Iryna Farion

Iryna Dmytrivna Farion (Ukrainian: Ірина Дмитрівна Фаріон, pronounced [iˈrɪnɐ ˈdmɪtrʲiu̯nɐ fɐrʲiˈɔn]; 29 April 1964 – 19 July 2024) was a Ukrainian linguist and nationalist politician who served as a deputy in the Verkhovna Rada from 2012 to 2014 as a member of Svoboda. She was also a professor at the Department of Ukrainian Language at Lviv Polytechnic's Institute of Humanitarian and Social Sciences.

She was known for her campaigns to promote the Ukrainian language and to discredit Ukrainians who spoke Russian. As a result of one scandal in 2023, she temporarily lost her position as professor at Lviv Polytechnic.

Farion was shot and killed outside of her home on 19 July 2024.

Early life and education

Iryna Farion was born 29 April 1964 in Lviv. Her mother was a teacher and her father was a plumber.

Farion graduated from the philology department of Lviv University in 1987. Until 1991, she was head of the center of Ukrainian studies at Lviv University. During her college years, she was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the only student being in the Communist Party. Farion at first denied membership within the Communist Party. Later, she claimed that she could not have such a career without joining the party; she also stated that she joined the party to "destroy it from within". In 1996, she defended her doctoral thesis in philology at Lviv University.

Career

Among her scientific works are at least four monographs and 200 articles. From 1998 to 2004, Farion headed the language commission of Prosvita. From 1998, she initiated and organized the annual student competition "Language is a foundation of your life" (Ukrainian: Мова – твого життя основа, romanized: Mova – tvoho zhyttya osnova). In 2004, she received the Oleksa Hirnyk Literature Award.

In 2006, Farion balloted for People's Deputy of Ukraine mandate from the far-right Svoboda party, of which she was a member beginning in 2005. In 2006, Farion also successfully balloted to the Lviv regional council, where she was deputy chairperson of the commission on education and science, while in 2010, she won in a majoritarian electoral district of Lviv.

In February 2010, on International Mother Language Day, Farion was filmed instructing kindergartners to avoid using Russian names. In one instance, she tells them to "go where the Mashas live" if they wanted to be called Masha; a video of the incident was aired on Russian state television and was widely criticized. The incident was also widely discussed and criticized in the Ukrainian media. One deputy from the Party of Regions asked the Prosecutor General of Ukraine to file a criminal case against her on the grounds of language-based and nationality-based discrimination.

In the 2012 parliamentary election, Farion was elected into parliament after winning a constituency in Lviv Oblast. From 2013, she served as the head of the parliamentary subcommittee on higher education in science and education. In 2014, she became the first deputy chairperson of the committee on science and education.

In the 2014 parliamentary election, Farion again tried to win a constituency seat in Lviv, but failed this time having finished third in her constituency with approximately 16% of the vote.

In July 2015, the Investigative Committee of Russia filed a criminal case against Farion on the charges of "incitement to murder" and "extremist statements"; according to the statement by the Investigative Committee, Farion "made destructive and violent calls for actions that encourage the destruction of Russia as a state and Russians as a group of people based on nationality" at a rally on 15 October 2014.

In the July 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Farion again failed to return to parliament after finishing fifth with 10.35% of the vote in electoral district 116 in Lviv Oblast.

In November 2023, Farion stated in an interview that "there is no Russian-speaking population, there are Ukrainians, and there are Katsaps"; she also said that she would not consider Russian-speaking fighters of the Azov Brigade to be Ukrainian. Farion also published a letter by a supporter in the occupied Crimean Peninsula; she did not blur his name, causing him to be detained by Russian authorities. This caused public outrage, including criticism from politician Tamila Tasheva, and student protests at Lviv Polytechnic, but the institute refused to fire her. Farion later appealed to the president and defence minister to "take measures" against Azov fighters who criticized her. The incident led to Ukraine's human rights ombudsman to say that he had asked the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) to open an investigation. On 15 November, the SBU opened an investigation against her on the counts of discrimination, insulting the dignity of a serviceman, violation of confidentiality of correspondence, and breach of inviolability of private life, and she was relieved of her position at Lviv Polytechnic. She was reinstated at Lviv Polytechnic in May 2024.

