In 2026, scholars from Canada, Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine are competing for the International Ivan Franko Prize.

On February 28, 2026, the submission period for research papers and accompanying documents for the 2026 International Ivan Franko Prize officially closed.

The submitted studies cover the following academic areas: comparative literary studies, cultural studies, history of Ukraine, European studies, interethnic relations, history of Ukrainian publishing, history of nationalisms, Oriental studies, anthropology, ethnology, art history, literary studies, linguistics, history of the Ukrainian language, publicistics, and journalism.

The following nominations have been submitted to the Prize Committee:

VOLODYMYR ALEKSANDROVYCH and BOHDAN LAZORAK, Skhidnytsia Community: The Heritage of Ancient Churches and Church Art, Kolo Publishing House, Drohobych, 2025. 884 pages.

NOMINATED BY: The Research and Methodology Council of the Municipal Institution of the Lviv Regional Council “Administration of the State History and Culture Reserve ‘Nahuyevychi’” (Ukraine).

ADAM BŽOCH, Conversation and European Literature. Europa Publishing House, Bratislava, 2023. 422 pages.

NOMINATED BY: Institute of World Literature of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (Slovakia).

TARAS VEREMEENKO, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Church ArtSchool of the 18th – Early 19th Century: History, ArtisticDirection, Masters. Naukova Dumka Publishing House of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, 2024. 192 pages.

NOMINATED BY: Rylsky Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Ukraine).

YURII VOLOSHYN, The Parish Community. The Pyriatyn Protopopia of the Second Half of the 18th Century (Socio-Historical and Historical-Demographic Dimensions). Lviv: Ukrainian Catholic University, 2023. 420 pages.

NOMINATED BY: IHOR SERDIUK, Laureate of the International Ivan Franko Prize 2020 (Ukraine).

VOLODYMYR VIATROVYCH and LUBOMYR LUCYUK, Enemy Archives Soviet CounterinsurgencyOperations and the Ukrainian Nationalist Movement – Selections from the Secret Police Archives. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal, 2023. 988 pages.

NOMINATED BY: Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Toronto (Canada).

VLADYSLAV HRYBOVSKYI, Khan’s Ukraine. Folio Publishing House, Kharkiv, 2025. 414 pages.

NOMINATED BY: OLEKSII SOKYRKO, Laureate of the International Ivan Franko Prize 2024 (Ukraine).

JOANNA GETKA and VIKTOR MOISIENKO, In thebeginning was the word… From linguistic usage to literarynorm (An essay on the genesis of the Ukrainian literarylanguage). University of Warsaw Press, 2024. 248 pages.

NOMINATED BY: Vasyl Stefanyk Carpathian National University (Poland–Ukraine).

VOLODYMYR KRAVCHENKO and MARKO ROBERTSTECH, The Unpredictable Past? Reshaping Russian, Ukrainian, and East European Studies. CIUS Press, Toronto, 2024. 462 pages.

NOMINATED BY: JOHANNES REMY, Laureate of the International Ivan Franko Prize 2018 (Canada).

IVAN MONOLATII, Executor of the Word. Yakiv Orenshtain: A Ukrainian Publisher at the Crossroads of Cultures, Ideologies, and Politics. Dukh i Litera Publishing House, Kyiv, 2025. 272 pages.

NOMINATED BY: Department of Political Science, Vasyl Stefanyk Carpathian National University (Ukraine).

VITALII MYKHAILOVSKYI, The Podillia Phenomenon: The History of the Region in the Second Half of the 14th Century – Early 16th Century. Tempora Publishing House, 2025. 296 pages.

NOMINATED BY: Kamianets-Podilskyi National Ivan Ohiienko University. (Ukraine).

YULIIA PRYSIAZHNA, “From the depths of my thoughts I will return. Memories of Mykhailo Prysyazhny.” PAIS Publishing House, Lviv, 2025. 368 pages.

NOMINATED BY: Lviv Regional Organization of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (Ukraine).

