Ivan Verkhratskyi

Ivan Verkhratskyi (24 April 1846 – 29 November 1919) was a Ukrainian-Galician natural scientist, linguist, and teacher. His most famous scientific works were creating multiple volumes of local plant names in Ukraine, which is still the largest of its kind, and creating the foundational textbooks for zoology and botany in Ukrainian gymnasiums.

Born in Bilche-Zolote, then part of the Austrian Empire, Verkhratskyi first entered the natural sciences department at Lviv University where he graduated from in 1868. He would then take on various teaching positions, while also doing his own research and writing. He taught at the Drohobych State Gymnasium named after Franz Joseph I, where he became an early influence to Ivan Franko, in Lviv at a real school, gymnasiums in Riashev, Stanislav, and the Academic Gymnasium of Lviv. In 1874 he completed his qualification in zoology also. During his time teaching, he was involved extensively in dialectology in the Ukrainian area of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and also documented a collection of insects, particularly butterflies. After retiring as a teacher in 1908, he died in 1919.

Early life Verkhratskyi was born on 24 April 1846 in the village of Bilche-Zolote, which was then part of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria in the Austrian Empire at the time of his birth. His father was a priest named Hryhorii, while his mother was a Croatian-German woman. Two years after his birth, in 1848, his father died, leaving his mother to take care of Verkhratskyi and his three other siblings alone, and so they eventually moved to Lviv where he entered a gymnasium. In 1865 he entered the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Philosophy at Lviv University, where he graduating from in 1868.

Career In 1868 he became a junior teacher at the Drohobych State Gymnasium named after Franz Joseph I, teaching languages (German and Ukrainian) and natural history. In the same year he started teaching he attempted to create an education society in Drohobych in the vain of "Prosvita" in Lviv, but it failed because of a powerful Galician Russophilia sentiment at the time of its would be creation. There he taught Ivan Franko, where he encouraged him and would go on frequent trips with him. Writing later on, Franko stated, "two teachers had an influence on the development of my literary taste: Ivan Verkhratsky and Yuliy Turchynsky. I read everything I could get from Verkhratsky, with whom I went on several nature excursions." Proclaiming his ideas soon after, he wrote that the foundations of a literary language should be inspired by folklore. From 1874 to 1879 he then taught at the gymnasium in Riashev. During his final year in Raishev, in 1878, he carried out an ethnographic expedition to the north and south of Ukraine to carry out linguistic research as part of his mission to improve the state of the Ukrainian language. In 1880 he started writing for the literary magazine "Dennitsa" while working at the school in Stanislav.

In 1890 he again moved to Lviv, and he started working at the Academic Gymnasium of Lviv in September 1891. At the academic gymnasium, he helped found the natural science cabinet and the NTSh (Shevchenko Scientific Society) Ethnographic Museum. In 1908 he retired and stopped working at the academic gymnasium.

Works

Verkhratskyi extensively studied dialectology, writing a lexicology on Southern Russian, and doing works on the dialects of Rusyns in Hungary and Lemkos. He also created multiple volumes of work in 1908 about local plant names in the Ukrainian area of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Polissia, and the Black Sea area, which is still the largest of its kind.

Death

Verkhratskyi died on 29 November 1919 in Lviv. He was buried at Lychakiv Cemetery.