Murder

On 19 July 2024, at around 19:30 (EEST), Farion was shot in Lviv. The attacker was described to be a young man of about 20–25 years of age; according to Farion's neighbors, they had noticed him in the morning, waiting near her home. She was immediately admitted to the hospital in the emergency department with a gunshot wound to the head in an "extremely serious" condition.  At around 23:00 EEST on the same day, doctors at the hospital announced that she was comatose and on life support. Farion died around 23:20, at the age of 60.

Ukraine's interior minister Ihor Klymenko stated that the murder was premeditated and the main motives the investigators were considering were either her political and social activity or a personal dislike.

Farion's wake was held in Lviv on 21 July.

Reactions

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his condolences to her family. The head of the Lviv regional administration and the mayor of Lviv, Maksym Kozytskyi and Andriy Sadovyi, also expressed their condolences to her family. Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko called her murder "a provocation and a challenge to the law enforcement system, democracy and stability in the country", while former president Viktor Yushchenko called Farion's murder "a calculated special operation of the enemy."

Farion's political party, Svoboda, accused the Russian government of organizing her death. Politician Yaroslav Yurchyshyn called for the banning of Russian-affiliated religious organizations, stating it would be the "best immediate tribute to Iryna Farion's memory."

Multiple public figures, including rapper Oleksandr Yarmak, singers Maria Burmaka, Iryna Fedyshyn and Khrystyna Soloviy, TV presenter Olha Freimut, actor Rymma Zyubina and writer Oksana Zabuzhko wrote tributes to Farion.

Political views

According to the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, "Iryna Farion's extreme nationalist views have long made the Lviv linguist and Svoboda [Freedom] Party politician a controversial figure." Farion has been characterized as far-right.

Farion admired the nationalist thinker Dmytro Dontsov. She suggested that those who favored friendship with Russia should be "placed in cells" and be required to read the works of Taras Shevchenko or the far-right leader Stepan Bandera.

In June 2010, Farion stated: "We have 14% of Ukrainians who indicated that their native language is Russian, that is, the language of the occupier. This indicates a terrible mutation of their consciousness. These are 5 million Ukrainian degenerates. And they need to be saved". Farion also suggested that Ukrainians who do not know the Ukrainian language should be imprisoned.

In April 2018, she called Russian-speaking Ukrainians "mentally retarded" and claimed that they had caused the Russo-Ukrainian War. In October of the same year, she called ethnic Hungarians in Zakarpattia Oblast "morons" and suggested that they "go back to Hungary", while comparing them to dogs. That year she also called for a campaign to "punch every Russian-speaking person in the jaw".

In April 2015, Farion welcomed the murder of journalist Oles Buzina, calling him a "degenerate" and "scumbag". In March 2019, in response to journalist Dmitry Gordon's criticism of Stepan Bandera, Farion called Gordon an enemy and wished him a "torturous death". For this, she was harshly criticized by the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine.

In 2023, Farion called the Siege of Mariupol "karma" for the residents of Mariupol.

Personal life

Farion was married to Ostap Semchyshyn; they had a daughter and were divorced. As of 2022, her daughter was a member of the Lviv City Council. Farion had two grandchildren.

Awards

• Borys Hrinchenko Prize

Scientific publications

• Ukrainian family names of the Carpathian Lviv Region at the end of 18th – beginning of 19th centuries (with etymological dictionary). National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Institute of folklore studies. "Litopys". Lviv, 2001.
• Antroponymy system of the Upper Dniester region at the end of 18th – beginning of 19th centuries (family names). Franko State University. Lviv, 1996 (Ph.D. thesis).