Petro Franko



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

Biography
Born as his father in the village of Nahuyevychi of Drohobych powiat (Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria) on June 21, 1890, he graduated from the Lviv Polytechnic Institute. 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 he served in the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen where commanded a company (sotnia) as a poruchik (poruchnyk). In 1918 he organized an aviation school of the Ukrainian Galician Army Command Center which was active until 1920.

Later worked as a teacher in Kolomea (Poland). From 1931-1936 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. Franko died under unknown circumstances. Some sources claim that he died on June 28, 1941 during his attempt to escape at the Proshov railway station near Ternopil while being transported by train. Another sources claim that he was tortured to death by NKVD operatives in the summer months of the same year.He loved singing.

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.