Taras Shevchenko
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Taras Hryhorovych ShevchenkoTemplate:Efn (Template:Langx; Template:Langx; 9 March 1814 – 10 March 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, folklorist, and ethnographer. He wrote poetry in Ukrainian and prose (nine novellas, a diary, and his autobiography) in Russian.
Born to a poor family of serfs during the period of Russian rule over Ukraine, in his youth Shevchenko demonstrated a talent for art and become a fellow of the Imperial Academy in St. Petersburg. After his return to Ukraine, he joined the emerging national movement. Exiled to Central Asia due to his association with the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Shevchenko continued to create art and poetry despite prohibitions, and his figure attained fame among the liberal-minded circles of the Russian Empire. Freed from exile after the onset of liberal reforms of Alexander II, Shevchenko was prohibited from settling in Ukraine and died in Saint Petersburg.
His literary heritage, in particular the poetry collection Kobzar, is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and to some degree also of the modern Ukrainian language. The significance of Shevchenko's creative genius for the Ukrainian and wider Slavic culture has led some to compare his figure to that of Robert Burns.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Life
Childhood and youth
Taras Shevchenko was born on Template:OldStyleDateTemplate:Efn in the village of Moryntsi, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire,<ref name="Ant">Template:Cite web</ref> about 20 years after the third partition of Poland wherein the territory of Ukraine where Shevchenko was born was annexed by Imperial Russia. He was the third child after his sister Kateryna and brother Mykyta; his younger siblings were a brother, Yosyp, and a sister, Maria, who was born blind.Template:Sfn His parents were Kateryna Shevchenko (née Boiko)Template:Sfn and Hryhoriy Ivanovych Shevchenko, former subjects of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth who became serf peasants, working the land owned by Template:Ill, a nephew of the Russian statesman Grigory Potemkin.Template:Sfn According to Shevchenko's biographer Oleksandr Konysky, Hryhoriy's original surname had been Hrushivskyi (Template:Langx), and the name Shevchenko (denoting descent from a shoemaker, Template:Langx, Shvets) was applied to the family due to one of their ancestors being active in the trade. Hryhoriy and his father themselves worked as wheelwrights.<ref>Template:Cite journalLink</ref>
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In 1816, the family moved to Kyrylivka (modern Template:Ill), another village owned by Engelhardt, where Taras's father and grandfather had been born. The boy grew up in the village.Template:Sfn Once, he went looking for "the pillars that prop up the sky" and got lost. Chumaks (travelling merchants) who met the boy took him back to the village.Template:Sfn From 1822, Shevchenko was sent to a school, where he was taught to read and write. His teacher was the precentor of the village church, whose nickname was "Sovhyr". He was a harsh disciplinarian, who had a tradition of birching the children in his class every Saturday.Template:Sfn
On Template:OldStyleDate Kateryna Shevchenko died.Template:Sfn The widowed Hryhoriy, left to look after six children aged from thirteen to four, had little choice but to remarry. He was married to Oksana Tereshchenko, a widow from Moryntsi, who had three children of her own.Template:Sfn
When Hryhoriy Shevchenko became a chumak, Taras travelled twice with his father and his older brother away from his neighbourhood and, for the first time in his life, on to the open steppe.Template:Sfn Hryhoriy died from a chill on Template:OldStyleDate,Template:Sfn and for a period the children's stepmother ruled the family, treating Taras and those siblings still at the family home with great cruelty, until she was expelled by their grandfather, Ivan Shevchenko. For a period Taras lived with his grandfather and his father's brother Pavlo, and was made to work as a swineherd and a groom's assistant.Template:Sfn At the age of 12, he left home to work as a student assistant and a servant for a drunkard named Bohorsky, who had replaced Sovhyr as the village precentor and teacher and was even more violent than his predecessor. One of Shevchenko's duties was to read psalms over the dead. He was treated still more violently by Bohorsky once the boy's stepmother became his mistress.Template:Sfn
