences of childhood trauma affected later, Andrei died during an epileptic attack. After this, the mother ended up in psychiatric clinic.

Franco was disappointed in family life, he wrote to his friend that if he had another wife, life would have turned out completely differently. He took a mistress - Mrs. Zygmuntovskaya, a widow with two children, whom he took into full support. But he soon broke up with her too.

Illness and death

In 1908, the poet fell ill. Heavy loads and nervous strain led to the failure of both arms. He went to Croatia for treatment and there was improvement. But as soon as Ivan returned to work, his health deteriorated. Periodically, he underwent treatment in Odessa, Kyiv, and the Carpathians. When relief came, he immediately got to work.

In 1915, his health deteriorated so much that the poet began to foresee his death. In March 1916, he wrote a will, according to which he asked to transfer his entire library and handwritten works to the scientific society named after Taras Shevchenko.

Ivan Franko died on May 28, 1916. The death was difficult; there was no one nearby. Walked First World War, son Taras was in captivity, Petrus was at the front, and daughter Ganna worked in Kyiv in a hospital. The writer was buried in Lvov at the Lychakiv cemetery. There is a monument with a stone carved on the grave.

Ivan Yakovlevich Franko(ukr. Ivan Yakovich Franko; August 27 - May 28) - Ukrainian writer, poet, scientist, publicist, decadent and leader of the revolutionary socialist movement in the kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (Austro-Hungarian Empire). In 1915 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize, but his premature death prevented his candidacy from being considered.

One of the initiators of the founding of the “Russian-Ukrainian Radical Party” (later the Ukrainian Radical Party - URP), which operated in Austria.

In honor of Franko, the city of Stanislav was renamed Ivano-Frankivsk, and in the Lviv region the town of Yanov was renamed Ivano-Frankivsk.

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Biography

Born into the family of a wealthy peasant blacksmith; mother, Maria Kulchitskaya, came from the impoverished Ruthenian noble family of the Kulchitskys, coat of arms of Sas, and was 33 years younger than her husband. He described the first years of childhood in his stories with the most light colors. In 1865, Ivan's father died. The stepfather, Grin Gavrilik, was attentive to the children, and actually replaced the boy’s father. Franco maintained friendly relations with his stepfather throughout his life. In 1872, Ivan’s mother died, and his stepmother began raising the children.

He studied first at the school in the village of Yasenitsa-Solnaya (1862-1864), then at the so-called normal school at the Basilian monastery of Drohobych (1864-1867). After graduating from the Drohobych gymnasium in 1875 (now the Drohobych Pedagogical University), he was forced to earn a living as a tutor. From his earnings he allocated money for books for his personal library.

In many of Franco’s autobiographical stories (“Gritseva school science”, “Pencil”, “Schönschreiben”) the atmosphere of the then school education with its scholasticism, corporal punishment, and moral humiliation of students was artistically recreated. They show how difficult it was for a gifted peasant boy to get an education. Franko lived in the apartment of a distant relative Koshitskaya on the outskirts of Drohobych, often sleeping in coffins that were made in her carpentry workshop (“In the carpentry”). Already studying at the gymnasium, he discovered phenomenal abilities: he could repeat the teacher’s hour-long lecture almost verbatim to his comrades; knew the entire “Kobzar” by heart; he often completed homework in Polish in poetic form; deeply and for the rest of his life assimilated the content of the books he read. His reading range at this time included works of European classics, cultural and historical works, and popular books on natural science topics. In general, the personal library of Franco the high school student consisted of almost 500 books in various languages. At the same time, Franco began to translate works of ancient authors (Sophocles, Euripides); under the influence of the works of Markian Shashkevich and Taras Shevchenko, he became fascinated by the richness and beauty of the Ukrainian language, began collecting and recording samples of oral folk art(songs, legends, etc.).

In the fall of 1875 he became a student at the Faculty of Philosophy at Lvov University. During his studies, Emelyan Partitsky provided financial assistance to Franco. He was a member of the Russophile society, which used “paganism” as a literary language. Franco’s first works were written in paganism - the poem “Folk Song” (1874) and the long fantasy novel “Petria and Dovbuschuk” (1875) in the style of Hoffmann, published in the printed organ of Russophile students “Friend”. One of the first who paid attention to the work of the young Franko was the Ukrainian poet Caesar Belilovsky, who in 1882 published an article in the Kiev newspaper Trud, “A few words about the translation of Goethe’s Faust into Ukrainian by Ivan Franko,” and in the Lviv student In the magazine "Friend", under the pseudonym Dzhedzhalyk, poems by eighteen-year-old Franco - "My Song" and "Folk Song" - appeared for the first time.

