About the use of the image of Skovoroda and his philosophical views in ideological constructions of representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora of the 2nd half of the 20th century

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the consideration of the use of Skovoroda’s image in ideological discourse by representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora (D. Dontsov, V. Shaian, M. Shlemkevych). The usual presence of the symbolized figure of Skovoroda in the Ukrainian identity leads to its further use in the system of national ideologies. The creator of the ideology of “active” nationalism, D. Dontsov, interprets the figure of Skovoroda as the bearer of the ideals of the higher “caste” in the conditions of the decline of political and spiritual life in Ukraine in the second half of the 18th century. The creator of the neo-religion of nativism, V. Shaian, sacralizes the person of the philosopher, endowing him with the status of a prophet, which is directly related to the only divine essence – the “highest light”. For the philosopher M. Shlemkevych Skovoroda marks the end situation: the end of the era of Cossack autonomy and the full incorporation of Ukrainian lands into the Russian Empire. Skovoroda’s way of life symbolizes the type of people who escape from real life into spirituality. In general, in the ideological constructions of the authors considered by us, the image of Skovoroda is constructed not so much on the basis of an appeal to primary sources: the philosopher’s texts or the memories of the philosopher’s contemporaries about his lifestyle, but on the basis of his previous images, and here his “Ukrainianness” is the main one. Skovoroda is only a “Ukrainian philosopher” and it was on the basis of this that it was constructed already at the beginning of the 20th century. The image and its further elaboration in the ideological discourse of later times take place. The presence of the image of Skovoroda in the structures of Ukrainian national self-consciousness and stereotyped knowledge about his philosophical views is quite stable: the idea of “two natures”, the doctrine of “three worlds”, the principle of “kinship work” also leads to their further “exploitation” in the texts of Dontsov, Shayan and Shlemkevych