Ivan franko biography

Franko, Ivan (pseuds: Dzhedzhalyk, Zhyvyi, Kremin, Myron, etc), b 27 August 1856 in Nahuievychi, Drohobychcounty, Galicia, d 28 May 1916 in Lviv.

Writer, scholar, political and civic leader, publicist; like Taras Shevchenko, one of Ukraine's greatest creative geniuses. The son of a village blacksmith, Franko graduated from the Drohobych gymnasium in 1875 and began to study classical philology and Ukrainian language and literature at Lviv University.

His first literary works—poetry (1874) and the novelPetriï i Dovbushchuky (1875)—were published in the students' magazine Druh, whose editorial board he joined in 1875.

Ivan franko biography

Franko's political and publishing activities and his correspondence with Mykhailo Drahomanov attracted the attention of the police, and in 1877 he was arrested along with Mykhailo Pavlyk, Ostap Terletsky, and others for spreading socialist propaganda.

After spending eight months in prison Franko returned to political work with even greater fervor. He