Ivan Franko

Ivan Franko

1856 - 1916

Ivan Franko was a great poet, prose writer, playwright, literary critic, translator, journalist, and public figure. He left a rich legacy made up of nearly five thousand fiction and nonfiction works, theoretical, essays and articles written in Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, German and other languages.

Ivan Franko was born on August 27, 1836, into the family of a blacksmith in a village of Lvov Region.
After finishing gymnasium in the town of Drogobych Ivan Franko continued his education in Lvov and later in Chernivtsi. In 1891 he graduated from the department of Philology of Chernivtsi University.
Ivan Franko was the most outstanding poet in the post-Shevchenko period of Ukrainian literature. In his best collection of poems, "From the Heights and the Depths", he democratized the  traditional forms of poetry.
Ivan Fianko's prose enriched Ukrainian literature with a new gallery of characters. In "His Own Fault", "Forests and Pastures", and many other stories. I. Franko draws the reader's attention to the social dream of the Galician village.
Ivan Franko's profound knowledge of human nature in its varied manifestations makes his characters strikingly alive. Characteristically, the writer often called his works studies in psychology.

This person is so important for Ukrainian people that there are many monuments to him all over Ukraine and the National University in Lvov was named after him.