Friends!

Friends, on this day in 1929,died a prominent Ukrainian public figure, philanthropist, publisher of the daily Ukrainian newspaper "Rada" Yevgeny Chykalenko . He was a man for whom Ukraine stood in the first place, he dreamed of a Ukrainian national revival, and did everything in his power for the country to flourish.

Eugene Chykalenko was born on the 21st of December, 1861 in the village of Pereshory in the Kherson region. His father Harlampi was a landowner, and had two more children - Ivan and Galina. After the parents dispersed, all the children remained withfather. Harlampi died when Eugene was only 10 years old. The child was brought up by his uncle. Boy studied at the Elisavetgrad real school, along with such distinguished personalities as Panas Saksagansky, Ivan Karpenko-Kary and Alexander Tarkovsky. After completing his studies in 1881, he traveled to Kyiv, but there he was not able to become a student for formal reasons. But at this time, Chykalenko met Professor of History Volodymyr Antonovich, composer Mykola Lysenko, bibliographer Mikhail Komarov and others. Together they took part in the work of the Dictionary Commission, whose activities subsequently turned into a well-known "Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language", edited by Boris Grinchenko.

Later, Evgeniy Chykalenko joined the Natural Sciences Faculty of Kharkov University. There he met with his future wife - Maria Sadikova. Uncle-guardian Eugene was against their marriage, because he had a bride with a big dowry for the boy. But their love was stronger than money, so in the end uncle had to come to terms. During the study, Eugene joined the "Community". For taking part in public activities, Chykalenko was sentenced to five years in police custody in Pereshory. There, Eugene was engaged in farming, introduced the most modern agrarian innovations. After that, he wanted to teach peasants new knowledge in the field of agriculture.

In 1884, Chykalenko moved to Odessa with his family. There he actively participated in public activities. He was a well-known philanthropist, gave money to the publication of the Russian-Ukrainian dictionary by Umanets-Komarov, gave the award for the best written history of Ukraine and paid royalties for Ukrainian works printed in the “Kievan old town”, was the main founder of the Academic House in Lviv , Encouraged youth to go to study to Lviv ...

In 1897, the first book of Chykalenko "A Conversation on Agriculture" was published in Odessa. Black pairs, fruit changes and sown grass ", which had a tremendous success with the peasantry. For the period from 1897 to 1918, six books were published for peasants.

Yevhen Chykalenko was fond of the Ukrainian national movement "not only to the depths of the soul, but also to the depths of the pockets ", as he himself said. And he really did as much as he could. When Mykhailo Hrushevskyi called for the donation of money for the construction of the Academic House in Lviv, Yevhen Chykalenko allocated 25 thousand rubles, subject to the provision of rooms there primarily to students from the Dnieper Ukraine. For this, grateful students on on the 8th of December, 1930, opened a memorial plaque on the wall of the institution with the inscription: "For the eternal memory of a great citizen of Yevhen Chykalenko, the founder of this House. - Ukrainian Students. 7.XI.1930. "

In 1905, Yevgeny Chykalenko decided to publish the daily newspaper of Ukraine on the Dnieper first. At first, it was called "Public Opinion", and then - "Rada". He spent a lot of money on the publication, when there was no profit. But Yevgeny Chykalenko was convinced that Ukrainians should have their dailynewspaper. In order to finance the newspaper, it was necessary to sell part of the land in Pereshory. The magazine was published before the beginning of the First World War.

In autumn 1914, because of the threat of arrest, Chykalenko traveled to Finland. He returned to Kiev in 1917, he was even offered to head the Central Rada - but he refused because of bad health. In 1919 Eugene moved to Galicia, and from there he was interned by Poles. From 1920 he was in Austria, and in 1925 he moved to Czechoslovakia, where he worked as the Chairman of the Terminology Commission at the Ukrainian Academy of Economics in Poděbrady. In exile he lived in extreme poverty. The Ukrainian New York newspaper “Svoboda” even announced the collection of funds for its treatment. He died in 1929 in the Czech Republic, having ordered to dispel his ashes in his native village of Pereshory.

"Although the Ukrainian people lost much of their ancient name and many of his talented sons enriched the treasuries of their neighbors, they nevertheless approached the time when the Ukrainian people will rank the same position as other cultural nations of the world under their new name" Ukrainians " "- wrote Eugene Chykalenko. The eternal memory to this man who believed and loved Ukraine above all else.