Ivan Franko - Legacy

Legacy

In 1962 the city of Stanyslaviv in western Ukraine (formerly Stanisławów, Poland) was renamed Ivano-Frankivsk in the poet's honor.

He also is associated with the name Kamenyar for his famous poem, Kamenyari (The Rock breakers), particularly during the Soviet regime, although his political views mostly did not correspond to the Soviet ideology. In the late 1970s astronomer Nikolai Chernykh named an asteroid which honored Franko in this manner, 2428 Kamenyar.

In the new world, Ivan Franko’s legacy is very much alive to this day. Cyril Genik, the best man at Franko’s wedding, emigrated to Canada. Genik became the first Ukrainian to be employed by the Canadian government – working as an immigration agent. With his cousin Ivan Bodrug, and Bodrug’s friend Ivan Negrich, the three were known as the Березівѕка Третеця (the Bereziv Triumvirate) in Winnipeg. Imbued by Franko’s nationalism and liberalism, Genik and his Triumvirate had no compunction about bringing Bishop Seraphim to Winnipeg in 1903 – a renegade Russian monk, consecrated a bishop on Mount Athos – to free the Ukrainians of all the religious and political groups in Canada who were wrangling to assimilate them. Within two years, the charismatic Seraphim built the notorious Tin Can Cathedral in Winnipeg’s North-End, which claimed nearly 60,000 adherents. Today, the bust of Ivan Franko, which stands triumphantly on a pillar in the courtyard of the Ivan Franko Manor on McGregor St. in Winnipeg, looks fondly across the street. Two churches stood here, the first (this building has since been demolished) that Seraphim blessed and opened for service upon his arrival, before building his Cathedral. The second was the Independent Greek Church (this building is still intact) of which Ivan Bodrug became the head after Seraphim was removed. Franko’s consciousness had been bold, and on the level playing ground of the new world it served Ukrainians in Canada to find their own identity as Ukrainian-Canadians.