Lviv University

The Lviv University (official name: Ivan Franko National University of L'viv; _uk. Львівський національний університет імені Івана Франка, "L’vivs’kyy natsional’nyy universytet imeni Ivana Franka") founded in 1661 is the oldest continuously operating university in Ukraine. It is located in the city of Lviv, Lviv Oblast.

History

Beginnings

The University was founded on January 20, 1661 when the King John II Casimir of Poland issued the diploma granting the city's Jesuit Collegium, founded in 1608, "the honour of the Academy and the title of the University". The Jesuits had tried to create the University earlier, in 1589, but did not succeed. Establishing another college in Poland was seen as a threat by authorities of Kraków's Jagiellonian University, who did not want a rival and for many years managed to halt plans of the Jesuits.

King John II Casimir was a sympathizer of the Jesuits and his stance was crucial. The royal diploma was confirmed by another act issued in Częstochowa on February 5, 1661. Creation of the school was also stipulated by the Treaty of Hadiach. One of its articles stated that a Ruthenian academy was to be created in Kiev and another one should be created in an unspecified location, most likely in Lviv, which was an important center of the Greek Catholic church.

The Jesuit Collegium existed until 1758, when King Augustus III issued a decree, which described the Collegium as an Academic School, with two departments - theology and philosophy.

Under Austrian rule

In 1772 Lviv was annexed by Austria (see: Partitions of Poland) and the Society of Jesus was dissolved by the government in Vienna. The school was renamed into "Theresianum", i.e. State Academy. Twelve years later, Emperor Joseph II officially granted it a university status, with four departments - theology, philosophy, law and medicine. Most professors of the University were German or Germanized members of nations of the Empire. Latin was the official language of the school, Polish and Ukrainian were permitted only in certain cases.

In 1805 the University was closed, as Austria, involved in the Napoleonic wars, did not have sufficient funds to support it. Instead, a high school was established. The school was reopened in 1817, officially Vienna described it as an act of mercy, but reasons were different. The Austrians were well-aware of the pro-Polish policies of Russian Emperor Alexander I and they decided to counterbalance it. However, quality of education was not high, in the course of time Latin was replaced by German and most professors were mediocre. The few good ones regarded their stay in Lviv as a springboard to further career.

In 1848, when pan-European revolution reached Lviv (see: Revolutions of 1848), students of the University created two organizations - Academic Legion and Academic Committee, demanding that the school should be polonized. The government in Vienna answered by force, when on November 2, 1848, center of the city was bombed by troops of General Hammersteina. Buildings of the University suffered the most, especially the library. Soon afterwards, curfew was established and the University closed.

The school was reopened in January 1850, with limited autonomy. After a few years the Austrians relented and on July 4, 1871 Vienna declared that Polish and Ruthenian languages became official at the University. Eight years later this was changed. The Austrians, knowing that number of Polish students and professors exceeded the Ruthenians, declared Polish as official and Ruthenian and German as auxiliary. Examinations in two latter languages were possible as long as the professors spoke them. This bill created unrest among the Ruthenians, who were demanding equal rights. Finally, a Ruthenian student of department of philosophy, Miroslaw Siczynski murdered in 1908 the Polish governor of Galicia, Andrzej Potocki. After this event, both Poles and Ruthenians came to the conclusion that a separate, Ruthenian university should be created, but the lack of professors nipped these plans in the bud.

Meanwhile the Lviv University was thriving, becoming one of two existing Polish language colleges (the other one was the Jagiellonian University in Kraków). Its professors were famous across Europe, with such renowned names as Wladyslaw Abraham, Oswald Balzer, Szymon Askenazy, Stanislaw Zakrzewski, Zygmunt Janiszewski, Kazimierz Twardowski, Benedykt Dybowski, Marian Smoluchowski and Ludwik Rydygier.

Jan Kazimierz University 1919-1939

From 1919 until September 1939, in the Polish Second Republic era, the university was known as John Casimir University ( _pl. Uniwersytet Jana Kazimierza) in honor of its founder. The decision to name the school after the king was taken by the government of Poland on November 22, 1919.

The Jan Kazimierz University was the third biggest academic center of the country (after the universities in Warsaw and Kraków). On February 26, 1920, the University received from the Polish government the building formerly used by the Galician parliament, which has since been the university's main edifice. Its first rector in the Second Polish Republic was the famous poet Jan Kasprowicz.

In 1924 the Philosophy Department was divided into Humanistic and Mathematical-Biological Departments, thus there were five departments:
* Theological - 222 students in the academic year 1934/35,
* Law - 2978 students in the academic year 1934/35,
* Medicinal - 638 students in the academic year 1934/35 (together with the Pharmaceutical Section, which had 263 students in the academic year 1934/35),
* Humanistic - 892 students in the academic year 1934/35,
* Mathematical-Biological - 870 students in the academic year 1934/35.

