Recently published books submitted for participation in the annual competition for the Ivan Franko International Prize have been donated to the Scientific Library of Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv.

The ceremony took place on November 24, 2021. Traditionally the location for the event is the Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Mykhailo Maksymovych Scientific Library.

Rector Volodymyr Bugrov, Director of the Center for the Study of the Creative Heritage of Ivan Franko at the Taras Shevchenko National University Maya Moser, Director of the Scientific Library Oleh Serbin and other librarians took part in the event. In his welcoming speech to the participants Volodymyr Bugrov said: “Distinguished scientific literature is not enjoying excessive popularity now. Hence, the efforts of representatives of the board and directors of the Ivan Franko International Fund are especially valuable as they combine efforts to assert the Ukrainian studies in the world. Thanks to your activities, not only reputable publications gain publicity, but also solid modern scientists receive an incentive for further research!”

Ihor Kurus (Executive Director of the Ivan Franko International Fund) and Olha Nyzhnyk (co-founder of the Ivan Franko International Fund, coordinator of the All-Ukrainian “Kamenyar’s Paths” Competition) presented this year’s publications set for the competition. The participants were happy to get acquainted with interesting and little-known facts about such books as:

monograph “Ruthenian religious culture of Wilno. Context of the epoch. Hubs. Literature and book-learning (the 16th to the first third of the 17th century)» by this year’s Prize-winner Leonid Tymoshenko is described by reviewers as “a scrupulous review of the two-hundred-year historiography on the position of the Metropolitanate of Kyiv in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the turn of XVI-XVII centuries”;

publication “Apocrypha. Selected works. Four Conversations about Lesia Ukrainka”, compiled by Oksana Zabuzhko, a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy, Kyiv National University, based on conversations with His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, was noted as a” professional theological analysis of Lesia Ukrainka’s complex and deeply dramatic relationship with Christianity which comprise the nucleous of her mature heritage.”

Oksana Kis wrote a book “Survival as Victory: Ukrainian Women in the Gulag” described by reviewers as an attempt “to restore a generalized portrait of a Ukrainian woman who suffered from political repression, who overcame Soviet prisons and correctional labor camps, which are among the worst in world history, with her extraordinary vitality (ability to survive)”;

publication “Andrei Sheptytsky: Biography” by Roman Horak is marked as “a true epic of time and relations, […] the way to Golgotha, which Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky was destined to go through with his people and his church”;

other books submitted for participation in the competition.

Later Ihor Kurus acquainted the audience with this year’s competition and noted: “I am glad to see among the permanent activists-benefactors of the Ivan Franko International Prize representatives of the University, especially Rector Volodymyr Bugrov and Director of the Scientific Library Oleh Serbin.” The solemn event continued with presentation of Certificates of Appreciation on behalf of the Board of the Ivan Franko International Fund.

At the end of the event, the participants discussed the plans for joint projects to further promote important scientific publications on Ukrainian studies in the non-academic environment, which can become a significant public asset.

The scientific and academic staff of Taras Shevchenko National University welcomed the efforts of the University administration to establish partnerships with leading public institutions and invited all the persons interested to get acquainted with the latest book publications of the collection of the Mykhailo Maksymovych Scientific Library!

For reference: The Ivan Franko International Fund is a non-governmental charitable organization. The Fund was initiated in 2015 by Roland Franko – a prominent Ukrainian writer’s grandson. The Fund’s mission includes the development of Ukrainian studies and social sciences and humanities, the promotion of Ivan Franko’s intellectual heritage, as well as the formation of a positive image of Ukraine worldwide.

According to the Kyiv Taras Shevchenko National University official website.