The life of the Ukrainian enlightener, philosopher, poet and teacher - Hryhoriy Savvich Skovoroda - soon after his death became overgrown with legends. The only reliable source is a small biography written by N. Kowalowski - a friend and student of the philosopher. The biography of Gregory Skovoroda briefly outlines the life of the poet. It missed quite a lot, so some facts from the life of the Skovoroda have remained dubious to this day.
The formation of philosophical views
The future enlightener was born in 1722 in the Poltava region, in the village of Chernukhakh, into a poor Cossack family. He received primary education at a rural school, and from the age of 12 he studied at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy. With interruptions, Skovoroda studied at the academy for 19 years. Her library became for him a storehouse of knowledge. In studies, the future philosopher was always the first, so the teachers respected him, and other students equaled him. During his studies at the Academy, Gregory thoroughly learned Latin, Greek, Church Slavonic, Polish and German. To a lesser extent, he knew several more languages. Frying pan Grigory Savvich, except for foreign languages, was very fond of literature and philosophy.
Russian period
In 1741, Grigory Skovoroda, whose brief biography became the subject of our conversation today, went to Russia. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, he sang in the court chapel. By the way, music was another passion of Gregory. Throughout his life, he performed songs, both his own and other authors, played the violin, flute, pipe, harp and bandura.
European period
In 1744, while in the court of Empress Elizabeth, Skovoroda returned to Kiev, but not for long. With retinue of Major General F. Vishnevsky, he went to Hungary, where the construction of the church of the Russian consulate was planned. In it, Gregory received the position of a singer. Vishnevsky invited Skovoroda with him not only because he sang beautifully. Also important was the fact that the aspiring philosopher was an excellent conversationalist, a good translator, and, finally, a fellow countryman of Vishnevsky. In the period from 1745 to 1750, the Frying pan with the general visited Austria, Poland, Slovakia, as well as Italy. In Italy, Gregory gained a lot of interesting acquaintances and for three years he studied at the University of Halle with the then-famous physicist and philosopher H. Wolf.
Homecoming
As you can see, the biography of Grigory Skovoroda abounds in travels. In 1753, he changed the image of a nomadic philosopher to the image of a settled sage, but not for long. Returning to Ukraine, the man takes a job as a poetry teacher at the Pereyaslavsky collegium. He takes his own textbook as the basis of his course, not devoid of innovative, bold postulates. Pereyaslavsky bishop did not like this technique, so he demanded that Skovoroda bring his discipline to the children in a classic way. Gregory, of course, did not like the fact that the bishop, being completely incompetent in the art of piety, lectures him. The philosopher responded to the insult by a Latin proverb, which states the illiteracy of the clergy in the artistic field. The question of the removal of the pan from the position of a poetry teacher was decided by the spiritual court.
Work at the landowner
In 1754, the landowner S. Tomar invited Skovoroda to become a teacher of his son Vasily. Gregory agreed and worked in this position until 1759, as a result a real friendship arose between him and the student, which continued throughout the subsequent life of the philosopher. As V. Tomara recalled, his father asked the Kiev Metropolitan to recommend him an educated mentor with good manners. The metropolitan immediately pointed to Skovoroda, because the latter was smart, knew languages ââand well "kept himself in public."
Second attempt to become a teacher
From 1759 to 1764, Gregory taught poetics at the Kharkov College, where the bulk of the teachers belonged to the clergy. After several years of work, he was told that to remain in this position is possible only on condition of the adoption of monasticism. But the poet firmly said that he did not want to "increase the number of Pharisees." The fact is that Grigory Skovoroda as a philosopher found the meaning of life in modesty and complete asceticism. He "removed himself from all that was unnecessary in order to gain the necessary." The life of the monks did not comply with the principles of Gregory, so he left the collegium, but four years later he nevertheless returned. This time, his task was to teach the Catechism in separate classes, where engineers, artillerymen, architects and topographers were trained. Here the activity of the philosopher could not be influenced by the foundations of the institution. A frying pan taught young people not religious dogmas, but "searching for a person in themselves", and under the guise of the Law of God taught a course of Christian ethics. Literally a year later, the philosopher was exposed and dismissed.
Travel in Slabozhanshchina
Frying pan Grigory Savvich settled near Kharkov in the village of Guzhinsky, in a small house on the territory of a forest apiary. Here he wrote such philosophical works as âAskhanâ and âNarkisâ. Soon, Gregory moved to the village of Gusinka near the town of Izyum, Kharkov region. There he also settled in a forest apiary, which was located on the territory of the Rosalion-Soshalsky estate.