SERHII ROMANOV, “Fate or Will“. Women of the ModernEra. Athena Publishing House, 2025. 624 pages.

NOMINATED BY: Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University (Ukraine).

Schedule of events for the competitions and the awarding of the Prize laureate in 2026:

by April 1, 2026 – short-listing of research papers by the Nomination Committees

by May 10, 2026 – discussion of the submitted research papers by the International Expert Council and determination of the Prize nominees

August 26, 2026 – selection of the Prize laureate by the International Jury

August 27, 2026 – award ceremony for the Prize laureate

The International Ivan Franko Prize was established by the International Ivan Franko Fund with the aim of promoting comprehensive research into the literary, scholarly, and journalistic heritage of Ivan Franko, as well as encouraging scholars from around the world to conduct relevant research in the field of social sciences and humanities. The Prize seeks to highlight the humanistic, national, spiritual, and state-building significance of the Ukrainian scholarly and cultural tradition within the global context.

Since 15 January 2026, scholarly works can be nominated for the 2026 Ivan Franko International Prize.

The Prize Committee will accept submissions from 15 January to 1 March 2026.

Scholarly works will be eligible for nomination if they were published between 2023 and 2025 and comply with the requirements set out in the Prize Regulations.

To participate in the competitive selection:

Candidates for the Ivan Franko International Prize can be nominated by:

The Ivan Franko International Prize was established to promote comprehensive research into Ivan Franko’s literary, scholarly, and journalistic legacy, as well as to encourage researchers from all over the world to conduct relevant academic investigations in the field of social sciences and humanities. The Prize aims to highlight the humanistic, national, spiritual, and state-building significance of Ukraine’s scholarly and cultural tradition in a global context.

For the Ivan Franko International Prize Regulations follow the link
https://frankoprize.com.ua/index.php/uk/2016/02/01/600/

As of 1 March, 2025, the Ivan Franko International Prize Committee ceased accepting scholarly publications for the Ivan Franko International Prize2025.

This year among the nominees are:

Professor of the Ukrainian Catholic University VadymAdadurov, “Rearranging Words in the Centuries”: An Intellectual Biography of Il’ko Borshchak”.Monograph. Lviv: UCU Publishing House, 2024.

SUBMITTED BY: Ivan Franko International Prize Laureate Professor Ihor Serdiuk, Ukraine.

Professor of Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A.S. Makarenko Horbolis Larysa. “Ecocriticism: Methodological Integration, Interaction, Interpretation”.Monograph. Sumy: Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A.S. Makarenko, 2024.

SUBMITTED BY: Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A.S. Makarenko, Ukraine

Senior Scientist at the M.S. Hrushevsky Institute of Ukrainian Archeography and Source Studies Vladyslav Hrybovskyi. “Khans’ka Ukraina (Cossack Ukraine under the Crimean Khanate’s Authority)”. Monograph.Kharkiv: Folio Publishing House, 2025.

SUBMITTED BY: Ivan Franko International Prize Laureate Professor Oleksiy Sokyrko, Ukraine.

Dmytro Gruzinsky “Ukrainian everyday life 22-24”. Monograph. Dnipro: Lira, 2024. Ukraine

Professor of Pace University (New York) Andriy Danylenko. “From the Bible to Shakespeare. Pantelejmon Kulish and the Formation of Literary Ukrainian”. Monograph. Kyiv: Krytyka, 2023.

SUBMITTED BY: the O.O. Potebnia Institute of Linguistics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ukraine.

Professor of Lviv Polytechnic National UniversityYurii Dyba. “IMAGO GENTIS TAUROSCYTAE: Legendary Genealogy of Rus` in Personal Princely Signs of the 10th–11th Centuries”: Monograph. Lviv: Lviv Polytechnic National University, Shevchenko Scientific Society, 2024

SUBMITTED BY: Ivan Franko International Prize Laureate Professor Leonid Tymoshenko, Ukraine.

