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Ukraine gradually lost its importance as a cultural conductor between Russia and
Western Europe. Russia was interested in strengthening its power and destroying
the political independence of Ukraine (the abolition of the Hetmanate in 1722,
destruction of the Sich in 1775 p.). Significant changes occurred in the social

structure of the Ukrainian society: on the one hand, the gradual enslavement of the
peasants on the Russian model, on the other hand, free Cossacks a part of which
dissolved in the middle class, or retained their social status.

The cultural center of the north of Ukraine gave new intellectual and cultural
forces in the Ukrainian territory. Immigrants from Ukraine were excellent portrait
painters D. Levitsky and V. Borovykovsky who lived and worked in Russia. The

musical school educated composers M. Berezovsky and M. Bortnyansky, whose
works greatly influenced the formation of musical culture in Russia. In 1700 the
Kyiv Mohyla Academy summoned to Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Due to the specific historical conditions prevailing in Ukraine in XVIIIth
century there was no social or cultural basis for the extensive development of the
Enlightenment: the official culture, focused on the Russian state gave rise to the
Ukrainian stereotype of inferiority. The ‘grass-roots’ culture, where national

traditions were kept could not be the soil for breeding the intellectual main ideals
of the Enlightenment. However, the tradition of schooling continued to exist in

Ukraine, despite the control of the Holy Synod of the parish schools. For example,
in 1740 – 1748 in the seven old Cossack regiments there was at least one school
per a thousand of inhabitants. In the first half of the century there were opened
colleges in Chernigiv, Belgorod (then Kharkiv) and Pereyaslav. In 1783 in all

colleges, Kyiv Mohyla Academy the teaching of Russian was introduced.
The prominent figure of the Ukrainian culture of the XVIIIth century was M.
Skovoroda who was a philosopher, poet, writer and a thinker of the Enlightenment.

4. Importance of the Enlightenment for the development of the
European culture

The Enlightenment was one of the few cultural and historical eras, literally
saturated with historical optimism. All the thinkers believed that their theories and
projects would bring happiness to all mankind, help build a perfect society and a

perfect man. This belief was so popular that the educators did not notice the
contradiction between ideals and real experience of their own lives. Thus,
Rousseau who created the most humane pedagogical theory, gave shelter to their
children , Voltaire, the great educator, believed that ‘work on the land does not

need education’, therefore, there should not be so much concern about the
intellectual development of the ‘lower layers’.
The contradictions of the Enlightenment philosophy were undeniable. The

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