Over the past 25 years of life, Skovoroda preached his views among the people. The philosophy of Gregory Skovoroda is briefly expressed by the word "asceticism", he preferred to develop skills and not to cultivate things. In simple clothes, with the most necessary things and books in his bag, the philosopher walked around the entire Slobozhansky region. He stayed on vacation in the village huts or on the estates of the landowners - Donets Zakharzhevsky, Tevyashov, P. Shcherbinin, Y. Pravitsky, as well as with his student N. Kovalivsky. Grigory Skovoroda, whose philosophy was necessary for people, stopped to live where there were smart interlocutors, or, conversely, people whose intellectual and educational level needed to be improved.
The philosopher did not stop the private training of young people. Sometimes he went to Kiev and Moscow to work there in libraries with the aim of studying ancient poetry. He also visited the Voronezh, Kursk, Oryol and Taganrog regions. But the trip to the Caucasus, visiting a student of V. Tomara, did not take place due to the deterioration of the philosopher's health.
Philosopher's reputation
In the period from 1770 to 1780, as N. Kovalivsky said, both good and bad reputation spread about the Skovoroda throughout Ukraine. Someone scolded him, someone praised him, but both of them wanted to see him. Despite the fact that the philosopher loved solitude, he did not shy away from companies of like-minded people and friends. Until his very old age, Grigory Savvich loved to sing and play musical instruments with his comrades.
During this period, the philosopher created a number of well-known works and taught morality to more than a dozen people. Poems based on biblical texts that were written in the years 1753-1785, he combined into a collection called "Garden of Divine Songs."
Last days
Predicting a quick death, the philosopher in 1794 went to the village of Khotetovo, Orel region, to his beloved student and friend N. Kovalivsky. Having returned, he settled in the Kharkov region, in the village of Ivanovka. Now this village is called Skovorodinovka. It was here that the greatest philosopher ended his life's journey. According to legend, Skovoroda himself dug his own grave in the garden, dressed in clean clothes, put his own manuscripts under his head and, covered with his retinue, fell asleep forever. And so the biography of Grigory Skovoroda ended. According to his testament, the inscription was made on the tombstone of the philosopher: "The world caught me, but did not catch me."
Artworks
The biography of Grigory Skovoroda (is it not so important in Russian, in Ukrainian) only conveys facts about the life of the philosopher, and in order to know all his greatness, you need to get acquainted with his works. Numerous works of the Frying Pan are divided into philosophical, theological and literary. Among the first theological treatises, the works âNarkisâ and âAskhanâ, which were devoted to self-knowledge of man, are noted. The philosopher outlined his view of religion, and in particular Christianity, in the lecture course âThe Initial Doors to Christian Welfareâ (1766), which he read at the Kharkov College. The best works of the Frying Pan are considered to be the Alphabet of the World and Friendly Talk about Peace of Mind. Both of them are devoted to the theme of human happiness and were written in 1775.
Among the literary works can be noted a collection of poems "Fables of Kharkov" (1774). Each of the fables consists of an explanation of its true meaning. Fables âThe Grateful Herodâ and âThe Poor Larkâ are also noted. The first of them is devoted to issues of education, and the second to peace of mind. Both fables were written in 1787. Many literary geniuses remain in our memory not only thanks to his works, but also to catch phrases, Grigory Skovoroda also succeeded in this. Quotes and epigrams of the philosopher for a long time remained in the memory of people. Incidentally, many of them were written in Latin. Here are some of the aphorisms:
- Excesses give rise to satiety, satiety to boredom, and boredom to spiritual anguish, and whoever suffers from it cannot be called healthy.
- Not all is poison that tastes unpleasant.
- Take the top and you will have a middle.
- It is common for a madman to grieve for what has been lost and not to rejoice at what is left.
- Oh, if you could write as much as you think!
- For those who have a low soul, the best of everything written and said becomes the worst.
- Like a palm tree: the stronger the rock compresses it, the faster and more beautiful it rises.
- There is nothing more dangerous than an insidious enemy, but there is nothing more poisonous than a feigned friend.
Distribution of works
The masterpieces of Grigory Skovoroda dispersed around the world in the form of manuscripts that his friends copied and handed over to their friends. The author himself also copied and presented his treatises to loved ones. Thus, his legacy spread across Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Hungary, Poland and Romania. The manuscripts fell into both peasant huts and wealthy estates, as well as dwellings of clergy and philistines. Some songs of the philosopher of the late XVIII century. got into Russian songbooks, and the song "Every city has a temper and rights" was performed by blind kobzars as a folk.
Evaluation of literary works
The philosophy of Grigory Skovoroda (we briefly touched on the main points) was even traced in his literary works. Many critics condemned the imperfect form of the works of the philosopher, although they recognized their content and sincerity. These works were compared with a gem that has not yet been properly processed, or a garden where wild bushes grow along with cultivated plants. The author always perceived criticism with humor and replied to such assessments that he was âan earthenware black pan baking white pancakesâ.
