KYIV – Ukrainian philosopher Myroslav Popovych passed away at the age of 87 on February 10. An academician, director of the Ukrainian State Institute of Philosophy at the National Academy of Sciences, author of the book “The Red Century,” and a great thinker, Dr. Popovych was at the same time a person of unbelievable modesty.
While he used to work as a teacher in a village school, now the country’s president came to pay his last respects to this man. Journalists used to call him “a sage with the smile of a child,” while Ukrainian politicians used to seek advice from him. He was called “the consciousness of the nation,” as well as a moral opinion leader.
Journalist Andriy Kulykov commented: “Myroslav Popovych was a distinct Ukrainian patriot. However, neither in his manner, nor in the way he expressed himself, nor in the way he justified the need for Ukraine’s independence, was there extremism or anguish that was often frightening to those for whom the thought of independence was new.”
Dr. Popovych was frequently seen on Maidan – Ukraine’s central square – during the Orange Revolution of 2004 and the Revolution of Dignity of 2013-2014. Now there are suggestions to rename the street where the philosopher used to live after him.
Myroslav Popovych was born in Zhytomyr on April 12, 1930. In 1948-1953 he studied philosophy at Kyiv University, later he worked as a village school teacher and a village school director. He received his Ph.D. following post-graduate studies at the Institute of Philosophy in 1956-1959, where he worked until his death.
He was one of the founding members of Narodnyi Rukh Ukrainy (Ukraine’s People’s Movement) in 1989 and was involved in the drafting of principles guiding Rukh. He was one of the participants of the December 1st initiative group beginning in 2013. (This group of Ukrainian intellectuals was established in 2011 on the 20th anniversary of the referendum on Ukraine’s independence.)
Dr. Popovych was the author of about 400 scholarly works, including 21 monographs. His most well-known research works are “Hryhoriy Skovoroda” (1984), “The Mindset of Ancient Slavs” (1985), “Mykola Hohol” (1989), “Ukraine and Europe: Right and Left” (1996), “Essays on the History of Ukrainian Culture” (1998), “The Red Century” (2005) and “Being a Human” (2011).
Philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko said of “The Red Century”: “…if you have time to read just one book on the history of communism, then ‘The Red Century’ is your best choice.” He called the book informative and detailed, “accessible to everyone regardless of a reader’s interests or educational background.”
Writing in 2015 about the Revolution of Dignity, Dr. Popovych observed: “Maidan did not just overthrow the government like, for example, the Revolution on Granite and the students’ strike of 1990, which ended up with one government being substituted by another, while nothing at the core actually changed. Maidan, on the contrary, changed Ukraine’s political system. And it can never be eradicated. When we came and stood there saying: ‘I will not walk away until…,’ we never thought it might grow into such a large-scale political act… If we speak about the consequences, about how protracted this movement towards democracy is going to be… I would be very cautious in saying anything certain.”
Writing about decommunization in Ukraine, Dr. Popovych advised: “Implementation of the decommunization laws needs to have a delicate pace. It should not be a show – like those acts of toppling [monuments]. Dancing on a toppled monument is not that far from dancing on dead bodies. It should not be done like that. It is a barbaric way to destroy the barbaric way of thinking and the barbarian mindset. …In the end, there was a state, and we used to be citizens loyal to that state. Labeling any cooperation with this state as collaborationism – what some of those interpreting this series of the laws on decommunization tend to do – and having us all declared collaborators means having us all sent to jail. … I used to be a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, but in the end, the dictatorship of the criminal-political Communist gang was to a large extent overthrown with the efforts of such CPSU members as me.”
About the war in the Donbas, he said: “Today we sometimes forget that the actual war is a war of principles. We do know – and it is true – that the war is between Russia and Ukraine. It is an undeclared war, but we all know what it is about. All the controversies we have ever had led to this, and this is the dangerous part: it is not about the language or even independence – that is not what’s at stake, instead, we need to build a society with a human face.”
Most recently, in early February, Dr. Popovych wrote about the current situation in Ukraine: “Every day and every hour we are facing the unsolved problems that threaten to bring our state to collapse. Trying to suppress the evil, we create new evil. We are witnessing the self-destruction of the state. This statement is topical today, it was topical a month ago and, unfortunately, quite likely will be topical a month from now. …The main reason behind the threat that is casting a shadow over Ukraine is the lack of trust in national consolidation. It is important that everyone formulates his position and does not hide behind the backs of colleagues.”
President Petro Poroshenko was among those who came to bid a final farewell to Dr. Popovych during a ceremony held on February 13 in the conference hall of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
“Today, Ukraine bids farewell to its great son Myroslav Volodymyrovych Popovych. It is hard to overestimate the scale of this person and his efforts for the revival of Ukraine, Ukrainian spirit, Ukrainian morality,” Mr. Poroshenko said. Noting that he had met with the philosopher over the years, the president added: “Myroslav never looked into the past. He always looked into the future, dreamed of reforming Ukraine resolutely and gave valuable recommendations.”
On February 14 President Poroshenko posthumously awarded Dr. Popovych the Medal of Freedom “for personal accomplishments in establishing the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, consolidation of Ukrainian society and development of democracy, for long and productive academic, social and political activity.”
Source: Ukraine Crisis Media Center, with additional information from the Presidential Administration of Ukraine.