In February 1827, the 13-year-old Shevchenko escaped from the village and worked for a few days for a deacon in Lysianka, before moving on to Tarasivka. Frustrated in his attempts to become an artist, he returned to his home village.Template:Sfn At around this time, Shevchenko experienced his first love, Template:Ill, as confirmed by a dedication he later wrote in the poem Template:Ill:Template:Sfn
There is evidence that during this period of his life, Shevchenko was trained by his older brother Mykola to become a wheelwright, and that he also lived with and worked for the family of Hryhoriy Koshytsia, the Kyrylivka priest, who treated Taras well. His duties included driving the priest's son to school, and transporting fruit to markets in Burty and Shpola.Template:Sfn
Life as a servant of Pavel Engelhardt
In 1828, Engelhardt died, and one of his sons, Template:Ill, became the Shevchenko family's new landlord. Taras Shevchenko, then aged 14, was trained to become a kitchen servant and the Template:Lang (court servant) of his new master at the Vilshana estates.Template:Sfn There he saw for the first time the luxuries of the Russian nobility.Template:Sfn
In 1829, Shevchenko was part of Engelhardt's retinue that travelled to Warsaw, where his regiment was based.Template:Sfn By the end of 1829 they had reached Vilno (modern Vilnius). On Template:OldStyleDate, Engelhardt caught Shevchenko at night painting a portrait of the Cossack general Matvei Platov. He boxed the boy's ears and ordered him to be whipped.Template:Sfn When the party reached Warsaw, Engelhardt arranged for his servant to be apprenticed to a painter-decorator, who, recognising the boy's artistic talents, recommended he receive lessons from the Polish painter and professional artist, Franciszek Ksawery Lampi.Template:Sfn
When the November Uprising broke out in 1830, Engelhardt and his regiment were forced to leave Warsaw. His servants, including Shevchenko, were later expelled from the city, forced to leave Polish territory under armed guard, and then made their way to St. Petersburg. Upon arriving there, Shevchenko returned to the life of being a page-boy. His artistic training was delayed for a year,Template:Sfn after which he was permitted to study for four years with the painter Template:Ill, a man who proved to be much more cruel and controlling than his master in Warsaw.Template:Sfn The summer nights were light enough for Shevchenko to visit the city's Summer Garden, where he drew the statues.Template:Sfn
In his novel Artist, Shevchenko described that during the pre-academical period he painted such works as Apollo Belvedere, Fraklete, Heraclitus, Architectural barelief, and Mask of Fortune. He participated in the painting of the Bolshoi Theatre as an apprentice.Template:Sfn The composition Alexander of Macedon shows trust towards his doctor Philip was created for a contest of the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1830.Template:Sfn
Liberation from serfdom
During one of his copying sessions in the city's Summer Gardens, Shevchenko made the acquaintance of a young Ukrainian artist, Ivan Soshenko, a painter and a student of the Imperial Academy of Arts, who came from Bohuslav, close to Shevchenko's home village. Soshenko showed in an interest in Shevchenko's drawings, and recognised the young man's talent.<ref name="Ukr2">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He was allowed to receive drawing and watercolour painting lessons from Soshenko on weekends, and when he had spare time during the week. Shevchenko made such progress as a portraitist that Engelhardt asked him to portray several of his mistresses.Template:Sfn
Soshenko took Shevchenko to Saint Petersburg's art galleries, including the Hermitage.Template:Sfn He introduced him to other compatriots, such as the writer and poet Yevhen Hrebinka, the art historian Template:Ill, and the Russian painter Alexey Venetsianov.<ref name="Ant" /> Through these men, around June 1832, Shevchenko was introduced to the most fashionable painter of the day, the artist Karl Briullov.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Briullov took an interest in Shevchenko, praising his work and indicating a willingness to take him on as a student. However, as a serf, Shevchenko was ineligible to study under Briullov at the Academy, who requested his freedom from Engelhardt. The request was met with a refusal, which enraged Briullov.Template:Sfn
Engelhardt was persuaded to release his servant on condition that a fee of 2500 rubles was paid. To raise this sum, Briullov painted a portrait of the Russian poet Vasily Zhukovsky as a lottery prize for the imperial family; the winning lottery ticket was drawn by the tsarina.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Engelhardt signed the paperwork that released Shevchenko from serfdom on Template:OldStyleDate.Template:Sfn
