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Ivan Franko

by
Clarence Manning. Ph. D.
Assistant Professor of East European Languages
Acting Executive Officer of the Department
Columbia University

The Author and the Text

Clarence Manning worked his entire life as a Slavic scholar, with a special focus on Ukraine and to a lesser extent on non-Russian Slavic peoples; we read him here in mid-career before he became head of the Slavic Department at Columbia University, a post which he held for about twenty years. You'll find three full books by him onsite, duly linked on my Ukrainian History orientation page: one is a general history of Ukraine and the other two focus more narrowly on Ukraine under Soviet domination.

The little pamphlet I reproduce here, being a transcript of a talk given to an audience already familiar with Ivan Franko, is essentially a piece of literary criticism, focusing more on hs political and literary importance rather than on the details of his life; if you are looking for a biographical sketch of the man, I suggest instead the excellent detailed page at the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, complete with photographs and what looks to me like an exhaustive bibliography.

Preface

The warm reception given by the American public and by the universities and libraries throughout the world to its first publication, "A Brief Survey of Ukrainian Literature," written and presented in a lecture by Dr. Arthur P. Coleman of Columbia University, has encouraged the Ukrainian University Society of New York to undertake this second publication.

The present brochure, "Ivan Franko," is based upon a lecture given at Columbia University, April 16, 1937, by Professor Clarence A. Manning, acting executive officer of the Department of East European Languages. The occasion was another "Evening of Ukrainian Literature," sponsored jointly by the Columbia University Ukrainian Club and the Ukrainian University Society. In addition to the address by Professor Manning, given in the Casa Italiana Auditorium before a well-represented audience of students and their friends, the program included a choral presentation of several familiar Ukrainian folksongs by a chorus of thirty five youthful voices under the direction of Mr. Stephen Marusevich, himself a university student. Mr. Stephen Shumeyko, alumnus and former chairman of the Columbia University Ukrainian Club, acted as chairman for the evening.

Explanatory Note

The reader will find in Ivan Franko's writings that he makes reference to his native country as "Rus," and his countrymen as "Rusins." Let it not be supposed that he is any way referring to Russia and Russians as we know them today. "Rus" was the original name for Ukraine. When the Muscovians (ancestors of present-day Russians) under Peter I finally conquered the country, their imperialistic and assimilatory policies led them to abandon the term "Muscovy" and adopt for their new empire the name "Russia." This act began to have its repercussions upon the Rusins (Ukrainians), who to keep their identity clear of their Muscovian conquerors began to use more often the words "Ukraina" as the name for their country and "Ukrainians" for themselves. Nevertheless, "Rus" and "Rusins" was still used by some of them in application to this as late as Franko's time. "Ukraina," it should be noted here, is an ancient name for the country, originating in the 11th century.

A. Margolin, writing in the "New York Times Current History," May, 1922, states: "In the British Museum and the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris there may be seen a series of maps showing Europe during the 14th, 15th, and 17th centuries. On these maps Muscovy and Ukraina are shown as different countries. These differentiations disappeared at the time of Catherine II. The Russian Imperial Government began to call Muscovy, 'Great Russia,' and Ukraina, 'Little Russia.' "

Editor.

Contents
	Page
Preface	5
Text	9

Technical Details

Edition and Copyright

The text on this site is my transcription of the brochure published by the Ukrainian University Society, New York, 1937. The copyright was not renewed in 1964 or 1965 according to the requirements of American copyright law then in force, and therefore it rose into the public domain on January 1, 1966: details here on the copyright law involved.

Proofreading

As almost always, I retyped the text by hand rather than scanning it — not only to minimize errors prior to proofreading, but as an opportunity for me to become intimately familiar with the work, an exercise I heartily recommend: Qui scribit, bis legit. (Well-meaning attempts to get me to scan text, if successful, would merely turn me into some kind of machine: gambit declined.)

This transcription has been minutely proofread. In the table of contents above, the sections are shown on blue backgrounds, indicating that I believe the text of them to be completely errorfree. As elsewhere onsite, the header bar at the top of each chapter's webpage will remind you with the same color scheme.

The printed brochure was very well proofread, with just one unambiguous error — a clear mistake on the author's part rather than a mere typo — which I've corrected with a dotted underscore like this: as elsewhere on my site, glide your cursor over the underscored word to read what was actually printed.

One odd spelling is marked <!‑‑ sic in the sourcecode, just to confirm that I did check it.

Any overlooked mistakes, please drop me a line, of course: especially if you have the printed item in front of you.

Pagination and Local Links

For citation and indexing purposes, the pagination is indicated by local links in the sourcecode and made apparent in the right margin of the text at the page turns (like at the end of this line p57 ). Sticklers for total accuracy will of course find the anchor at its exact place in the sourcecode.

In addition, I've inserted a number of other local anchors: whatever links might be required to accommodate the author's own cross-references, as well as a few others for my own purposes. If in turn you have a website and would like to target a link to some specific passage of the text, please let me know: I'll be glad to insert a local anchor there as well.

The icon I use for this pamphlet is from an oil portrait of Ivan Franko (reproduced at Encyclopedia of Ukraine); the artist, Ivan Trush, died in 1941 and the image is thus in the public domain.

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Ivan Franko by Clarence Manning. Ph. D. Assistant Professor of East European Languages Acting Executive Officer of the Department Columbia University