Taras Franko’s Scientific Memoir Book “About the Father”: History of Publication, Censorship, and Soviet Conjuncture
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31861/pytlit2025.111.294Keywords:
Franko literary dynasty, memoirs, censorship, Soviet studies about Franko, banknoteAbstract
The article is devoted to the scientific memoir book “About the Father” (1956) by Taras Franko (1889–1971), the eldest son of Ivan Franko. The purpose of the study is to reveal the history of the publication of the book “About the Father”, to find out the circumstances of its writing, censorship and cutting out “unwanted” text fragments, to find out the author’s true creative intentions and the real conditions of Soviet reality that influenced the structure and content of the book. The study is based on historical and documentary research using analytical, synthetic, biographical, cultural, historical, and genological methods. The novelty of the study lies in the comprehensive coverage of the history of the publication of the scientific memoir book “About the Father”, the comprehension and introduction into scientific circulation of a number of facts and documents that were in public and private archives and were out of the attention of researchers. On the basis of the analysis of new facts and texts, conclusions are drawn about the peculiarities of Taras Franko’s creative style in the period of the 50s and 60s of the twentieth century. It’s found that the book “About the Father” reflected, on the one hand, the author’s own intentions designed to preserve and convey to society the true image of his father, and on the other hand, it represented the messages and opportunistic ideologemes that the Soviet government broadcast through the son of the famous classic. Often, both of these factors were combined in one text, creating a strange mix of truth and frankness with outright lies, concealments, and distortions. The writing, compiling, publishing, and reprinting of the scientific memoir book “About the Father” demonstrates the complex process of Taras Franko’s adaptation as the son of a famous classicist to the Soviet system, its ideologemes, and propaganda goals. Most of Taras Franko’s texts that showed the writer as a living person weren’t included in the book and today constitute a valuable layer of factual material that their author tried to convey to society. The book “About the Father” was doomed to become only a sample of what was allowed, the official studies about Franko.
References
Burlaka, H. and Hyrych, І. (2010). Franko i Hrushevs’kyi: sproba obiektyvnoï kharakterystyky [Franko and Hrushevsky: an Essay of Impartial Characterization]. In: Spadshchyna: Literaturne dzhereloznavstvo. Tekstolohiia. Kyiv : VD “Stylos”, vol. 5, pp. 27–66. (in Ukrainian).
HDA SBU: Haluzevyi derzhavnyi arkhiv Sluzhby bezpeky Ukraïny, оs. arkh. № 1709 (S-3249), part II, p. 157. (in Ukrainian).
IL-1: Instytut literatury im. T. H. Shevchenka NAN Ukraïny (viddil rukopysnykh fondiv i tekstolohiï), f. 3, № 4892. (in Ukrainian).
IL-2: Instytut literatury im. T. H. Shevchenka NAN Ukraïny (viddil rukopysnykh fondiv i tekstolohiï), f. 3, № 4893. (in Ukrainian).
Kvit, S. (1991). Ivan Franko i Mykhailo Hrushevs’kyi [Ivan Franko and Mykhailo Hrushevsky]. Slovo i Chas, no. 1, pp. 61–70. (in Ukrainian).
Medvid, I. (2023). Prorok chy ieretyk? Relihiinyi svitohliad Ivana Franka ta ioho vzaiemyny z dukhovenstvom [A Prophet or a Heretic? Ivan Franko’s Religious Worldview and his Relations with Clergy]. Lviv : Vydavnytstvo UKU, 424 p. (in Ukrainian).
MFIF-1: Mizhnarodnyi fond Ivana Franka, № 112. (in Ukrainian).
MFIF-2: Mizhnarodnyi fond Ivana Franka, № 113. (in Ukrainian).
MFIF-3: Mizhnarodnyi fond Ivana Franka, № 250 zv. (in Ukrainian).
MFIF-4: Mizhnarodnyi fond Ivana Franka, № 255. (in Ukrainian).
MFIF-5: Mizhnarodnyi fond Ivana Franka, № 887. (in Ukrainian).
Svarnyk: Rodynnyi arkhiv Halyny Svarnyk. (Lysty Tarasa Franka do Ivana Svarnyka). (in Ukrainian).
Tykholoz, B. (2021). Burkus’: khto storozhyv spokii domu Franka? [Burcus: who guarded the peace of Franko’s house?]. Naukovyi visnyk Natsional’noho muzeiu Ivana Franka, vol. 3 (23), pp. 69–77. (in Ukrainian).
Tykholoz, B. and Tykholoz, N. (2020). Franko i Pervomai. Do 130-littia pershoï maivky na ukraïns’kykh zemliakh. [Franko and May Day. To the 130th anniversary of the first May. Day meeting (Mayivka) on Ukrainian lands]. Istorychna pravda, May 1, 2020. (in Ukrainian). URL: https://www.istpravda.com.ua/articles/2020/05/1/157434/ (accessed: 2.05.2025).
Tykholoz, N. (2012). Taras Franko pro bat’ka: bez kupiur [Taras Franko about father: uncut]. Frankoznavchi studiï, no. 5, pp. 503–525. (in Ukrainian).
Franko, T. (1956). Pro bat’ka: Statti, spohady, rozpovidi i narysy [About father: Articles, memoirs, stories and essays]. Kyiv : Radians’kyi pys’mennyk, 228 p. (in Ukrainian).
Franko, T. (1964). Pro bat’ka: Statti; Opovidannia; Spohady [About father: Articles; Stories; Memoirs]. Kyiv : Derzhlitvydav URSR, 223 p. (in Ukrainian).
Franko, T. (1966). Pro bat’ka. Statti. Opovidannia. Spohady [About father: Articles; Stories; Memoirs]. Kyiv : Dnipro, 284 p. (in Ukrainian).
Franko, T. (2015). Vybrane [Selected. In 2 vols.]. Ivano-Frankivsk : Vydavets’ Sen’kiv M. Y., vol. 1, 964 p.; vol. 2, 760 p. (in Ukrainian).
Chopyk, R. (2022). Dorohoiu na Burkut [On the Way to Burkut]. Slovo i Chas, no 1, pp. 116–118. (in Ukrainian).
Yanchenko, A. (1966). U spohadakh syna [In the memoirs of son]. Literaturna Ukraïna. 2. IХ. (in Ukrainian).
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Наталія Тихолоз

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.