Conclusion

Under the influence of the letters of the Kiev professor Mikhail Drahomanov, the youth, grouped around the “Friend”, became acquainted with Russian literature of the era of great reforms and Russian writers in general, and became imbued with democratic ideals, after which they became the instrument of their literary speech chose the Galician language common people; Thus, Rusyn literature received Franco into its ranks, along with many other talented workers. Old Russophiles, especially the editor of Slovo, Venedikt Ploshchansky, turned to the Austrian police with denunciations against the editors of Friend. In 1877, all members of the editorial board were arrested, and Franco spent 9 months in prison, in the same cell with thieves and vagabonds, in terrible hygienic conditions. Upon his release from prison from him, as from dangerous person, the entire Galician conservative society turned away - not only Russophiles, but “Narodovtsy”, that is, Ukrainophile nationalists of the older generation. Franco also had to leave the university (he graduated from the course 15 years later, when he was preparing for a professorship).

Both this stay in prison, and a second imprisonment in 1880, and another in 1889, brought Franco closely acquainted with various types of the scum of society and the working poor, driven to prison by poverty and exploitation, and provided him with a number of themes for fiction works that published mainly in the Dragomanian journals he edited; they made up main glory Franco and immediately began to be translated into other languages. Of these, a series of stories from the life of proletarian workers and rich entrepreneurs in the oil fields in Borislav stands out; imbued with humane treatment to human dignity, stories from the lives of thieves and “former” people; stories and tales from the life of Jews, alien to religious and national antagonism.

The prison is also inspired by cycles of lyrical works, some of which, according to a number of critics, are deeper and more talented, but less popular, full of idealistic sadness based on broad universal motives, while others, which have become highest degree popular, energetically and effectively call on society to fight against social (class and economic) untruths. Franco also showed talent in the field of an objective historical novel: his “Zakhar Berkut” (1883, from the times Tatar invasion XIII century) received a prize even at the competition of the national-bourgeois magazine “Zorya”, which did not see in it “Zola’s naturalism” (pseudo-classics and scholastics - the Galicians always leveled this reproach against Franco). In the Ukrainian provinces of the Russian Empire, this novel attracted serious attention from readers to its author, who was so unlike most figures in the cultural movement of the kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, and marked the beginning of closer communication between Ivan Yakovlevich and the Ukrainians of the Russian Empire.

Galicians also could not help but recognize the brilliant talent behind Franco’s “naturalistic” and “radical” works, despite the fact that these works contained a challenge to the entire bourgeois-clerical Galician society; Franco’s enormous reading, literary education and awareness of political-social and political-economic issues served as an incentive for the “people” to seek Franco’s cooperation in their bodies.

1885-1892

Little by little, peaceful relations were established between Ivan Franko and the People’s people, and in 1885 he was invited by them to become the chief editor of their literary and scientific organ “Zorya”. For two years, Franko led “Zorya” very successfully, recruited all the most talented writers from Little Russia into its staff, and expressed his conciliatory attitude towards the Uniate clergy with his poem “Panski Zharty” (“Barskie Jokes”), in which the image of an old rural priest who believes his soul “for his sheep.” Nevertheless, in 1887, the most zealous clerics and bourgeois insisted on the removal of Franco from the editorial board; Other people also did not like Franco’s excessive love for Russian writers (Franko personally translated a lot from Russian and published a lot), which Galician nationalists considered Muscovophile.

Franco found the highest sympathy among the Ukrainians of the Russian Empire. At that time, due to the Ems Decree in Russia, the publication of works in the Ukrainian language was greatly limited, so his collection of poems “From the Heights and Lowlands” (“From the Heights and Valleys,” 1887; 2nd ed., 1892) was copied and memorized by many as a keepsake, but a collection of stories from the life of working people: “In the Poti Chola” (1890); there is a Russian translation of “By the sweat of your brow”, St. Petersburg, 1901), brought to Kyiv in the amount of several hundred copies, it was sold out in great demand. He began to publish some things in “Kievskaya Starina”, under the pseudonym “Miron”; but even in Galicia, the people’s people inevitably continued to seek his cooperation and published, for example, his anti-Jesuit story “Mission” (“Vatra”, 1887). Its continuation, “The Plague” (“Zorya”, 1889; 3rd ed. - “Vic”, Kiev, 1902), was supposed to reconcile the people with Franco, since the hero of the story is an extremely sympathetic Uniate priest; Franco's participation in the nationalist magazine Pravda also foreshadowed peace; but the agreement between the Galician peoples and the Polish gentry, the Jesuits and the Austrian government that took place in 1890 forced Franko, Pavlik and all the progressive Rusyns of Galicia to separate into a completely special party.