Initial success (1838–1846)
Paintings and drawings
Template:Multiple image After he became a student of the Imperial Academy of Arts, with Briullov as his mentor, Shevchenko spent most of his time at the academy and in Briullov's studio.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Together they attended literary and musical evenings, and visited writers and artists. Shevchenko's social life enriched and expanded his horizons and stimulated his creativity.Template:Sfn His friends during this period included Template:Ill, a writer and officer of the Black Sea Cossack Host who was to become his friend for life,<ref name="Int3">Template:Cite web</ref> and the artist Template:Ill,Template:Sfn
From June to November 1838, Shevchenko's examination marks improved enough to allow him to join a compositional drawings class. An early drawing from this class, Template:Ill, was completed in December that year. The following month his work was recognised by the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, who agreed to pay him a monthly maintenance fee of 30 rubles a month.<ref name="Bnf1">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfn
In April 1839, Shevchenko was awarded a silver medal by the Council of the Academy.Template:Sfn He began to master the technique of oil painting, with Template:Ill being among his earliest attempts. From November, he became seriously ill with typhus.Template:Sfn That year, he received another silver medal, this time for his oil painting The Beggar Boy Giving Bread to a Dog.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In September 1841, the Academy of Arts awarded Shevchenko his third silver medal, for the painting Template:Ill. The following May, continual absenteeism from classes forced the Society for the Encouragement of Artists to exclude him from among its free boarders.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn To earn an income he produced book illustrations, such as for Nikolai Nadezhdin's story The Power of Will, Template:Ill's publication Ours, written off from nature by the Russians, an edition of Wolfgang Franz von Kobell's Galvanography (1843),Template:Sfn and a book by Nikolai Polevoy, Russian Generals (1845).Template:Sfn
Poetry
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At the end of 1839, Shevchenko met the sculptor and art teacher Ivan Martos, who showed great interest in his poems.Template:Dubious He offered to publish them, but Shevchenko did not immediately agree. Hrebinka took an active and direct part in the publication of Kobzar (1840); it was he who submitted the manuscript to the Template:Ill.Template:Sfn Kobzar sold out. It did not openly call for revolutionary actions, but it expressed a protest against social injustice and a desire for a free life.Template:Sfn
In March 1840, Hrebinka submitted the manuscript of the almanac Lastivka to the censors, which also included Shevchenko's "Prychynna" and the poems "Template:Ill" and "Template:Ill".Template:Sfn In 1841, Shevchenko paid for his epic poem Haidamaky.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The poem was met with sharp criticism by the literary critic Vissarion Belinsky; in the magazine Otechestvennye Zapiski he criticized Shevchenko's "inclination to romantic pompous ingenuity".Template:Sfn Other poems produced by Shevchenko during this period include "Template:Ill", "Template:Ill", and "Template:Ill".Template:Sfn
While residing in Saint Petersburg, Shevchenko made three trips to Ukraine: in 1843, 1845, and 1846. The difficult conditions Ukrainians endured had a profound impact on the poet-painter. Shevchenko visited his siblings, still enserfed, and other relatives. He met with prominent Ukrainian writers and intellectuals Yevhen Hrebinka, Panteleimon Kulish, and Mykhaylo Maksymovych, and was befriended by the princely Repnin family, especially Varvara, the daughter of Governor General of Ukraine.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In 1844, distressed by the condition of Ukrainian regions in the Russian Empire, Shevchenko decided to capture some of his homeland's historical ruins and cultural monuments in an album of etchings, which he called Picturesque Ukraine. Only the first six etchings were printed because of the lack of means to continue. An album of watercolors from historical places and pencil drawings was compiled in 1845.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</ref>
Plays
Shevchenko's play Blind Beauty, written Template:Circa, has not survived.Template:Sfn In 1842, he released a part of the tragedy Template:Lang and, in 1843 he completed the drama Template:Ill.
