"The more I know about the world, the more clear it becomes that I know nothing." These words are ascribed to Socrates. In fact, the same quote can be attributed to the geniuses of different times and peoples. Indeed, isn't it illusory to think we know all or even much about them? In reality, we know almost nothing about them, even if their books are required reading in all the schools and their portraits adorn the national bank notes.
The same can also be said about Ivan Franko, a person whose heritage undoubtedly became the peak of Ukraine's intellectual life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Franko was one of the first realists in Ukrainian literature and the most outstanding poet of the post-Shevchenko period.
With his many gifts, encyclopedic knowledge, and uncommon capacity for work, Franko made outstanding contributions to many areas of Ukrainian culture. He was a poet, prose writer, playwright, critic, literary historian, translator and publisher. The themes of his literary works were drawn from the life and struggle of his own people and from sources of world culture: Eastern cultures and the classical and Renaissance traditions. He was a so-called "golden bridge" between Ukrainian and world literatures.
In Soviet Ukraine the cult of Franko was used for political ends. Soviet critics presented his works in a one-sided, tendentious manner. In order to depict Franko as an active champion of Ukrainian-Russian unity, a fervent socialist and a militant atheist, the authorities suppressed a number of his works in Ukraine. His true views were walled with a thick stone of dogmatic and cynically-simplified interpretations and flowers - plastic ones - were laid atop his grave.
What were ordinary Ukrainians supposed to know about Franko in the USSR? A revolutionary democrat who favored applying force to destroy the existent system, a follower of the famous Russian revolutionary democrats Vissarion Belinsky and Nikolai Chernyshevsky. He took interest in Marxism and even translated a chapter from "The Capital" but, in general, he "did not rise" to it.
What is the way out of these dogmas? We must read Franko himself, opening the world of outstanding works written by this outstanding writer, acute political thinker, philosopher, historian, economist, art connoisseur, and critic. To imagine what kind of work a genius like Franko did, let us only remember this: in his lifetime, Franko created over 6,000 pieces of fiction and research, or, in other words, a new work would come out every two days until his death. The 50 volumes of his works published in Kyiv in the 1970s-80s barely embrace half of the total he wrote!
The son of an ordinary village blacksmith, Franko was born in 1856 in eastern Halychyna, which is now in the L'viv oblast. He graduated from the Drohobych gymnasium in 1875 and began to study classical philology, Ukrainian language and literature at L'viv University. His first literary works - poetry and the novel "Petrii i Dovbushchuky" were published in the students' magazine "Druh" (Friend) whose editorial board he joined in 1875.
It seems that one page is not enough to mention all the contributions made by Franko to Ukraine and its people. His collections of social lyrical poetry broke new ground. They became patriotic anthems and influenced the outlook of a whole generation. Franko's prose is noted for its variety of themes, as well as its realistic presentation of the life of the different social strata. Franko painted a vivid picture and gave a profound analysis of the social evils that plagued Galicia at the time.
In drama, Franko proved himself a master of the sociopsychological and historical play and of comedy. Special mention must be made of Franko's work as a translator, which he carried on throughout his life. He translated masterpieces from 14 languages by such famous authors as Homer, Dante, William Shakespeare, J. Goethe, E. Zola, Aleksandr Pushkin, M. Lermontov, N. Chernyshevsky, A. Herzen, N. Nekrasov and others. Franko's works on the theory and history of literature and criticism were an important contribution to Ukrainian literary studies.
During his lifetime, Franko was arrested many times for "spreading socialist propaganda." After months in prisons, he continued working even with greater fever. Was he a revolutionary democrat? Undoubtedly, he was a revolutionary in spirit. All his lifetime he fought against obtuse conservatism, dogmatic prejudices and deadly stagnation. As to his political views, the situation is far more complicated. As a student he was a fervent advocate of socialism. However, later he attacked it vehemently claiming that "Marxism is a religion founded on dogmas of hatred and class struggle." The evolution of his views is reflected in his numerous journalistic articles.
As early as 1903, Franko warned prophetically that the Marxist teaching on the dictatorship of the proletariat, which he categorically objected to, would inevitably lead to such cruel forms of one-man dictatorship that even ancient Oriental tyrannies would look, in comparison, almost like showpieces of freedom. Ensuing events showed the depth of this visionary foresight.
Franko also disagreed with Marxists on another point, in his attitude toward the national movement. He never accepted their attempts to regard the national question as something secondary in comparison with the social and class problems: both categories of problems were equally important for him. Franko regarded Ukraine as a sovereign entity belonging to 'the circle of free nations'.
Another thought expressed by Franko sounds very up-to-date against the background of recent statements that the "national idea" has not worked and that we must first revive the economy and feed the people. Consider Franko's words: "The national-economic problem propels every nation forward, with an iron-like persistence, to want to win political independence, and, failing that, they will only bring this nation the prospect of economic slavery, decline, pauperization, cultural stagnation, and decline."
I can predict that someone reading this article about the great thinker and writer, will see nationalism. This has no basis. The soul of a true genius, as well as Franko, has no place for ethnic hatred. In 1905 he wrote, "We love the great Russian people and wish them all kind of good: we love, learn, and read their language." When in 1904 publishers of the famous Russian Brockhaus and Ephron Encyclopedia suggested that Franko, as the most outstanding Ukrainian writer of that time, write a series of articles in Russian on the contemporary state and history of Ukrainian literature, he willingly agreed to do so. Still, his heart was always, every minute, devoted to his motherland, Ukraine.
These are not mere words. Franko dedicated his life to backbreaking labor for the benefit of his fraternal people. He had to taste prison bars, sometimes he had no money to buy bread and had to earn a living by translating and proof-reading other's works. The favorite son of his people, who contributed to 50 various European publications and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in the 1910s (though no a representative of a stateless nation, he could not obtain it. Russian Lev Tolstoi also failed to win it). He wandered the streets of his beloved L'viv alone, in worn-out clothes, with his eyes reddened from continuous work, carrying a loaf of bread like a treasure in his hands.
In 1908, Franko's health began to decline rapidly. But his spirit was unbreakable to the end. He continued to work to the end of his life. In this last period he wrote "Outline of the History of Ukrainian-Ruthenian Literature to 1890", and "Studies of Ukrainian Folk Songs" and did numerous translations of ancient poetry. Franko died in L'viv and was buried at the Lychakivsky Cemetery.
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