Hryhorii Skovoroda
This first original secular thinker is considered the founder of Ukrainian philosophy, as well as one of the most famous poets of the 18th century.
Hryhorii Skovoroda (3.12.1722 – 9.11.1794) was born in the town of Chornukhy of the Lubny Regiment in a Cossack family.
Kalamar. Inkwell and pen case (18th century)National Museum of the History of Ukraine
In the 1730s and 1740s, he studied at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and put his studies on pause twice: for trips to Russia as a singer (alto) of the court choir and to Hungary as a member of the Tokai Commission. The boy also had the opportunity to study abroad.
Postage stamp. 400 years of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (2015)National Museum of the History of Ukraine
Hryhorii Skovoroda spoke Latin, German, and Greek.
Illustration to the biography of Hryhorii Skovoroda by Yurii PavlovychNational Museum of the History of Ukraine
After returning from Tokai, from the beginning of the 1750s, he taught in the Pereyaslav (for a short time) and Kharkiv colleges and worked as a home teacher.
Illustration to the biography of Hryhorii Skovoroda by Yurii PavlovychNational Museum of the History of Ukraine
From 1769, he no longer associated himself with educational institutions – he lived in the estates of the free nobility and engaged in literary work.
Hryhorii Skovoroda's views were interpreted in different ways, sometimes giving radically opposite assessments: Christian epicureanism and eudaimonism, mysticism and Freemasonry and the early Enlightenment, he was called a philosopher-theosophist and a materialist-atheist, a misanthrope and an eccentric, Ukrainian Diogenes, Pythagoras, Origen, etc. This first original secular thinker is considered the founder of Ukrainian philosophy, as well as one of the most famous poets of the 18th century.
Stamp block. Garden of divine songs (2022)National Museum of the History of Ukraine
Hryhorii Skovoroda wrote more than 20 and translated about 10 works and collections of various genres. He managed to present the most original ethical teaching (ideas of harmony with nature and God, self-knowledge, spiritual improvement, kindred work).
The creativity of Hryhorii Skovoroda influenced Ivan Kotliarevskyi, Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko, Panteleimon Kulish, and Taras Shevchenko. Some of his literary works, such as "Every city has manners and rights," have gained true popularity and recognition.
Exhibition. Worlds of Hryhorii Skovoroda (2022) by Maksym YaremenkoNational Museum of the History of Ukraine
Worlds of Hryhorii Skovoroda
He died and was buried in the village of Pan-Ivanivka (now Skovorodynivka in the Kharkiv region). Shortly after Hryhorii Skovoroda's death, his student, Mykhailo Kovalynskyi, described the life of his teacher, laying down in his own work ideas about the philosopher's biography that are still relevant today.
Research and text: Maksym Yaremenko, Yaroslav Zatyliuk
Project Сurator: Oleksandr Kucheruk
Technical implementation: Oleg Mitiukhin, Oksana Mitiukhina, Liudmyla Klymuk
Translation: Dmytro Mitiukhin
Selection of exhibits: Olena Ivanova
Photographer: Dmytro Klochko, Oleg Mitiukhin
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