Hryhorii Skovoroda
Hryhorii Skovoroda is a prominent Ukrainian educator, philosopher, poet, interpreter. He was born in the village Chornukhy Lokhvitsky County (now Chernukhynskiy district, Poltava region) of the Kiev governor in the family of a land-hungry peasants. Just learning to read Hryhorii has never parted with books. Hryhorii grazed sheep to earn some money.
He asked permission from his parents to study in Kiev. He sang beautifully, easily played a flute, a harp, a violin, a lyre and a bandura.
He learned at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy. He continued his education abroad - in Budapest, Vienna, Venice, Florence and Germany.
After his returning in his country Hryhorii worked as a teacher and has taught poetry in Pereiaslavl Collegium, later in Kharkiv.
He was constantly required to take holy orders, and this made him to change places of service. The last 25 years of his life he used to travel on Ukraine, preaching his philosophical views among the people. At this time he wrote his basic philosophical and poetic works. Creative work of Skovoroda was a manifestation of a protest against the feudal serf system. He is known by his primarily educational ideas, which were based on a critique of social inequality, parasitism of the exploiting class, the glorification of the working people. In pedagogy, outlines key areas of the best outlook, humanism, democracy, high morals, love of country and people. The ideal of education - is to create a harmoniously developed man. He was engaged in artistic creation: a poet, a novelist, an interpreter of Roman authors: Horace, Ovid, Cicero and others.
Hryhorii Skovoroda is the author of a collection of original poems, "The Garden of divine song", which included Ukrainian satire of XVII century, also the "Every city has to have it’s customs and rights", as well as a collection of fables, "Fables of Kharkov".
Creativity of Skovoroda exerted considerable influence on his followers: I. Kotliarevsky, Y. Hrebinka, G.Kvitka-Osnovjanenko, T. Shevchenko.
Hryhorii died at the house of the a patron of art in the village of Pan-Ivanivka in Kharkov region (now the village Skovorodynivka Zolochiv district of Kharkiv region).
People revere the memory of an outstanding scientist and a writer. Our neighbor I.P. Kavaleridze created original monuments to Skovoroda in Chernukhy and in Kiev in front of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy.
