Story. Spirituality. Art.
We live in a difficult period of the formation of Ukrainian society aimed at the European level. State and public organizations are looking for ways to affirm the image of Ukraine in the world community. This was how the “Temples of Ukraine” creative project was organized, which was attended by the Kiev Orthodox Theological Academy, St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, the public organization “Sumy Association in Kiev”, the Kiev Organization of the National Union of Artists Ukraine, which by the way celebrates its fiftieth anniversary.
At the III All-Ukrainian Scientific Conference for Young Scientists and Students “Ukrainian Orthodox Theological Thought in a Common Christian Context”, the report of Candidate of Historical Sciences Y. Kukharchuk sounded “The Road to the Temple” and presented an exhibition of artistic works “Temples of Ukraine” dedicated to the Ukrainian patriot, archeologist, art historian, museologist world-class scientist MOO Makarenko (1877-1938).
The preservation of the memory of Nikolai Yemelyanovich Makarenka is especially close to the St. Michael's Golden-domed Monastery. During the communist propaganda, the leadership of the revolutionary Ukrainian state planned the destruction of the monastery and the construction of a proletarian government complex on this holy site. The act on the barbaric decision was not signed by any of the commission, the scientist M. Makarenko, who had just returned from St. Petersburg to be a “useful homeland”. Like thousands of scholars, spiritual leaders of the time, he fell under the sword of Stalin’s repressions of Damocles. On trumped-up charges, Makarenko was arrested, sent to penal servitude in Kazan, then to camps in Tomsk, where he was executed on January 4, 1938. Thanks to the petition of his wife Anastasia Sergeyevna, the Ukrainian patriot was rehabilitated in 1960, 1965, 1989.
Sumy society, initiated the historical and artistic project "Return", the concept of which is the idea of returning undeservedly forgotten, little-known bright personalities of the gray-haired Sumy region. Within the framework of the project, annual painting contests are held dedicated to M. Makarenko, a native of Sumy region, who was born in the village of Moskalivka, Romny district, and received a brilliant education. The biblical statement "serve everyone with the gift to which you are called" confirms the appointment of M. Makarenko on earth. In Ukraine, he had no equal in research on archeology, art history, museum work and many issues of cultural and artistic direction. The scientist left descendants a weighty scientific and creative heritage (about 170 scientific papers, thousands of drawings, watercolors, ex libris, map drawings, many scientific cards, archaeological surveys, photos, transparencies). The ideals of science, art and cultural heritage of Ukraine M. Makarenko defended his whole life, and thanks to his archaeological finds, Ukraine received worldwide recognition.
On the monument to Kobzar in the town of Romny, Sumy region, the slogan “I will revive and let the free will come back from the Domino I shall cry.” Was written. This legacy of the lights of the Ukrainian people responded by sounding the bells of the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery on the night of December 11, 2013, when the authorities committed physical violence against peaceful demonstrators on the Maidan. By tragic events, M. Makarenko observed, a bronze bust which was installed at the Economic Gates of the monastery in 1997. He was one soldier in the field, but now around him is a whole symbiosis of the Heavenly Hundred patriots who perished on the Maidan are protesting against the arbitrariness of the Ukrainian government. It is as if His Holiness Patriarch of Kiev and all Russia-Ukraine Filaret appeals to them in his prayers: “Love Ukraine not with a word, but with all your life.”