On Sunday, 27 August, on the 167th anniversary of Ivan Franko’s birthday, Drohobych hosted the seventh ceremony of awarding the Laureate of the Ivan Franko’s International Prize.

This year the highest award in the humanitarian domain was gained by Doctor of Philology, Head of the Franko Studies Department of the Ivan Franko Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Mykola Lehkyi. The prize was awarded for the monograph“Ivan Franko’s prose: poetics, aesthetics, reception in criticism”.

In 2023 the Ivan Franko International Prize short list also included:

Chairman of the Board Sviatoslav Pylypchuk remarked that the Prize Committee and the experts took up weapons to protect their land the way Ivan Franko advised. “Since then, we have become more resilient and powerful. Today’s ceremony of awarding the laureate is a demonstration of our power and resilience. We keep carrying out the mission of the Ivan Franko International Fund, which was initially formulated by its founder Roland Franko, the last grandson of the Great Ukrainian”, emphasized SviatoslavPylypchuk.

In his turn, Director of the Ivan Franko International Fund IhorKurus announced that apart from the financial reward of 200 thousand hryvnias, the Prize Laureate received a gold medal and a diploma. “I am grateful to everyone who has contributed to thissignificant initiative. The Ivan Franko International Prize ceremony proves that despite the war, the Ukrainians are capable of thinking about the most essential – own history, science and education. We must care about the past and future generations even in the times of devastation, sufferings and tragedies. The Ivan Franko International Prize raises hope that we will be able go through these extremely strenuous and daunting times of the Ukrainian reality”, summarized Ihor Kurus.

Background information: the Ivan Franko International Prize was established by the Great Ukranian’s grandson – Roland Franko. The highest award in humanities has been awarded annually since 2016 (except 2022 when the Prize was suspended due to the russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine).

In 2016, the Prize was won by Lubomyr Husar, Major ArchbishopEmeritus of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Cardinal of the Catholic Church.

In 2017, the laureates were Doctor of Slavistics, Professor of the Vienna University, President of the International Association of Ukrainian Studies Michael Moser and Academician, Doctor of Geography, Honorary Doctor of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv Oleh Shabliy.

In 2018, the winners were Doctor of Philology, Professor of the Ukrainian Catholic University and Ukrainian Free University Yaroslava Melnyk and Professor of East European Studies of the Helsinki University Johannes Remy.

In 2019, the award was granted to Doctor of Philology of the University of Milan Maria Gracia Bartolini.

In 2020, the laureate was Doctor of History, Professor of the Department of History of Ukraine of the Poltava V.G. KorolenkoNational Pedagogical University Ihor Serdyuk.

In 2021, the Prize laureate was Doctor of History, Professor of the Drohobych Ivan Franko Pedagogical University Leonid Tymoshenko.