Altogether, in the academic year 1934/35 there were 5900 students at the University, among which:
* 3793 were Roman-Catholic,
* 1211 were Jewish
* 739 were Greek-Catolic,
* 72 were Orthodox
* 67 were Protestant.

Ukrainian professors were required to take a formal oath of allegiance to Poland; most of them refused and left the university in early 1920s.

Ivan Franko University

In 1939, after the Polish September Campaign, Soviet occupants allowed classes to continue. Until late 1939, the school worked in the pre-war, Polish system. On October 18, Polish rector, professor Roman Longchamps de Bérier was dismissed, and replaced by a prominent Ukrainian historian Mykhailo Marchenko, grandfather of Ukrainian journalist and dissident Valeriy Marchenko. On January 8, 1940, the University was renamed "Ivan Franko Lviv State University". Lectures were held in Ukrainian and Polish (as auxiliary), with several Polish professors keeping their posts. Department of Theology was closed and Department of Medicine was separated, creating the Institute of Medicine.

In July 1941 German occupiers closed the University, nearly at the same time massacring two dozen Polish professors (as well as members of their households and guests, increasing the total number of victims to above forty), who included members of other academic institutions, too. The extent to which Ukrainian nationalists may have been involved in identifying and selecting some of the victims is still a matter of debate.

In the summer of 1944, advancing Red Army, strongly assisted by Polish Home Army forces locally implementing Operation Burza, pushed the Wehrmacht out of Lviv and the University was reopened. At first, its academic staff consisted of Poles, but within the following months most of them, together with the Polish population of the city, were "evacuated", in reality expelled, to Poland. In Poland, traditions of the Jan Kazimierz University have been preserved at the University of Wrocław.

Faculties

*Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Informatics ( [http://blues.franko.lviv.ua/ami/] )
*Faculty of International Relations ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/faculty/intrel/intrel_en/main_e.htm] )
*Faculty of Biology ( [http://bioweb.franko.lviv.ua/biolog.html] )
*Faculty of Journalism ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/faculty/journ/journft_u.htm] )
*Faculty of Chemistry ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/faculty/Chem/index.htm] )
*Faculty of Law ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/faculty/law/indexe.html] )
*Faculty of Economics ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/faculty/ekonom/] )
*Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/faculty/mechmat/index.html] )
*Faculty of Electronics ( [http://electronics.wups.lviv.ua/] )
*Faculty of Philology ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/faculty/Philol/philol.html] )
*Faculty of Foreign Languages ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/faculty/inomov.new/1eng.htm] )
*Faculty of Philosophy ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/faculty/Phil/home.htm] )
*Faculty of Geography ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/faculty/geography/index.html] )
*Faculty of Physics ( [http://physics.wups.lviv.ua/] )
*Faculty of Geology ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/faculty/geology/English/geol.html] )
*Faculty of Preuniversity Training ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/faculty/preuniv/indexeng.html] )
*Faculty of History ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/faculty/webhistory/index.html] )
*Department of Pedagogy ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/Pedagogika/indexen.htm] )

Research divisions and facilities

*Scientific Research Department ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/nd_ch/index.htm] )
*Zoological museum ( [http://www.carpathian.uar.net/museum/] )
*University Library ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/library/index.htm] )
*Journal of Physical Studies ( [http://www.ktf.franko.lviv.ua/JPS] )
*The Institute of Archaeology ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/Subdivisions/archeology_eng.htm] )
*Ukrainian journal of computational linguistics ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/ujcl/index_en.htm] )
*Media Ecology Institute ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/mediaeco/index.htm] )
*Modern Ukraine ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/Subdivisions/um/index.html] )
*Institute for Historical Research ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/Subdivisions/hystory_eng.htm] )
*Reginal Agency for Sustainable Development ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/rasd/] )
*Botanical Garden ( [http://bioweb.franko.lviv.ua/botsad/index_eng.htm] )
*NATO Winter Academy in Lviv ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/winacademy/index.htm] )
*Scientific technical & educational center of low temperature studies ( [http://www.franko.lviv.ua/stec/index_en.html] )

