# Petro Franko

Petro Ivanovych Franko (Ukrainian: Петро Іванович Франко; 21 June 1890 – 6 July 1941) was a Ukrainian educator, pedagogue, writer, ethnographer, scientist, military leader, and politician. Franko was a co-founder of the Plast, a Ukrainian Scouting Organization, and a former member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society.

## Early life and education

Franko was born to Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko in Nahuievychi of Drohobych powiat (Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria) on 21 June 1890.
He graduated from the Lviv Polytechnic Institute.
He completed training as a pilot in 1916 at the flight school in Railovac, near Sarajevo.

## Career

Until World War I Franko was a teacher in a Ukrainian gymnasium in Lemberg. During that time he published a book, Plast's games (Пластові ігри та забави).
From 1914 Franko served as a poruchik (Lieutenant) in the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen where commanded a company (sotnia). In 1918, he organized an aviation school of the Ukrainian Galician Army Command Center, which was active until 1920.
He later worked as a teacher in Kolomyia (Second Polish Republic). From 1931 to 1936 he worked as a chemical engineer in the scientific-research institute in Kharkiv (Soviet Union). During that time, he became an author of 36 patented inventions. Before World War II, he lectured at the Lwow trade-economic institute, as well as in the city of Jaworow (again in Poland). In 1940, he was elected as a deputy to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's Verkhovna Rada.
With the start of Operation Barbarossa (part of World War II) in June 1941, he was detained by Soviet authorities and transported out of Lviv.

## Works

He was the author of several books, including the historical novellas Makhnivska Popivna (Махнівська попівна), In ancient woods of Brazil (В пралісах Бразилії), memoirs Ivan Franko from up close (Іван Франко зблизька), a movie script of Boryslav Laughs (Борислав сміється) and others.

## Death and legacy

Franko died under unknown circumstances. Some sources claim that he died on 28 June 1941 during his attempt to escape at the Proshov railway station near Ternopil while being transported by train. Another sources claim that he was killed by NKVD operatives in the summer months of the same year.
In 2015 was published by archivists the following NKVD encrypted telegram from 6 July 1941: "To the instructions of Comrade Khrushchev we arrested Studynsky, Franko, Kyiv artist Mykhailo Donets [uk], "Nationalists"; due to the fact that it is difficult to get them out of Kyiv, we consider it advisable to shoot them. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (b) has the same opinion".
A mural to Franko was unveiled in Aviakonstruktora Antonova Street in Kyiv.
In 2011, the Lviv regional council posthumously awarded Franko with the "90th anniversary of the proclamation of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic" award.
In the city of Starokonstantyniv, at the entrance to the 7th Aviation Brigade on Myr Street, a portrait of Petro Franko, whose name the military unit bears, was painted on a concrete slab.
On August 24, 2020, on the Independence Day of Ukraine, a mural dedicated to Petro Franko was unveiled in Kyiv's Solomianskyi district, on the facade of a building at 7 Aviakonstruktora Antonova Street.
On the occasion of the 130th anniversary of the birth of Petro Franko and the Day of the Defender of Ukraine, on October 14, 2020, the first monument to Petro Franko was unveiled on the square of the Ivan Franko Literary and Memorial Museum in Nahuyevychi.

## Family

Franko was married twice, the second time to culinary writer, Olha Franko who authored the first Ukrainian culinary book.
He has two daughters, Vira and Ivanna, who live with their children in Kyiv.