In the autumn of 1842, Shevchenko planned a sea trip to Sweden and Denmark, but due to illness, he returned home after reaching Revel (modern Tallinn).Template:Sfn
First trip to Ukraine
In May 1843, Shevchenko travelled to Ukraine, where he met as many intellectuals, poets, and artists as possible, including the future Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius member Vasyl Bilozersky.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn During his stay in Kyiv, Shevchenko sketched the city's historical sights and landscapes. After a month he went to Yahotyn, where he befriended the wealthy Repnin family.Template:Sfn In October 1843, he wrote his poem "Template:Ill", after visiting recent excavations of burial mounds that many Ukrainians considered to be symbolic of the heroic past of the Cossacks.Template:Sfn
Shevchenko planned to publish an album, Picturesque Ukraine, to consist of his annotated etchings of places and events connected with Ukraine and its past, and use the proceeds to buy his family their freedom. The Society for the Encouragement of Artists gave him 300 rubles to help produce Picturesque Ukraine,Template:Sfn but due to his poor planning and lack of business skills, few of the intended etchings with their accompanying text were published, and not enough money was generated from sales to fulfill his dream of buying his siblings' freedom.Template:Sfn
Exile
On 22 March 1845, the Council of the Academy of Arts granted Shevchenko the title of a non-classed artist. He again traveled to Ukraine, where he was appointed teacher of drawing at Kyiv University, and met historian Mykola Kostomarov and other members of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, a clandestine society also known as Ukrainian-Slavic society and dedicated to the political liberalization of the Empire and its transformation into a federation-like polity of Slavic nations.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Orlov report">Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1844, Shevchenko had written the poem Dream that described the social and national oppression of Ukrainians by the Russian upper classes.Template:Sfn In February, he arrived back in Saint Petersburg from Ukraine.Template:Sfn Copies of the poem were confiscated from the society's members and became one of the major issues of the scandal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Shevchenko was arrested together with the members of the society on 5 April 1847.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> Tsar Nicholas I read Shevchenko's poem, "Dream". Vissarion Belinsky wrote in his memoirs that Nicholas I, knowing Ukrainian very well, laughed and chuckled whilst reading the section about himself, but his mood quickly turned to bitter hatred when he read about his wife. Shevchenko had mocked her frumpy appearance and facial tics, which she had developed fearing the Decembrist uprising and its plans to kill her family. After reading this section the Tsar indignantly stated "I suppose he had reasons not to be on terms with me, but what has she done to deserve this?"<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In the official report of Orlov Shevchenko was accused of composing poetry in "Little-Russian language" (an archaic Russian name for the Ukrainian language) of outrageous content, instead of being grateful to be redeemed out of serfdom.<ref name="Orlov report"/> In the report, Orlov listed the crimes as advocating and inspiring Ukrainian nationalists, alleging enslavement and misfortune of Ukraine, glorifying the Hetman Administration (Cossack Hetmanate) and Cossack liberties and that he "with incredible audacity poured slander and bile on persons of Imperial House".<ref name="Orlov report"/>
While under investigation, Shevchenko was imprisoned in Saint Petersburg in casemates of the 3rd Department of Imperial Chancellery on Panteleimonovskaya Street (today Pestelia str., 9). After being convicted, he was exiled as a private to the Russian military garrison in Orenburg<ref name="Orlov report"/> at Orsk, near the Ural Mountains. Tsar Nicholas I personally confirmed his sentence,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and added to it, "Under the strictest surveillance, without the right to write<ref name="Orlov report"/> or paint." He was subsequently sent on a forced march from Saint Petersburg to Orenburg and Orsk.Template:Cn
The following year, 1848, he was assigned to undertake the first Russian naval expedition of the Aral Sea on the ship "Konstantin", under the command of Lieutenant Butakov. Although officially a common private, Shevchenko was effectively treated as an equal by the other members of the expedition. He was tasked to sketch various landscapes around the coast of the Aral Sea. After an 18-month voyage (1848–49), Shevchenko returned with his album of drawings and paintings to Orenburg. Most of those drawings were created for a detailed account of the expedition. Nevertheless, he created many unique works of art about the Aral Sea nature and Kazakhstan people at a time when Russian conquest of Central Asia had begun in the middle of the nineteenth century.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
He was then sent to one of the worst penal settlements, the remote fortress of Novopetrovsk at Mangyshlak Peninsula, where he spent seven terrible years. In 1851, at the suggestion of fellow serviceman Bronisław Zaleski, lieutenant colonel Mayevsky assigned him to the Mangyshlak (Karatau) geological expedition. In 1857, Shevchenko finally returned from exile after receiving amnesty from a new emperor, though he was not permitted to return to St. Petersburg and was forced to stay in Nizhniy Novgorod.Template:Cn
Shevchenko was eventually allowed to return to St. Petersburg. In the winter of 1858, he saw African-American Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge perform with his troupe. Using translators, the two became good friends over discussions of art and music and their shared experiences of oppression. Shevchenko drew Aldridge's portrait. Aldridge was later gifted a portrait of Shevchenko by Mikhail Mikeshin.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In May 1859, Shevchenko got permission to return to Ukraine. He intended to buy a plot of land close to the village of Pekari. In July, he was again arrested on a charge of blasphemy, but then released and ordered to return to St. Petersburg.
Death
Taras Shevchenko spent the last years of his life working on new poetry, paintings, and engravings, as well as editing his older works. He also created and financed the publication of a grammar book for Ukrainian children (Template:Ill). After difficult years in exile, however, illnesses took their toll upon him. Shevchenko died in Saint Petersburg on 10 March 1861, the day after his 47th birthday.