Notable alumni

* Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz (1890–1963), philosopher, mathematician and logician, a pioneer of categorial grammar
* Piotr Ignacy Bieńkowski (1865–1925), classical scholar and archaeologist, professor of the Jagiellonian University
* Józef Białynia Chołodecki (1852-1934), historian of Lviv.
* Ivan Franko (1856–1916), poet and linguist, reformer of the Ukrainian language
* Ludwik Fleck (1896-1961), medical doctor and biologist who developed in the 1930s the concept of thought collectives
* Georgiy R. Gongadze (1969–2000), Georgian and Ukrainian journalist
* Mark Kac, mathematician, pioneer of modern probability theory
* Yevhen Konovalets (1891-1938) leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists between 1929 and 1938.
* Stanisław Kot (1885–1975), scientist and politician, member of the Polish Government in Exile
* Tadeusz Kotarbiński (1881-1981), philosopher, mathematician, logician
* Pinhas Lavon (1904–1976), Israeli politician
* Antoni Łomnicki (1881–1941), mathematician
* Jan Łukasiewicz (1878–1956), mathematician
* Stanisław Maczek (1892–1994), commander of the First Polish Armoured Division, the last Commander of the First Polish Army Corps under Allied Command
* Kazimierz Michałowski (1901–1981), archeologist and Egyptologist
* Semyon Mogilevich economist
* Jan Parandowski (1895–1978), writer, essayist, and translator, expert on classical antiquity
* Maciej Rataj (1884–1940), Polish politician, president
* Jaroslav Rudnyckyj (1910–1995), Ukrainian Canadian linguist, lexicographer, folklorist
* Bruno Schulz (1892–1942), novelist and painter
* Markiyan Shashkevych (1811–1843), poet
* Josyf Slipyj (1892–1984), head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
* Hugo Steinhaus (1887–1982), mathematician, educator, and humanist
* Rudolf Weigl (1883–1957), biologist and inventor of the first effective vaccine for epidemic typhus

Notable professors

* Henryk Arctowski (1871–1958), oceanographer, Antarctica explorer
* Szymon Askenazy (1866-1935), historian, diplomat and politician, founder of the Lwów-Warsaw School of History
* Herman Auerbach (1901-1942), mathematician
* Stefan Banach (1892–1945), mathematician, one of the moving spirits of the Lwów School of Mathematics, father of functional analysis
* Oswald Balzer (1858–1933), historian of law and statehood
* st. Józef Bilczewski (1860–1923), archbishop of the city of Lwów of the Latins
* Leon Chwistek (1884–1944), Avant-garde painter, theoretician of modern art, literary critic, logician, philosopher and mathematician
* Antoni Cieszyński (1882–1941), physician, dentist and surgeon
* Matija Čop (1797-1835), Slovene philologist and literary theorist
* Jan Czekanowski (1882–1965), anthropologist, statistician and linguist
* Władysław Dobrzaniecki (1897–1941), physician and surgeon
* Yakiv Holovatsky (1814–1888), poet
* Mykhailo Hrushevsky (1866—1934), historian, organizer of scholarship, leader of the pre-revolution Ukrainian national movement, head of Ukraine's parliament, first president of Ukraine
* Stefan Inglot (1902—1944), historian
* Zygmunt Janiszewski (1888–1920), mathematician,
* Ignacy Krasicki (1735—1801), writer and poet, senator, Bishop of Warmia and [Primate of Poland|Archbishop of Gniezno and Primate of Poland]
* Jerzy Kuryłowicz (1895—1978), linguist
* Jan Łukasiewicz
* Ignác Martinovics (1755-1795) - physicist, Franciscan, Hungarian revolutionary
* Stanisław Mazur (1905—1981), mathematician
* Eugeniusz Romer (1871-1954), cartographer
* Eugeniusz Rybka (1898-1988), astronomer, deputy director of the International Astronomical Union,
* Stanisław Ruziewicz (1881—1941), mathematician
* Wacław Sierpiński (1882—1969), mathematician, known for contributions to set theory, number theory, theory of functions and topology
* Marian Smoluchowski (1872—1917), scientist, pioneer of statistical physics and a mountaineer, creator the basis of the theory of stochastic processes
* Hugo Steinhaus
* Szczepan Szczeniowski, physicist, author of numerous papers on cosmic rays,
* Kazimierz Twardowski (1866—1938), philosopher and logician, head of the Lwów-Warsaw School of Logic
* Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński (1874—1941), gynaecologist, writer, poet, art critic, translator of French literary classics and journalist
* Rudolf Weigl
* Viktor Pynzenyk, economist and politician

Other

* Włodzimierz Dzieduszycki (1825–1899), landowner, naturalist, political activist, collector and patron of arts
* Stanisław Lem (1921–2006), satirical, philosophical, and science fiction writer
* Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860–1941) virtuoso pianist, composer, diplomat and politician, the third Prime Minister of Poland

References

*cite web | title=Ivan Franko National University of L'viv | url=http://www.lnu.edu.ua/| accessmonthday=March 26 | accessyear=2006
* [http://lwow.home.pl/ujk.html History of the Lviv University until 1945] (Polish)

ee also

*Massacre of Lwów professors
*Ukrainian Free University

External links

* [http://www.lnu.edu.ua/indexe.html Official web site]
* [http://www.acm.lviv.ua LNU Online Judge System]