Monument to Ivan Franko, Kolomyia

The monument to IvanFranko in Kolomyia is a monument to the prominent Ukrainian writer, poet, scientist and thinker Ivan Yakovych Franko in the city of Kolomyia in the park on Vyacheslav Chornovil Street, unveiled on August 27, 2012 to mark the 156th anniversary of his birth. The sculptors of the monument are Vasyl Andrushko (Kolomyia), a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine, and Vasyl Gurmak (Lviv), a professor at the Lviv National Academy of Arts; the project architect is Oleh Pryts (Kolomyia); the construction of the pedestal was carried out by businessman Volodymyr Ivaniuk (Kolomyia). According to the authors of this monument, Franko seems to be moving toward people, descending the steps from the ages to the present, and with his thoughtful gaze calls for reflection and unconquerable struggle for Ukraine, which permeated his entire life. The almost three-meter monument was cast in bronze by the Lviv-based company PikArt.

On August 27, 2011, at 14:00, the city authorities and the governor laid the cornerstone. One year was planned for the monument to be erected to coincide with the next city day. In the fall of 2011, work was underway to establish the area for the monument. The budget for all the work was estimated at about 1 million hryvnias (about $125,000 at the time). The project was supposed to arrange a renovated square of the same name around the monument.

This is one of the few monuments near which you really want to stop, stand, and mentally communicate with this extraordinary person. The sculptural composition is constructed in such a way that Ivan Franko seems to be walking through Kolomyia, holding his cloak in one hand and leaning on the railing with the other.

Franko is very closely associated with this city. Researchers of his life and work estimate that Franko visited Kolomyia fifteen times. Here he wrote the short story "At the Bottom," "Free Sonnets," "Thoughts of a Proletarian," "Freckles," and "The Eternal Revolutionary." In Kolomyia, Ivan Franko's "Ivan Vyshensky", the story "For the Home", the brochure "What is Progress" criticizing Marxism were first published, and a number of his books were reprinted. His first acquaintance with the city took place on March 1, 1880. In his memoirs, he wrote: "In the winter of 1880, having no means to live in Lviv, I went to the countryside, to the Kolomyia district, where I was to receive a private lecture." Ivan Franko went to the village of Bereziv Nyzhnii to the folk teacher Kyrylo Henyk to prepare him for the exam. The poet arrived in Kolomyia two days earlier, where he met with Olha Roshkevych and her husband. For two days Ivan Franko was surrounded by the Ozarkevychs, they even attended a ball in a restaurant and danced with Olha, talked a lot, which later gave rise to unnecessary gossip... On March 4, Franko met with Kyrylo Henyk, and together they went to the teacher's village. On the way, they stopped in the village of Yabluniv at an inn. At that moment, a gendarme came in and, seeing an unfamiliar man, asked for his documents. But Franko had come to Kolomyia on a free travel document of a stranger, a railroad worker. He had no documents of his own, and since Kyrylo Henyk was under police surveillance, his guest was arrested and sent back to Kolomyia. Frank was accused of involvement in an assassination attempt on the village headman of Moskalivka, near Kosiv, which took place the other day.

The investigation lasted until mid-May. Franko spent a total of 98 days in Kolomyia prison, and then the district starosta ordered him to be transported to his destination by "shupas," or stage, to finally mock him. On June 11, a gendarme took Ivan Franko by train to Stanislav, from where he was taken under surveillance to Stryi and then to a police prison in Drohobych. In his novel "At the Bottom" the writer wrote: "This transportation to police arrests in Kolomyia, Stanislav, Stryi, and Drohobych belongs to the most difficult moments in my life."

Subsequently, Franko visited the city over the Prut many times on educational missions. He also came to Kolomyia for treatment, and his wife was operated on and treated here. In Kolomyia, Ivan Franko, together with Mykhailo Pavlyk, published the newspaper Khliborob. Kolomyia was very close to the poet.

It was in Kolomyia that Kamenyar wrote "Anthem" ("Eternal Revolutionary"), set to music by Mykola Lysenko, "At the Trial," "Howl, Wind, Over This Prison," "Truth Is Being Destroyed Everywhere," "To Comrades from Prison," and other poems from the cycle "Thoughts of a Proletarian." In 1912, Ivan Franko read his immortal poem "Moses" to Kolomyia residents in the People's House (now a savings bank). In Kolomyia, his works From the Heights and the Lowlands, The Rising Hawk, and Cross Paths were first published.

On this occasion, the cultural project "Kolomyia is Our City" issued a commemorative postcard in two versions: color and sepia. The postcard was issued as number 29 in a series of anniversary cards entitled: "Kolomyia is our city". The author of the postcard is Kolomyia doctor Mykola Hanushchak, who presented his own vision of the monument to the community, although the original monument has a different appearance.