According to other readers, the biography of Grigory Skovoroda resembled the life path of the Russian scientist M. Lomonosov. Both of them were engaged in poetry, were philosophers and scientists and, most importantly, came out of the people. It is worth noting that in the 1830s, knowledgeable people attributed Skovoroda to the classics of Ukrainian literature along with Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, Gulag-Artemovsky and Kotlyarevsky. Based on the song âOh, yellow-sided birdâ, the Russian writer V. Kapnist wrote the poem âChizhikâ.
Grigory Skovoroda, whose philosophy and poetry meant a lot to Ukrainian literary classics, is depicted in some works of colleagues. In the story âGeminiâ by Taras Shevchenko, he was an episodic figure, but this did not prevent the character from influencing the plot with his moralistic and pedagogical ideas. Savvatiy Sokira - one of the characters in the work - inherited from his stepfather, a student of Skovoroda, the habit of living in harmony with nature and earn his own labor, while reading the original works of Virgil and Homer. And P. Kulish, also keen on the life of the great philosopher, dedicated a work to him entitled âGritsko Skovoroda. Old Russian poem. " In 1861, thanks to the abolition of serfdom and the relaxation of censorship, it became possible to publish the works of Frying Pan. This was a significant event in the cultural life of Ukraine.
Assessment of philosophical doctrines
So, with literary works it is more or less clear, philosophy is another matter. According to the poetâs contemporaries, the greatest resonance among critics was caused by Grigory Skovoroda as a philosopher. It is difficult to briefly describe his philosophical postulates. Some scholars considered Grigory Savvich to be a mystic, others, on the contrary, a rationalist. However, in 1894, when D. Bagalley, a professor at Kharkov University, published all the well-known philosophical works of Skovoroda, scientists were able to give an unambiguous assessment of his work.
He was recognized as a moral philosopher, whose work was influenced by the teachings of Plato, Plutarch, Cicero, German mysticism, as well as the philosophy of the New Age. The biography of Grigory Skovoroda shows that throughout his life he preached the so-called "secular monasticism." He critically looked at the official religion, its dogmatism and the parasitic life of monks. The philosopher noted the insincerity of church rituals and believed that nature, which is full of true miracles, is quite enough to know God.
To become happy, according to Skovoroda, you need to keep joy in the heart and peace in the soul, live in harmony with nature and not resist fate. He makes a special emphasis on the fact that you should not be engaged in a business to which the soul does not lie, because this contradicts the âwill of Godâ, which constantly resides in each of us, and there will be no use from such activities, only harm.
The philosopherâs ethical sermons, although they had a religious orientation, included many âhereticalâ (from the point of view of the usual religion) judgments. Grigory Savvich recognized the cognizability of the world and remained in the position of objective idealism. First of all, he always considered the problems of self-knowledge of a person. Skovoroda represented a model of an ideal society as a kind of âmountain republicâ in which equality and happiness reign. The path to this very republic, in his opinion, lay through the education of a person in himself, which should be the calling of each of us. To change the existing order of things in society, according to the philosopher, you need not fight against this order, but strive for spiritual freedom.
In most of his philosophical treatises, Skovoroda is clearly inclined to materialism, however it was the dualistic views that prompted him to create the theory of the âthree worldsâ. The first of these is called the macrocosmos and identifies nature. The second - "microcosm" - is a man. And the third - âthe world of symbolsâ - is an intangible world embodied in the Bible. Each of these worlds has a material and spiritual embodiment, the second being dominant. Interpreting the Holy Scriptures, the Frying Pan searched in it for allegorical content, not satisfied with a literal understanding.
Scientists who have studied the philosophical heritage of Gregory Savvich, compare it with Socrates. A wandering philosopher from Ukraine personifies the intellectual awakening of the public at the end of the 18th century. The words of N. Kostomarov in the article âA Word about the Skovorodaâ (1861) speak of the strong authority of the Frying Pan among the Ukrainian population: âFew personalities such as Grigory Savvich, whom the people loved and remembered, can be noted. From Voronezh to Kiev, his portraits hang in houses. Every Ukrainian writer knows about him ... ". That was what Grigory Skovoroda was like for people. Biography (including in Russian) gives only some idea of ââthe personality of this philosopher. To learn more about his deep views, it is recommended to read his works and literature on the life of the thinker and poet.
The image of the Frying Pan was embodied by many cultural figures from Ukraine. Artists I. Izhakevich and S. Vasilkovsky dedicated to the poet and philosopher the paintings âFrying pan on the roadâ and âPeople listen to the songs of Frying Panâ. V. Znob and I. Kavaleridze created his sculptural portraits. I. Kavaleridze, in addition, wrote the script and shot the film "Grigory Skovoroda" in 1959. In honor of the philosopher, in addition to a village in the Kharkiv region, streets in Kharkov, Kiev, Odessa and Poltava are named.