According to the agreement of 1890 (this is the so-called “new era”), the Rusyn language acquired very important advantages in Austria in public life and school, up to and including the university. The party of strict democrats, organized by Franco and Pavlik to counterbalance " new era", adopted the name "Russian-Ukrainian Radical Party"; its organ “People” (1890-1895), in which Franco wrote a lot of journalistic articles, existed until Drahomanov’s death (he sent articles from Sofia, where he was then a professor); Subsequently, instead of “The People”, this very strengthened party had other newspapers and magazines.

The “people” preached selfless devotion to the interests of the peasantry, and considered the introduction of communal land ownership and artels to be a useful means for raising peasant well-being; the ideals of German socialism were often presented to the “People” as something barracks-like, “like the Arakcheevsky military settlements” (Drahomanov’s words), the Marxist theory of promoting the proletarianization of the masses was inhuman; Franco ended up popularizing (in Life and Words) English Fabianism. In religious terms, the “People” were an ardent enemy of the union and demanded freedom of conscience. In terms of nationality, the “People” held the Rusyn language just as firmly as the “New Erists,” and considered its use obligatory for the Ukrainian intelligentsia, but derived this necessity from purely democratic motives and proclaimed the struggle against chauvinism and Rus-eating. In the polemics of "People" against the narrowly nationalistic "Pravda", the most caustic articles belonged to Franco; the volume of political poems he published (“Nimechchina”, “Donkey Elections”, etc.) irritated the nationalists even more. Reinforced journalistic activity and the leadership of the radical party was carried out by Franco completely free of charge; they had to earn their living through hard paid work in Polish newspapers. Therefore, in the first two years of the publication of “The People,” Franco’s fictional work and his scientific studies almost ceased; Franco only had enough time free from journalism and politics for short lyric poems(in 1893, the collection “Withered Leaves” - “Withered Leaves” - was published with a tender melancholic love content, with a motto for the reader: Sei ein Mann und folge mir nicht (“Be a man and don’t take an example from me”)).

1893 onwards

Franco's 25th literary anniversary was solemnly celebrated in 1895 by Ukrainians of all parties and countries. The best Ukrainian writers from Russia and Austria, regardless of direction, dedicated a collection to Franko: “Hello” (1898). During Franco's lifetime, some of his works were translated into German, Polish, Czech and - mainly at the end of his life - Russian.

Franco, having left politics, died during the First World War in poverty and was buried at the Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv. The sons of I. Ya. Franko, the elder Taras and the younger Peter, who previously worked in the USSR in the chemical industry under contract, became writers. In 1939 they supported the annexation of Galicia to the USSR. Peter, was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, but was suspected Soviet power in disloyalty, in June 1941 he was arrested and disappeared in the dungeons of the NKVD when approaching German troops to Lvov. In the post-war years, Taras taught literature and wrote memoirs about his father. Franco's granddaughter, Zinovia Tarasovna, organized the volume of Franco's works that were not censored.

Filmography

Film adaptations of works

The works of Ivan Franko have been repeatedly filmed in cinema, fairy tales - in animation

Films about Ivan Franko

There was also a person who was the first to sense a man in her - Ivan Franko. This kind gentleman in an embroidered shirt, most Having lived his life in the Polish-Austrian Lemberg, he considered blacks and Papuans to be an inferior race, and in men he saw not only friends, but also an object of love.

It is well known that Franco was born on August 27, 1856 in the village of Naguevichi in the Lviv region, whose residents firmly believed in evil spirits and, shortly before the birth of the future writer, burned sorcerers. But few remember that the writer’s ancestors on the male line were Germans. This is indicated by their last name. In Galicia, “Franks” were people from Germany, mostly blacksmiths, who were called. They settled among Rusyn peasants and earned their living by their craft. The writer's father was also a simple blacksmith - a merry fellow and a reveler.

