Unveiled History: How the nkvd Was Destroying Ivan Franko’s Son

Petro Franko – Ivan Franko’s son, a military officer, teacher, chemist, and one of the founders of “Plast” – fell victim to the repressive machine of the ussr. His life encompasses the fronts of the liberation struggle, teaching, research in Kharkiv, and close surveillance by soviet secret services. Since the 1930s, the chekists had been keeping a case file on Petro Franko, recording everything from his inventions in the field of chemistry to his correspondence with his family. Everything showed that soviet authorities did not forgive him for his participation in the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen Legion, his documents associated with the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic, or his rejecting the soviet citizenship.

Having returned to Lviv in 1936, Petro Franko remained under the surveillance of soviet secret services. Despite his public exaltation, such as his election as a Parliament Member to the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR and his appointment as Director of the Ivan Franko Museum, nkvd continued seeing him as a suspect in nationalist and espionage activities. Even his attempts to return his property from Kharkiv, which remained after his work at the scientific institute, did not escape the agents’ attention. They reported about his contacts with Ukrainian nationalists and “counterrevolutionary behavior”.

The last days of Petro Franko’s life were shrouded in darkness. According to his relatives, in June 1941, after the outbreak of the German-soviet war, he was placed under surveillance, then under house arrest. On June 28, his 51st birthday, he was taken from his home by nkvd officers. He was last seen alive at the Lviv railway station. According to some reports, he could have been shot dead on the way to Kyiv.

The fate of Petro Franko is a tragic example of how the son of a Ukrainian classic became an “undesirable element” in the ussr. His activities, ideas, and even his past were unacceptable to the soviet system. Formally rehabilitated only later, Petro Franko remained a symbol of the destroyed generation of Ukrainian intellectuals and fighters whom the chekists considered enemies of the state.

Read more about the mysteries of Petro Franko’s life and death here.