Professor of Mariupol State University TetianaIvanets. “The Syndrome of Home Loss among Forced Migrants: Tracing the Mariupol”. Monograph. Kyiv: MSU, 2024

SUBMITTED BY: Mariupol State University, Ukraine

Co-authors: Oksana Brusakova, Volodymyr Hrechenko, Olena Yevdokimova, Iryna Nechitaylo, Yana Ponomarenko, Yulia Tverdokhvalova“Psychological Consequences of War: anInterdisciplinary Essay about the Kharkiv Region and its Inhabitants”. Monograph. Kharkiv: Fakt, 2024

SUBMITTED BY: Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, Ukraine

Co-authors: Liubov Bila-Tiunova, Tetiana Bilous-Osin, Olesia Vasyliaka, Yulia Danylenko-Nehara, Olena Danylchenko, Serhiy Kivalov, Oleksandr Kozachenko, Diana Kozachuk, Yulia Kolomiyets, Olha Musychenko, Rodion Nehara, Natalia Orlovska, Hanna Sarybayeva, Andriy Strelnykov, Yevhenia Frolova, Yevhen Kharytonov, Olena Kharytonova “Taxonomy of Legal Measures”Monograph. Mykolayiv: Ilion, 2024

SUBMITTED BY: National University Odesa Law Academy, Ukraine

Co-authors: Bohdan Lazorak, Beata Skvarek, Tetyana Lazorak. “The Land of Salt and Oil”: Descriptions of Travels in Drohobych Region in 1768-1914. Studies. Documents. Materials”. Legnica-Drohobych–Nahuyevychi: Vitelon Higher State College Publishing House, 2024.

SUBMITTED BY: Vitelon Higher State College in Legnica, Poland

Co-authors: Irena Mytnik, Svitlana Pakhomova. “Anthroponymicon of the Ukrainian Privileged Stratum of the X-XVIII Centuries”: Monograph. Sedlce: IKRiBL, 2024

SUBMITTED BY: Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland

Assistant Professor Pavlo Levchuk. “Multilingualism of War Migrants from Ukraine in Poland”: Monograph.Warsaw: Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 2024

SUBMITTED BY: Ivan Franko International Prize Laureate Professor Michael Moser, Austria

Co-authors: Sofiya Varetska, Svitlana Macenka, Diana Melnyk, Yaryna Tarasyuk, Oksana Levytska, Natalia Mochernyuk, Yevhen Nakhlik “Intermedium Cassandra: Intermedial Studies”. Monograph. Lviv: Apriori, 2024

SUBMITTED BY: the Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University, Ukraine

Professor of the Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University Ivan Monolatii. “Makohin Pseudo Razumovsky. An Imaginary Ukrainian Person”. Ivano-Frankivsk: Lileia-NV, 2023.

SUBMITTED BY: The Department of Politology of the Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, Ukraine

Professor of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin and the Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University in Drohobych Ihor Nabytovych. “Gloria et Sacrum. Historical Prose of the Ukrainian Emigration”.Lublin: UMCS, 2022.

SUBMITTED BY: The Faculty of Ukrainian and Foreign Philology of the Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University, Ukraine

On 15 January, 2025, the call for the 9th International Ivan Franko Prize will commence.
The Prize Committee will accept scholarly works from 15 January to 1 March, 2025.

Scholarly works published in 2022–2024 are eligible forsubmission to compete for the International Prize.
To participate, applicants must fill out the Google form here(available starting 15 January, 2025) and send three copies oftheir scholarly work to the Prize Committee at the followingaddress: 48a Volodymyrska Street, office 15, Kyiv, Ukraine, 01030.

Applications for the Prize can be submitted by academic institutions, higher education establishments in Ukraine and/or countries with which Ukraine has diplomatic relations, as well as previous Laureates of the Prize.