House of Ivan Franko in Naguevichi

But the “Aryan” roots still had an effect. In his youth, Ivan Franko was not only interested in socialism, but was also a staunch supporter of racist theories. He gained knowledge on this issue at Lvov University, where, in addition to lectures on philology, he attended “free courses in psychology, paleontology and national economics.”

He outlined his views, gleaned from German-language pamphlets, in “Thoughts on Evolution in the History of Mankind,” published when its author was barely twenty-five. Young Franco believed that races were divided into inferior and superior. Among the first, he included the extinct Neanderthals, as well as blacks, Bushmen and Papuans, whom he generally called “the most primitive” - that is, the most primitive.

According to Franco’s theory, primitive races “emerged from the Mavp” earlier than others. And only from them, thousands of years later, more perfect individuals emerged. This happened somewhere between Africa and India, where the ocean now splashes, and in antediluvian times, according to Ivan Yakovlevich, there was a “dry land” - the continent of Lemuria, which subsequently drowned.

To Franco's credit, it should be said that he always remained a theoretical racist. He did not beat blacks on the streets of Lvov - both due to the absence of such in Austria-Hungary in the 19th century, and because of his weak physique. The short, red-haired and physically underdeveloped writer was not even accepted into the army. A special “super-arbitration” commission declared the frail racist unfit to serve Emperor Franz Joseph II with a rifle in his hands.

Unfortunately, today we are silent about the interesting anthropological views of young Kamenyar.

Probably so as not to attract the attention of skinheads to his work.

Franco harmoniously combined his racist views with Freemasonry. Ivan Yakovlevich’s poem “Kamenari” today, as in Soviet times, is included in school curriculum. Under socialism, it was interpreted as the anthem of the revolution - evidence of a truly proletarian orientation Ukrainian classic. “Pound this rock!” - we taught in class, wading through the rubble of Frankov’s creativity.

Ivan Franko

In fact, at the time of writing “The Stonemen,” the poet experienced a violent passion for Freemasonry. They were called “free masons.” And all the symbolism of the poem is by no means worker-peasant.

According to historian and political scientist Konstantin Bondarenko, “in mid-19th centuries, probably ninety percent of the entire Galician intelligentsia (Poles, Germans, and Ukrainians) belonged to the Freemasons. Masonic lodges there were several. Some date back to the 18th century. Some have just been formed. A system of strict recognition by world Freemasonry was not yet considered mandatory. It is unknown which lodge Franco belonged to. However, his work from the period of the 70s. largely imbued with Masonic motifs. In “The Stonemen” this influence is undoubtedly messianic, a voice from above calling for sacrifice in the name of others - all this is very characteristic of the ideology of the “Free Stonemen”. But Franco did not remain a Freemason for long. From the late 70s, he became involved in the socialist movement, which rejected both religion and Freemasonry as relics of the past.”

But you shouldn’t assume that Ivan Franko did nothing but burn out community service. He looked for himself in other areas as well. Sometimes quite spicy.

Here is an excerpt from a letter from a slightly melted “stone worker” to his fiancée Olga Roshko. In January 1879, he confesses to her his secret hobbies: “The beauty of people, both men and women, all irritate me even more strongly... However, the women here frighten me, but they do not admire me. I'm the bravest one around men. You don’t know, singly, that if anyone could be the object of your concern, it would be rather a man than a woman. I have loved more men in my life, having known fewer women. And you know that everything in me is unnaturally wild, love.”

Twenty-three-year-old Franco describes how he loves to walk around Lviv, peering into men’s faces, sometimes meeting, talking to the specimens he likes, being disappointed... All this gives him very conflicting feelings: “I am embarrassed and scared more than once when I start to recall them in my memory.” faces that appealed to me and attracted me to them, but what can I earn? I know that the reason for that unnatural attraction to men is even simpler - the attraction, which is completely different from women - but how can I change that?

Having heard enough of such confessions, Olga Roshko, the daughter of a priest, got married. But not for Franco, but for the reliable one rural priest- Vladimir Ozarkevich. And why, one wonders, were you afraid? Well, the groom loved to cling to the representatives of his own sex on the streets. What's wrong with that? Members of our Writers' Union will probably not see any sedition in this. Like, the person was bored and wanted to talk...

In the end, Kamenyar still managed to get married. He found his bride “abroad” - in Kyiv. Having arrived in the “mother of Russian cities” from Lvov, Austria, to get money for his planned magazine, Ivan Yakovlevich met a girl who was “ripe.” Her name was Olga Khoruzhinskaya. She was the sister of the wife of Galagan College teacher E.K. Trigubov. They were brought together by the so-called “Ukrainian right”, which sometimes had sexual overtones.

