INTELLECTUAL COMMUNICATIONS OF HRYHORIY SKOVORODA

Abstract

The article analyzes the peculiarities of Hrihorii Skovoroda's intellectual communications, based on the materials of his correspondence with secular and church elites. It is noted that the epistolary legacy of Skovoroda as a student of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, reflects the basic principles of the educational process of this institution. The writer's correspondence known today includes more than 125 letters, the largest part of which is correspondence with M. Kovalynskyi (79 letters). Analysis of H. Skovoroda's correspondence allows us to single out certain features of it: 1). Household details and biographical aspects occupy an insignificant place in the letters, their main content is philosophical and ethical ideas and instructional instructions. 2). Almost all ancient Greek mythology is present in the letters. The thinker often compared his friends with ancient characters. 3). The educator's correspondence contains a lot of poetical inserts, which later became part of separate collections. 4). Letters are written, as a rule, in a mixed (hybrid) language, most often it is a combination of Russian, Latin and Greek. It is emphasized that the epistolary heritage of H. Skovoroda demonstrates the activities of the Kharkiv Collegium as an eloquent example of active contacts between Ukrainian church and secular elites. Sources reveal close personal and written communication of H. Skovoroda with many spiritual persons involved in the collegium: Archimandrite Hervasii Yakubovych, Rector Iov Bazylevych, Prefect Lavrentii Kordet and especially with the Bishop of Belgorod and Oboyan Ioasaf Mytkevych. In general, H. Skovoroda's correspondence with secular and spiritual persons, representatives of the academic school of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, is an indicative manifestation of the functioning of the "Mohyla intellectual space".