The Prize was established to promote multifaceted research into Ivan Franko’s artistic, scholarly, and publicistic legacyand to encourage scholars from around the world to conduct relevant studies in the field of social and humanitarian studies. The latter should highlight the humanistic, national, spiritual, and nation-building significance of Ukraine’s scientific and cultural heritage in the global context.

A unique feature of the 2025 Prize is the involvement of the State Scientific Institution Institute of Educational ContentModernization (IECM), which will issue qualification certificates indicating the number of ECTS hours to all scholars who will apply for the Prize and the experts evaluating their work (see the attached IECM letter).

The Prize Regulations can be found here.

The Ivan Franko International Prize Committee has completed reception of the scholarly paper submitted for the contest and has commenced the following stage of expert evaluation, which is to last till 10 May 2024.

The Ivan Franko International Prize Committee has withdrawn the scholarly paper by Professor Tinatin Mshvidobadze (Georgia) from the contest inasmuch the submitted documents do not comply with the requirements of the Provision on the Prize.

The Committee has resolved to admit the scholarly paper by the Candidate of Philology, Docent of the Ukrainian Studies Department of Kharkiv University of Humanities “People’s Ukrainian Academy” Olena Ilina, which arrived at the Fund on 5 March 2024 due to the lack of the internet access in the academic institution pursuant to the shelling of Kharkiv by muscovite invaders.

The Prize Committee has launched the procedure of submitting the following 12 papers for expert evaluation:

JOANNA GETKA, Habilitated Doctor, Professor of the University of Warsaw and JOLANTA DARCZEWSKA, PhD, monograph “Rus’ Abducted? Russia’s War over the Identity of Ukraine”, Warsaw: The University of Warsaw Press, 2022.

SUBMITTED BY: The University of Warsaw Press (Poland).

VASYL GRESHCHUK, Doctor of Philology, Professor of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, academic publication “Hutsul Dialect Vocabulary and Phrasemics in the Ukrainian Belletristic Language. Dictionary” (Vol.1. А – М 2019; Vol.2. Н – Я 2020; Appendix. Onymic vocabulary. 2023).

SUBMITTED BY: Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University (Ukraine).

OLENA ILINA, Candidate of Philology, Docent of the Ukrainian Studies Department of Kharkiv University of Humanities “People’s Ukrainian Academy”, monograph “Archetypal Concepts of Ukrainian Artistic Language Thinking”. – Kharkiv: I.S. Ivanchenko Publishing House, 2021. – 338 p.

SUBMITTED BY: Kharkiv University of Humanities “People’s Ukrainian Academy” (Ukraine).

MYKOLA ILNYTSKYI, Doctor of Philology, Merited Professor of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, monograph “Ivan Franko: The Antinomy of Nature and Spirit. Explorations and Interpretations”, Lviv: Apriori Publishing House, 2023, 264 p.

SUBMITTED BY: Ivan Franko International Prize Laureate Mykola Lehkyi (Ukraine).

VITALIY MYKHAILOVSKIY, Doctor of History, Docent of the Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University, monograph “History, Language, Geography: Toponyms of Medieval Podillya”, Kyiv: Tempora, 2021, 412 p.

SUBMITTED BY: Ivan Franko International Prize Laureate Professor Leonid Tymoshenko (Ukraine).

IVAN MONOLATII, Doctor of Political Science, Candidate of History, Professor of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, monograph “Ethnoperipherality: participaton of subjects of Western Ukrainian ethnopolitical sphere in interethnic interaction, interstate conflicts and culture of memory”, Drohobych: Posvit, 2022, 576 р.

SUBMITTED BY: Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University (Ukraine).

IHOR NABYTOVYCH, Doctor of Philology, Professor of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (Poland), monograph “Gloria et sacrum. Historical Prose of the Ukrainian Emigration”, Lublin, UMCS Publishing House, 2022, 230 p.

SUBMITTED BY: Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (Poland)

OLEH RAZYHRAYEV, Doctor of History, Professor of the World History Department of the Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University (Lutsk), monograph “The World Behind Bars. Penitentiary System in Volyn and Galicia in 1918–1939”, Drohobych: Kolo, 2023, 688 p. 