Soon Franco proposed marriage to Olga. And I immediately received a positive response. The learned young lady really wanted to get married! So that the groom, God forbid, does not change his mind, she came herself with two hundred rubles collected for the magazine. Subsequently, Franco admitted that he married without love - “from the doctrine that it is necessary to marry a Ukrainian woman, and even a more enlightened one, a student.” He called his choice not extremely brilliant, arguing that with another wife he could “develop better and achieve much more.” In general, following the example of most of our men, he blamed his woman for all failures, not himself.

Ivan Franko and Olga Khoruzhinskaya

Franko Ivan Yakovlevich(1856-1916) - great Ukrainian writer-thinker, scientist and public figure. Born into the family of a peasant blacksmith in the Drohobych region. After numerous ordeals and disasters, he graduated from high school; studied at Lviv University. The Austrian authorities persecuted Franco, threw him into prison three times on charges of socialism, of creating secret societies, in sympathy for the Russians, in connections with the peasant movement. Franco’s worldview was formed under the influence of T. F. (see) and Russian revolutionary democrats - (see), (see), (si.), (see), (see), Saltykov-Shchedrin, Nekrasov.

The spread of Marxism influenced the development of Franco's revolutionary democratic ideology towards scientific socialism. He studied and popularized "(q.v.) Marx and Engels and "" (q.v.) Marx; for the first time translated into Ukrainian the 24th chapter of volume I of “Capital” and selected sections from “” (see) by F. Engels. Franco’s worldview is closely connected with the liberation movement of the working people, with the awakening to political life of the proletariat, which was being formed at that time in the regions oil fields and in the cities of Western Ukraine, with the achievements of natural science, with the teaching (see) and Darwinism. Franco criticizes false Darwinists who apply biological laws to the interpretation of development human society and drawing reactionary conclusions based on this. He calls for the democratization of science, for its transformation into a weapon in the struggle for the interests of the working people.

His philosophical views are set out in the works: “A few words on how to organize and maintain our popular publications”, “Thoughts on evolution in the history of mankind”, “Literature, its purpose and most important features”, “Critical letters about the Galician intelligentsia”, and also in a number of works of art. Franco sees the basis of all things in matter. Nature is immortal, eternal, in constant motion and seething. The spirit is not the second world-creating principle, but only a reflection of moving matter, a function of the material brain and nervous system. Human knowledge Franko interprets it as a reflection of reality, nature. He refuted agnosticism and relativism.

Franco expressed some dialectical ideas; he saw the continuous change of the world, its inconsistency, and was guided by what was moving forward. He is an atheist, a fighter against fideism and naked clericalism, against clericalism and the religious education of youth. The brightest journalistic works The writers are directed against the Vatican, Catholicism, Uniatism, and sectarianism. Franco criticized the false theory of the eternity of capitalism, exposed capitalist society as a predatory society, devouring generations and destroying the health and morality of the masses. This is a world of deceit and violence. Bourgeois democracy, proclaiming “equality” before the law, “looks as if they are consoling a hungry person with the fact that he has the right to be well fed without giving him bread.” Franco firmly believes in the triumph of the revolution. Referring to Marx’s teaching on socialism, Franco calls for the removal of the “wall” separating the working man from the instruments of production, for the transformation of the instruments of production into public property, for the elimination of “inter,” this synonym private property, to collective work and distribution according to work.

In the struggle for the ideological nature of literature, Franko contrasts idealistic aesthetics with its metaphysical ideas about the eternal norms of art with the materialistic aesthetics of Belinsky, Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov and Shevchenko. Oi emphasizes the historical nature of art and argues that life is the main engine in art. For Franko, as for Shevchenko, poetry is “condensed, concentrated, crystallized reality.” He mercilessly criticizes the theory of “art for art’s sake,” decadence, and decadence in literature. In his artistic works, Franco deeply realistically reflected the forced position of the working people of Western Ukraine. He first introduced the image of a worker into Ukrainian literature. M. Gorky highly appreciated the work of Franco. An outstanding patriot, champion of friendship between the Ukrainian and Russian peoples, Franco believed that “the hour will come!” - and Ukraine will sparkle “in a crimson halo among the free peoples...”.