He was first buried at the Smolensk Cemetery in Saint Petersburg. His funeral in Saint Petersburg was attended by such greats of Russian literature as Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Saltykov-Shchedrin and Leskov.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, fulfilling Shevchenko's wish, expressed in his poem "Testament" ("Zapovit"), to be buried in Ukraine, his friends arranged the transfer of his remains by train to Moscow and then by horse-drawn wagon to his homeland. Shevchenko was re-buried on 8 May on the Chernecha hora (Monk's Hill; today Taras Hill) near the Dnipro River in Kaniv. A tall mound was erected over his grave, now a memorial part of the Kaniv Museum-Preserve.
Dogged by terrible misfortune in love and life, the poet died seven days before the 1861 emancipation of serfs was announced. His works and life are revered by Ukrainians throughout the world and his impact on Ukrainian literature is immense.
Poetic works
237 poems were written by Shevchenko but only 28 of these were published in the Russian Empire. Six others were published in the Austrian Empire over his lifetime.
Early writings
Shevchenko's early works continued the tradition of Ukrainian literature established during the period of its renaissance initiated by Ivan Kotliarevsky and Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko, who were the first authors to write in common Ukrainian speech and introduced topics of simple peasant life in their works. At the beginning of his literary career, Shevchenko remained under the influence of Russian and Polish Romantic literature, in particular Mickiewicz and Zhukovsky. However, already during that time the young author used numerous subjects and themes from Ukrainian folklore, best represented in ballads The Bewitched, The Poplar-tree and The Drowned.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Early works by Shevchenko are also deeply rooted in Ukrainian history: the anonymous History of Ruthenians was widely popular in Ukrainian lands during his time, and, according to Mykhailo Drahomanov, was only inferior to the Bible in the degree of its influence on the poet. In addition, many historical memories were learnt by Shevchenko from his immediate surroundings through oral tradition. The popular image of Zaporozhian Cossacks as defenders of Ukraine and its liberties is expressed in Shevchenko's poems Nalyvaiko, The Night of Taras, Hamalia, Ivan Pidkova and Haidamaky.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Template:Quote box In contrast to the idealized version of the past, in many of his early works Shevchenko expressed his profound sympathy for the sad conditions of serfdom experienced by his contemporaries in Ukraine. A special object of his compassion were women, especially young girls, who were the least protected from social injustice and arbitrariness of the landlords. This topic finds its expression in Shevchenko's poems Kateryna, Mariana the Nun, The Witch, The Waternymph, The Lily, The Princess, Petrus, Maryna, The Vagabond and The Servant.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Later period
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Shevchenko's 1845 visit to Ukraine was the first time he travelled to the part of the country which had long been ruled by the Hetmans, preserving its national aristocracy, many of whose members greeted him as their national poet. However, the social conditions in the area were no better than in the poet's native Polish-dominated lands, with Ukrainian landlords cooperating with the Russian government and enserfing their subjects in exchange for noble privileges, disregarding their country's history and national traditions and replacing them with simplistic materialism. This greatly differed from the idealized image of Ukraine existing in Shevchenko's imagination, and his compatriots' demoralization in face of humiliation by the dominant classes caused a great shock for the poet.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
As a result of his experiences and under the influences of ideas of social progress shared by some of his noble friends, Shevchenko radically changed his social worldview and abandoned his romantic view of Ukraine's Cossack past, adopting a more critical perspective on historical figures hailed by his contemporaries as heroes and recognizing their mistakes. From now on the poet stopped seeing Poland and the Jesuits as the main cause of Ukraine's misfortune, and recognized Russian Tsarism as the chief enemy of his people. His indignation at the tsarist regime was mainly concentrated on two figures: Peter I and Catherine II, who had destroyed the ancient liberties of Ukrainian people and introduced serfdom.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The most talented works written by the poet during this period are of political nature: The Dream, a work of satire, possibly inspired by Dante, depicting a fantastic picture of the Russian capital and accusing the monarchy of cruelty and deceit though the words of the poem's heroes; and The Caucasus, expressing the suffering of humans in their fight for the "divine fire" of liberty through the figure of Prometheus, personally blaming Tsar Nicholas I as a tyrant and predicting a future uprising against the oppression.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Another of Shevchenko's poems written in support of human liberty is The Heretic, depicting Jan Hus not only as a religious reformer, but also as a prophet of social equality. Religious topics take an important place in his work, demonstrated by the poems Neophytes and Maria. Shevchenko's appeal to human values led Alfred Jensen to describe him as a universal genius.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Translations
First translations of Shevchenko's poems were made into Russian language already during his lifetime. Since then his works have been translated into many languages. In 1911 a collection of Shevchenko's verse in English translation was issued by Ethel Lilian Voynich. Further English translations of his works appeared in 1922 and 1933 in Winnipeg, and in 1933-1936 in New York.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Translations of Shevchenko's poems by Vera Rich were commissioned for the centenary of his death in 1961 and published in London.
