Top 12 Famous People of Chernihiv
“It was a beautiful winter day. Winter was already at the end, and as saying goodbye, it put on all her glittering garments and shone with every twig of trees, every tiny little tree. The sun from the pale blue sky looked proudly at the expanses covered with dirty snow and sent warm rays to warm the earth, wake it from a heavy sleep and pull it out of the embrace of winter. ”- Sofiia Rusova - «Day in the Woods in Winter»
Sofiia Rusova was born on February 18, 1856 in the village in the family estate of Lindfors in Chernihiv in an aristocratic family. Father Fedir Lindfors, a colonel of Swedish descent, was in military service in Omsk. He married Frenchwoman Hanna Zherve. In 1865 the family moved to Kiev, where Sofiia studied at the Fundukleev Women's Gymnasium, which she graduated with a gold medal. A beautiful future awaited her, everyone suggested her to join the St. Petersburg Conservatory, but the girl showed great strength of spirit. She said: “Do I have the right to selfishly build my life? And people? Do they not have to serve them first? ”These words became a motto of her entire life devoted to serving the people. Sofiia began her pedagogical activity in 1871 being a fifteen-year-old girl together with her sister Maria, who organized the first kindergarten in Kyiv. From that time, until her death she worked hard in the field of Ukrainian schooling. Her tireless pedagogical, scientific and social activities were aimed to develop the concept of national education and upbringing.
Sofiia Rusova worked as a kindergarten teacher, school teacher, teacher and professor at the Higher Women's Courses, at the Frobel Pedagogical Institute in Kyiv. Also he was a Professor of Pedagogy at the Ukrainian Pedagogical Institute of M. Drogomanov in Prague. She was a member of the Ukrainian Central Council, chief of the Department of Pre-school and Extracurricular Education in the UNR government, the founder of the women's movement in Ukraine, co-founder of the Ukrainian Pedagogical Academy.
According to S. Rusova, the native Ukrainian school is the first political and socio-pedagogical demand of every nation, which removes the chains of oppression, dismisses the indifference. Rusova's views on the problems of mental, moral, aesthetic, labor, preschool, family education are relevant today.
Sofiia Rusova is rightly considered a classic of preschool education, she wrote such books as "Theory and Practice of Preschool Education", "Kindergarten on the National Ground", "Preschool Education", "New School of Social Education", "Nationalization of Preschool Education", "New Methods of Preschool Education", "The Role of Women in Preschool Education" and others. Also she did a practical work in the field of preschool education. "A hope is born near a cradle and only on a native soil"- Rusova wrote.
The most effective method of national education is the native word, through which child perceives the spiritual values of peoplehood, its worldview, and it’s carried out artistic and figurative thinking, that assimilated by morals and historical experience of people. The concept of the national system of education and upbringing of S. Rusova is extremely relevant today. She was a Ukrainian in spirit and dedicated all her life to Ukraine and its people.