He fought for the reunification of Ukraine as part of Russia, where, in his opinion, the “spring of humanity” began - the revolution of 1905. Advocating for the equality of peoples, Franco wrote: “A nation that, in the name of either state or some other interests oppresses, strangles and stops the free development of another nation, digs a grave for itself and the state that this oppression is supposed to serve.” He argued that it was impossible to resolve the national issue without solving the social issue. Franco was a decisive opponent of both bourgeois Ukrainian nationalism and rootless cosmopolitanism. He was the first in Ukraine to expose M. Grushevsky as an ideologist of Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism, a false theory without the bourgeoisness of the Ukrainian nation, denounced the activities of a spy organization that demagogically called itself the “Union for the Liberation of Ukraine”, condemned M. Grushevsky’s book on the history of Ukraine, written to please the German aggressors , who was preparing a plan to seize Ukraine and tear it away from Russia. Of scientific interest is Franco's book directed against M. Grushevsky (1912).

There were also erroneous views in Franco's ideological development. He was not always able to avoid national limitations, which Lenin pointed out in the interests of the democratic national liberation movement in Ukraine. Franco did not become a Marxist in his views, but his entire glorious life, his enormous artistic talent, which he put at the service of the working people, his military activities in the interests of the liberation of the Ukrainian people and strengthening the friendship of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples brought him universal love; not only the Ukrainian people, but all the peoples of the Soviet Union honor the memory of Ivan Franko.

Ivan Franko(08/27/1856 – 05/28/1916) - a great Ukrainian writer, one of the builders of the new Ukrainian nation.

Ivan Yakovlevich Franko was born in the village of Naguevichi (now Drohobych district, Lviv region) in the family of a rural blacksmith. He grew up an orphan (his father died in 1865 - Ivan was nine years old; his mother died in 1872). Despite the financial needs of the family, Ivan studied: in 1862 - 64 - at a school in the neighboring village of Yasenitsa-Solnaya, in 1864 - 1867 - in an elementary school in Drohobych, in 1867 - 1875 - in a gymnasium in the same Drohobych.

In 1875, Franko received a scholarship from the Glowinski Foundation and in the fall of the same year enrolled in the philological department of Lviv University. The scholarship was provided until the end of higher education, and it seemed that a smooth path lay ahead of the capable young man as a teacher at a gymnasium or a professor at the university, on which his relatives and friends were counting.

But in the first years of university, Franko’s self-determination as a Ukrainian figure, also of a distinctly progressive, socialist direction, took place. He is friends with Ostap Terletsky and Mikhail Pavlik, through the latter he begins correspondence with Mikhail Drahomanov, who was in Geneva at that time. It was because of correspondence with the revolutionary socialist Drahomanov, dangerous in the eyes of the police, that Franko was arrested (06/11/1877). He and his comrades were accused of forming a secret socialist society. On January 21, 1878, the court found him guilty and sentenced him to 6 weeks in prison. Since at that time the period of pre-trial detention did not count towards punishment, Franco was released on March 5, 1878.

Despite the short sentence (thanks to Comrade Stalin, we now consider any sentence of less than 10 years to be light), its consequences for Franco were terrible. Firstly, according to the law, a person with a criminal record could not become a teacher, so the purpose of studying at the university became unclear (at the same time, Franco’s scholarship was taken away). Secondly, during his imprisonment, Franco suffered a severe cold; Later this disease became chronic and haunted him all his life. Thirdly, priest Mikhail Roshkevich (father of Olga Roshkevich, I. Franko’s fiancée) refused Franko’s matchmaking and even forbade his daughter to see and correspond with the “criminal”. Their marriage never took place.

This is what it meant to be a Ukrainian figure in Galicia at that time!

The police persecution of Franco did not end there. On March 4, 1880, he was arrested in Kolomyia - again on suspicion of socialist agitation. He was kept in investigative custody for three months until it was recognized that the arrest was unfounded. On June 13, 1880, Franko was sent by convoy from Kolomyia to Naguevichi. Impressions from this conclusion formed the basis of the story “At the Bottom.”

For the third time, the police remembered the “socialist agitator” Franco in connection with the arrival of a group of Ukrainians from Kiev in Lviv. On August 17, 1889, Franko was arrested in Lvov. This time, investigators tried to confuse espionage for Russia with socialism. On November 16, 1889, Frank was released due to lack of evidence. And this time, prison impressions were reflected in the poetic cycle “”.

