The National Bank of Ukraine has recently issued a 500-hryvnya note, which is approximately equivalent to the U.S. 100 dollar note, the most popular piece of paper currency among Ukrainians. This article is not aimed at finding out why the National Bank analysts decided it was socially and economically expedient to introduce the new note. They clearly foresee all the benefits of the introduction and know which niches the new money can fill. It is obvious the move will help reduce expenditures on monetary circulation, which is one of the tasks of the National Bank.
This article will focus on artistic aspects of the note, which features a portrait of Ukraine's most prominent and unique philosopher, poet and pedagogue, Hryhoriy Skovoroda. By issuing the note, the government and the National Bank will powerfully popularize the first independent philosopher of both Ukraine and Russia and the founder of Russian cosmism. [Editor's Note: Russian Cosmism is a broad theory of natural philosophy combining elements of religion and ethics, along with elements from both Eastern and Western philosophic traditions as well as from Russian Orthodoxy.]
Ukrainian and Russian scholars have been discovering the facets of Skovoroda's ideas for more than two centuries. Common people know the philosopher for his journeys.
Official scholars, religious leaders and other humanitarian folk regarded Hryhoriy Skovoroda as a troublemaker whose ideas could not be assigned to any of the existing philosophic movements. He seemed to have passed beyond those accepted limits. Moreover, it was unpleasant and inappropriate for those who admired the world's famous and celebrated philosophers to descend to the level of the eccentric genius. They considered his company to be embarrassing.
Post-war students were ashamed to openly support his theories. However, one could have some of his works (there was no full collection) because Lenin's Decree on Monumental Propaganda placed the name of Skovoroda among those deserving praise. The Soviet government tolerated him because he had come from a poor family and never served the rich.
He always criticized authorities, urged social peace and was both the supporter and opponent of idealism and materialism, religion and atheism. Ideologists partly used his writings, censoring dangerous and risky chapters. Such a biased approach to his works prevented them from fully understanding his ideas about God, Cosmos, Christ, Divine Man and his three-world concept.
Skovoroda was interpreted differently in the Russian Empire and in the materialism-oriented Soviet Union. He was accepted everywhere but presented primitively and schematically. This must be the reason why many authors commented much about his exciting and often exotic biography.
Skovoroda was born in 1722 into the family of a Cossack of the Lubny regiment in the village of Chornukhy. He was a very diligent student, and the boy's parents decided to send him to Kyiv's Religious Academy, the best educational institution of the Slavic world. Having a beautiful voice, he was soon invited to join the imperial choir. Hryhoriy moved to Saint Petersburg but chose to return to Ukraine later to continue his education. Skovoroda spoke several languages fluently and was employed by a tsarist official. He lived in Europe for a few years, immersing himself in philosophy. He came back to his country as an educated and self- sufficient scholar, poet and pedagogue. Skovoroda spent fifteen years teaching.
His educational efforts were never appreciated and were often censured by church officials. He was thus forced to become a wandering tutor for rich families. It enabled him to write tracts and compose poems. He was repeatedly offered different jobs. Monasteries wanted him to become a monk but Skovoroda refused, saying he did not wish "to enlarge the number of Pharisees." He had no possibility to publish his writings, usually leaving them in places where he was writing. His works were carefully preserved, mainly in Moscow's libraries, copied and distributed publicly.
Skovoroda had been a wandering philosopher and teacher for both children and adults for many years when he died in 1794. He passed away in the Kharkiv region village of Pan-Ivanivka, which was later renamed Skovorodivka. Tourists still flock to his museum and monument there.
People know little about his concepts.
Skovoroda appreciated European rationalism and valued gains of European science but he also saw its limits, inner contradictions, insufficient spirituality and underestimation of faith.
His concept of three worlds is quite complicated. The philosopher believed there are three worlds: macrocosm, microcosm and the Bible (symbolic world). All these worlds have two sources: eternal and transient. He claimed the soul, the space and God, all being within a human being, were eternal but could not be used as mere soil in which to nurture all the other components, for one would never be able to artificially create a seed that would allow something else to grow. Material things are perishable and should be constantly adjusted to fit their eternal counterparts. He believed we should constantly improve and enrich the physical aspects of life.
Skovoroda recommended that we look for the world of symbols in the Bible, thus having indirectly founded the movement of Biblical symbolism. He supported both rational science and spiritual faith, the west with its rational culture and the east with its inner self-contemplation. His paradigm combined them both. This was the essence of the philosophy of Russian cosmism, which is gaining more distinct features due to the efforts of such scholars as Mendeleyev, Pavlov, Zhukovsky, Tziolkovsky, Vernadsky, Losyev and Gumilyov. There are those who believe this philosophy will soon replace other religions, not through opposition but through enrichment and amalgamation, forming a single rational-spiritual concept.
Since this concept was conceived and developed in Ukraine and by Ukrainian scholars, it would be great if Ukraine became a bridge connecting western rationalism and eastern self-perfection.
The introduction of the 500-hryvnya note will almost inevitably encourage people learn more about this great personality and also explore his moral and ethical values. It is no surprise Skovoroda is still remembered as a paragon of virtue. His monument overlooks the Kyiv Mohyla Academy, where he studied 250 years ago.
Another positive consequence of the introduction of the 500-hryvnya note is that Ukrainians will no longer think of him as a provincial. Skovoroda was an educated man who spoke a number of languages, including Latin, which was like his mother tongue, and was always welcome in educated circles. He also laid the foundation for the combination of the philosophies of two civilizations.
His portrait on the currency will help Ukrainians get rid of their inferiority complex. A nation having such ancestors can be proud of itself and its history.
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