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His prison term did not discourage Franko from continuing his writing and political activities. He helped to organize a workers’ group in Lviv, contributed articles to the Polish-language paper Praca (Labor), and studied the writings of Marx and Engels. In 1880, Franko was again sentenced to a three-month prison term on the charge that he was fomenting agrarian unrest. Released from prison, Franko was placed under police surveillance and forced to leave Lviv University, which today is named after him. His contacts with Ukrainians in the Russian Empire led to his third arrest in 1889. After his release, Franko and Mykhailo Pavlyk, who shared his political views, cofounded the Radical Party in 1890 and began publishing the party journal Narod (The People). Three times during the 1890s, Franko ran as the Radical Party’s candidate for seats in the Vienna and Galician parliaments; manipulations by local authorities and opposition from more con servative Ukrainian circles thwarted his intentions. In 1899, a crisis occurred in the Radical Party and Franko left to join a populist faction in forming the National Democratic Party. He remained active in the NDP until 1904, when he withdrew from po litical life. Franko eventually parted company with Drahomanov’s views on socialism and the idea that Ukrainian national rights could be assured in the framework of a federated Russia. In the introduction to his poetry collection Miy Izmarahd (My Emerald, 1898), Franko also rejected Marxism, describing it as a “dogma based on hatred and class struggle.” The Writer As a writer, Franko was one of the first represen tatives of Realism in Ukrainian literature. The poetry in “My Emerald” is concerned primarily with philosophical themes—reflections on good and evil, beauty, duty, and the meaning of life—although included are also poems reflecting on the hard lot of the Ukrainian people. In the first period of his creative writing, Franko wrote political poems such as “Kameniari” (Stonemasons, 1878), “Vichnyi Revolutsioner” (Eternal Revolutionary, 1880), and “Ne Pora” (It’s Not Time, 1880) that became patriotic rallying cries for Ukrainian youth and influenced the outlook of generations of Ukrainians. In 1881, Franko became a prolific contribut or to the journal Svit; in 1882, he served on the editorial board of the journal Zoria (Star) and the newspaper Dilo (Action). In 1885, when his popu list colleagues became apprehensive about his radical ideas, Franko tried to set up his own journal, but was unable to secure financial backing for the enterprise. From 1887 to 1897, Franko augmented his always meager income by working for various Polish newspapers in Lviv and contributing articles on the situation in Galicia to the Viennese news paper Die Zeit (The Times). Franko also showed great skill in the composition of epic poems among which Moisei (Moses, 1905) is preeminent. Written after his visit to Rome in the previous year, Franko’s poem deals with the conflict between a biblical leader and his followers and lauds the ideal of service to one’s people. The poem also draws an analogy between the Israelites’ search for a homeland and the Ukrainians’ desire for independence. Franko’s prose works include over 100 short stories. His earliest prose works are set in the area of the town Boryslav and give a realistic and vivid portrayal of the social evils plaguing the Ukrainian peasantry at the time. The impoverish ment of the Galician peasantry is the main theme of the collections “Galician Pictures” and “In the Sweat of One’s Brow.” Two novels Boa Constrictor (1878) and Boryslav Smietsia (Boryslav Laughs, 1881), generally considered to be his best, deal with the awakening working-class consciousness and incipient forms of resistance to oppression. The historical novel Zakhar Berkut (1883) deals with the resistance of highlanders to the Mongols in 1241. Franko also authored a number of psy chological dramas, the most successful of which was a play entitled “Stolen Happiness.” He also wrote a umber of one-act plays and comedies and, perhaps surprisingly, stories and short skits for children. Best known in this genre is Lys Mykyta (Fox Mykyta, 1896), which was recently translated into English. The story-line and structure is a variation on the “fox” picaresque stories popular in German, French and other languages in the medie val period. The tale, however, can also be read as a satirical commentary on human behavior as shown in the animal characters. The Scholar Although expelled from Lviv University, Franko continued to pursue his academic studies. At Cher-
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