In 1886, Franco married Olga Khoruzhinskaya (originally from Kyiv). Four children appeared in their family, but from 1902 family well-being began to collapse. Olga Franko began to show signs of mental illness, which were getting worse, and this brought a lot of grief to Ivan Franko.

In 1902, I. Franko moved from rented housing to own house(current address is I. Franko St., 152, where he works memorial museum writer). For this construction, he took out a significant loan, the payments for which were completed by his son after the death of I. Franko.

In April 1908, Franco went for rest and treatment to Lipik (near Zagreb in modern Croatia). Here his illness worsened greatly - both arms were paralyzed and, worse, signs of mental disorder appeared. These terrible manifestations of the disease in more later years fortunately, they softened somewhat, although Franco never returned to full health. Contemporaries considered his illness to be a consequence of syphilis he had once suffered, and this brought Franco very big troubles. But now doctors are inclined to believe that Franco, from his very imprisonment in 1877, was ill with a rare form of rheumatism (Reiter's syndrome; but the concepts of this syndrome were formulated much after Franco's death).

Exhausted by illness, lack of money, family and social problems, Franko died in his home in Lviv on May 28, 1916 and was buried in the Lychakiv cemetery.

Poet. Franco first appeared as a poet in 1874 and wrote poetry until the end of his life, until 1916. His poetic heritage includes many beautiful poems about personal experiences and public affairs, which were compiled into several books.

But Franco’s poetic talent manifested itself most powerfully in his long poems. Here we see realistic paintings modern Galician life ("", 1884; "", 1889; "", 1890), images of the historical past of our people ("", 1887; "Ivan Vyshensky", 1895; "On Svyatoyurskaya Mountain", 1900), discussions about religion and God ("", 1885; "", 1889).

A very large place among Franco's poems is occupied by adaptations of plots from world literature ("", 1890; "", 1891; "", 1892; "", 1895; "Blacksmith Bassim", 1900; etc.).

The pinnacle of Franco’s poetic creativity is the poem “Moses” (1905), in which biblical story an allegorical picture of the rise of the Ukrainian people to fight for independence is given.

Prose writer. In their prose works Franco acted as a realist, focused on the problems of contemporary Galician life. He was the first in Ukrainian literature to begin to describe the life of workers in the oil fields of Borislav and their class antagonists - Jewish entrepreneurs ("", 1877; "", 1884; "", 1887; "Oilman", 1899). The best work This cycle is the novel "" (1882).

Works from the life of the intelligentsia occupy a significant place ("", 1880; "For the Hearth", 1897; "Cross Paths", 1900). An important place in this series is occupied by works about Ukrainian-Polish relations (“Lel and Polel”, 1887; “Pillars of Society”, 1894; unfortunately, both works remained unfinished).

Translator. Franco worked on translations of works of world literature all his life and did a lot in this field. From his translations you can create an entire library.

The range of his translations is extremely wide: there are works of ancient Babylonian poetry, ancient Indian, ancient Arabic, ancient Greek literature; Among the new literatures we have his translations from German (“Faust” by J. V. Goethe, 1882), French, English, Polish, Italian literature.

Among his translations are entire books of works by A.S. Pushkin and K. Havliczka-Borovsky. Separately, it should be noted that many historians ancient Rome, on which the poet worked in Last year of his life (August 1915 – March 1916).

You should know that Franko also translated Ukrainian folk songs into German, helped M. S. Grushevsky with German translation"History of Ukraine-Rus". He translated not only works of art, but also popular science works on various topics (1870-80s), which he considered useful for educating the Ukrainian people.

Folklorist. Franco showed interest in folklore from the very beginning of his creative activity. The first publication of a folk tale in his recording appeared in 1876. His most important achievements in this field were “Galician-Russian folk proverbs” (1901 – 1910, vols. 1 – 3) and “Studies on Ukrainian folk songs"(1907 – 1915)

Literary historian. Franco worked on the history of literature in several directions.

The first direction can be called the history of world literary plots. The most significant work in this direction was his doctoral dissertation “: Old Christian spiritual romance and him literary history"(1895).

The second direction was the collection, research and publication of works of Ukrainian literature. In first place here is the collection “Apocrypha and Legends from Ukrainian Manuscripts” (1896 – 1910, vols. 1 – 5). Franko found and published the works of Ivan Vyshensky and wrote a number of studies about him. He prepared and published works by A. Svidnitsky, Y. Fedkovich, T. Shevchenko and many other Ukrainian writers.