SUBMITTED BY: the administration of the Nahuyevychi State Historical and Cultural Reserve (Ukraine).

IRYNA SMETANA, Candidate of Philology, Docent of Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics and ANTONINA TYMCHENKO, Candidate of Philology, Docent of Kharkiv I.P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts, monograph “In Hidden Thoughts: Motives in the works of Volodymyr Svidzinsky”, Kharkiv: Publisher Oleksandr Savchuk, 2021, 380 p.

SUBMITTED BY: Kharkiv I.P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts (Ukraine).

OLEKSIY SOKYRKO, Candidate of History, Docent of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, monograph “Cossack Mars: the State and the Army of the Cossack Hetmanate During the Military Revolution, 1648-1764”, Kyiv: Tempora, 2023, 912 p. 

SUBMITTED BY: Ivan Franko International Prize Laureate Professor Ihor Serdiuk (Ukraine).

FELIKS SHTEINBUK, Doctor of Philology, Professor of Comenius University (Slovakia), monograph “Under “the Sign of Sabaoth”, or “Where…” Ulianenko is”, Kyiv: Dmitry Burago Publishing House, P. 1, 2020, 396 p.; P. 2, 2022, 392 p.

SUBMITTED BY: Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University (Ukraine).

OLHA SHUMILINA, Doctor of Arts, Professor of the Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy, monograph “The Suprasl Canticles of the End of the 17th Century – a Monument of Basilian Church Music”, (in 3 vols and 2 books, Lviv, 2022. Book 1, 960 p.; Book 2, 984 p.)

SUBMITTED BY: the Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy (Ukraine).

In previous years, the awards were given to Cardinal of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Lubomyr Husar, Professor Michael Moser (University of Vienna), Academician Oleh Shabliy (Ivan Franko National University in Lviv), Professor Yaroslava Melnyk (the Ukrainian Catholic University), Associate Professor Maria Grazia Bartolini (Eastern European University in Helsinki), Professor Ihor Serdyuk (Department of the History of Ukraine, Poltava National Pedagogical University named after V.G. Korolenko), Professor Leonid Tymoshenko (Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University), Head of the Franko Studies Department of the Ivan Franko Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Mykola Lehkyi.

The Ivan Franko International Prize Committee has ceased accepting scholarly publications for the Prize, which is awarded to celebrate the scholars whose works constitute a significant contribution to the development of social and/or humanitarian studies, bear international value and are based on the principles of scholarly reception of historical or modern processes in culture, politics and public life of Ukraine.

Within the determined period, the International Fund received 12 monographs by scholars from 4 countries (Georgia, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine). The submissions were initiated by 11 higher education institutions from Warsaw, Zhytomyr, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyshyniv, Lublin, Lviv and Kharkiv, 1 research institution and 3 Prize laureates from previous years.

The name of the Ivan Franko International Prize laureate will be announced in Ivan Franko’s hometown Drohobych on 27 August on his 168th birthday anniversary.

Among the nominees for the Ivan Franko International Prize 2024 are:

TINATIN MSHVIDOBADZE, Associate Professor of Gori State University (Georgia), monograph “The Translation History of Ukrainian Literature and Efficiency of Computer Programs in the Creative Processes”, LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing 2022, 117 p.

SUBMITTED BY: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing (Moldova).

IVAN MONOLATII, Doctor of Political Science, Candidate of History, Professor of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, monograph “Ethnoperipherality: participaton of subjects of Western Ukrainian ethnopolitical sphere in interethnic interaction, interstate conflicts and culture of memory”, Drohobych: Posvit, 2022, 576 р.

SUBMITTED BY: Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University (Ukraine).

FELIKS SHTEINBUK, Doctor of Philology, Professor of Comenius University (Slovakia), monograph “Under “the Sign of Sabaoth”, or “Where…” Ulianenko is”, Kyiv: Dmitry Burago Publishing House, P. 1, 2020, 396 p.; P. 2, 2022, 392 p.