The third direction was the writing of synthetic works on the history of Ukrainian literature. Here we should name such works as “Charakterystyka literatury raskiej 16 – 17 ww.” (1892), “Carpatho-Russian literature of the 17th – 18th centuries.” (1900), “South Russian literature” (1904 – article for the encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron), “Essay on the history of Ukrainian literature until 1890.” (1910) and a large work, “The History of Ukrainian Literature,” of which Franko managed to work only the first part (from the beginnings of Ukrainian literature to Ivan Kotlyarevsky, 1907 – 1912).

You should know that Franko followed the latest in contemporary literature, especially Ukrainian, and wrote a whole lot of reviews, reviews and critical articles on these topics.

Scientist. In addition to the history of literature, Franco also studied other humanities. His interest in history was reflected in the works “” (1884), “The Grimalovsky Key in 1800” (1900), “Public barns in Galicia 1784 – 1840.” (1907) and a number of minor articles. He was interested in sociological issues.

Franko also carried out extensive scientific and organizational work as chairman of the philological section Scientific Society them. Shevchenko and editor of publications in this section.

Publisher. Franko’s first works were published in the Lviv student magazine “Friend” in 1874. Having moved to Lviv, Franko and Pavlik became involved in editorial work and in 1876–1877 were the actual leaders of this magazine.

Since then, Franco has constantly been making plans to publish his own magazine or newspaper; Thus, in 1878, Franco, together with Pavlik, managed to publish two issues of the magazine “ Public friend", which were confiscated by the police. After that, in 1878 - 1880 rr. friends published individual books in the “Small Library” series. Later, Franko participated in the publication of the magazines "Mir" (1881 - 82), "Zarya" (1883 - 1886), newspapers "Delo" (1880, 1883 - 1885), "Kurier lwowski" (1887 - 1897; this last job Franco himself called it “hiring from neighbors”).

In 1894, Franco's dream finally came true - his own magazine, Life and Word, began to be published. This magazine had significant assistance from the Dnieper Ukraine, both monetary (in particular, through M.V. Kovalevsky) and literary (articles for publication).

At the end of 1897, the leadership of the Scientific Society named after. Shevchenko (led by M. Grushevsky) decided, instead of the magazines “Zarya” and “Life and Word”, to start publishing a new magazine in 1898 - “Literary and Scientific Bulletin”. Franco became a member of its editorial board and worked actively there until the end of 1906.

At the same time, in 1898, the “Ukrainian-Russian Publishing Union” was formed, in the work of which Franko actively participated until the onset of his serious illness.

Public figure. In the 1870s, political Ukrainians in Galicia were represented by Muscovophiles, who thought that the sun of happiness would rise in the north, in St. Petersburg, and by populists, who hoped for its rise in the west, in Vienna. Both groups were opposed by the Polish community, which, after the constitutional reform of 1867, gained increasing influence in the region.

In 1890, young Galician intellectuals founded the Russian-Ukrainian Radical Party, headed by Ivan Franko until 1898. It was a socialist party that sought to become a representative of broad circles of working people.

In 1895, I. Franko was a candidate from the Radical Party for ambassador to the Vienna parliament in the electoral district of Przemysl - Dobromil - Mostiska. In 1898, he was also a candidate in the Ternopil-Zbarazh-Skalat district. Both times, all means of “democratic” influence were used against Franco: from arresting agitators and banning meetings to the daring theft of votes, as a result of which Franco was not elected.

In 1899, I. Franko left the Radical Party he founded and became one of the organizers of the new Ukrainian National Democratic Party. This step did not benefit either the radicals, who lost an influential figure, or the National Democrats, who never gained much political influence, or Franco himself, who was not distinguished by his activity in the new party and gradually withdrew from the political struggle, concentrating on literary and scientific work.

Due to his interest in political life and subsequent personal participation in it, Franco wrote many journalistic articles, among which a significant place is occupied by understanding the issues of socialism and social democracy. Because of Franco's critical attitude towards the communist gods Marx and Engels, his journalism suffered suppression and falsification during the reign of communist Moscow.

Ivan Franko was a poet and writer by vocation; but in the conditions of the enslavement of the Ukrainian people, he could not afford to be only a writer - he willingly and decisively took on any work that he considered useful for the rise of the Ukrainian people. Therefore, many of him literary plans remained unfulfilled, which he bitterly complained about in some poems. But it is precisely the universalism of his work that allows us to say that in the person of Ivan Franko we are not only a great writer, but also one of the builders of the Ukrainian nation.