SUBMITTED BY: Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University (Ukraine).

VASYL GRESHCHUK, Doctor of Philology, Professor of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, academic publication “Hutsul Dialect Vocabulary and Phrasemics in the Ukrainian Belletristic Language. Dictionary” (Vol.1. А – М 2019; Vol.2. Н – Я 2020; Appendix. Onymic vocabulary. 2023).

SUBMITTED BY: Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University (Ukraine).

IHOR NABYTOVYCH, Doctor of Philology, Professor of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (Poland), monograph “Gloria et sacrum. Historical Prose of the Ukrainian Emigration”, Lublin, UMCS Publishing House, 2022, 230 p.

SUBMITTED BY: Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (Poland)

VITALIY MYKHAILOVSKIY, Doctor of History, Docent of the Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University, monograph “History, Language, Geography: Toponyms of Medieval Podillya”, Kyiv: Tempora, 2021, 412 p.

SUBMITTED BY: Ivan Franko International Prize Laureate Professor Leonid Tymoshenko (Ukraine).

OLEKSIY SOKYRKO, Candidate of History, Docent of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, monograph “Cossack Mars: the State and the Army of the Cossack Hetmanate During the Military Revolution, 1648-1764”, Kyiv: Tempora, 2023, 912 p. 

SUBMITTED BY: Ivan Franko International Prize Laureate Professor Ihor Serdiuk (Ukraine).

OLEH RAZYHRAYEV, Doctor of History, Professor of the World History Department of the Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University (Lutsk), monograph “The World Behind Bars. Penitentiary System in Volyn and Galicia in 1918–1939”, Drohobych: Kolo, 2023, 688 p. 

SUBMITTED BY: the administration of the Nahuyevychi State Historical and Cultural Reserve (Ukraine).

MYKOLA ILNYTSKYI, Doctor of Philology, Merited Professor of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, monograph “Ivan Franko: The Antinomy of Nature and Spirit. Explorations and Interpretations”, Lviv: Apriori Publishing House, 2023, 264 p.

SUBMITTED BY: Ivan Franko International Prize Laureate Mykola Lehkyi (Ukraine).

JOANNA GETKA, Habilitated Doctor, Professor of the University of Warsaw and JOLANTA DARCZEWSKA, PhD, monograph “Rus’ Abducted? Russia’s War over the Identity of Ukraine”, Warsaw: The University of Warsaw Press, 2022.

SUBMITTED BY: The University of Warsaw Press (Poland).

OLHA SHUMILINA, Doctor of Arts, Professor of the Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy, monograph “The Suprasl Canticles of the End of the 17th Century – a Monument of Basilian Church Music”, (in 3 vols and 2 books, Lviv, 2022. Book 1, 960 p.; Book 2, 984 p.)

SUBMITTED BY: the Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy (Ukraine).

IRYNA SMETANA, Candidate of Philology, Docent of Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics and ANTONINA TYMCHENKO, Candidate of Philology, Docent of Kharkiv I.P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts, monograph “In Hidden Thoughts: Motives in the works of Volodymyr Svidzinsky”, Kharkiv: Publisher Oleksandr Savchuk, 2021, 380 p.

SUBMITTED BY: Kharkiv I.P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts (Ukraine).

In previous years, the awards were given to Cardinal of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Lubomyr Husar, Professor Michael Moser (University of Vienna), Academician Oleh Shabliy (Ivan Franko National University in Lviv), Professor Yaroslava Melnyk (the Ukrainian Catholic University), Associate Professor Maria Grazia Bartolini (Eastern European University in Helsinki), Professor Ihor Serdyuk (Department of the History of Ukraine, Poltava National Pedagogical University named after V.G. Korolenko), Professor Leonid Tymoshenko (Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University), Head of the Franko Studies Department of the Ivan Franko Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Mykola Lehkyi.

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.