Example of poetry: Testament (Zapovit)
Shevchenko's 1845 Testament (Zapovit) has been translated into more than 150 languages and was set to music in the 1870s by Hordiy Hladky.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Template:Col-begin Template:Col-break Template:Div col <poem> Template:Lang </poem> Template:Div col end Template:Resize Template:Col-break Template:Div col <poem> Template:Lang </poem> Template:Div col end Template:Resize Template:Col-break Template:Div col <poem> Template:Lang </poem> Template:Div col end Template:Resize Template:Col-end
Political, philosophical and aesthetic views
Shevchenko has frequently been characterized as a representative of the interests of the Ukrainian peasantry of the mid-19th century, the era of the crisis of the feudal-serf system in Imperial Russia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He did not consider the existing social system to be unshakable, and was convinced that serfdom would be destroyed everywhere due to the development of the steam engine, a technique that would "devour the landlord-inquisitors", and that the most important role in a radical change in social life would be played by the masses.
While he tirelessly exposed the oppression of the Russian landowners and the Tsar, Shevchenko also shared pan-Slavist views and maintained contacts with Russian intelligentsia. His attitude can be demonstrated by his views of 17th-century Ukrainian Cossack leader Bohdan Khmelnitsky, whom he praised as the "glorious of the glorious", but simultaneously criticized for paving the way for the liquidation of Ukrainian autonomy by Moscow.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Shevchenko was also strongly influenced by ideas of the Polish revolutionary movement contained in the works of authors such as Adam Mickiewicz. Critical of the historical Polish attitude to Ukrainians in his early poems, later in his life Shevchenko started calling his compatriots for solidarity with Poles in their fight against the Tsarist regime.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Shevchenko advocated for the unification of the Slavic peoples on a democratic basis.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In his poem The Heretic, Shevchenko praised the struggle of Jan Hus (an early 15th-century Bohemian religious reformer) for the interests of ordinary people and the unity of the Slavs.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
According to Shevchenko's aesthetic views, which the poet expressed in his Diary,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the source of beauty is nature; any attempts to deviate from the eternal beauty of nature make the artist "a moral monster". Shevchenko strove for art that is both national (folkloric) and realistic, and for that he earned the praise of Chernyshevsky<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the Russian itinerant painter Ivan Kramskoi, who drew the poet's famous portrait after his death.Template:Cn Although he argued that the strength of the spirit cannot manifest itself without matter, he did not call his philosophical position "materialism", understanding by this word the vulgar materialism of contemporary thinkers such as Büchner, Moleschott and Vogt, which he rejected.
During the Soviet era Shevchenko was represented by official sources as not only a national prophet, but also as an ideologist of an oncoming social revolution. Soviet publications considered him to be "the founder of the revolutionary democratic trend in the history of Ukrainian social thought"<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and a utopian socialist, and ascribed the formation of his political, aesthetic and philosophical worldview to the influence of the ideas of Russian revolutionary democrats such as Herzen, Belinsky, Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky; it was suggested that he was associated with a group of Petrashevists (a Russian literary discussion group of progressive-minded intellectuals in St. Petersburg in the 1840s, which also included a young Fyodor Dostoyevsky and radical utopian socialists), who, in their plans for a peasant uprising, hoped to use his revolutionary activities in Ukraine. In order to prove Shevchenko's sympathy to revolutionary ideas, Soviet editors and commentators went so far as to falsify the texts of his poems, removing mentions of God and religion and making changes to parts of the text which didn't correspond to Communist doctrines.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Russian critic and editor of the Sovremennik literary, social and political magazine Nikolai Dobrolyubov described Shevchenko as "a poet of the people ... He came out of the people, lived with the people, and not only by thought, but by the circumstances of life, was closely and bloodily connected with the people."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On the other hand, during his visits to Ukraine Shevchenko frequented the society of local nobles, and some of his closest friends were aristocrats, including members of Lyzohub, and Tarnovsky families, Princess Repnin, Count de Balmain, as well as general Yakiv Kukharenko. According to Dmytro Doroshenko, while Shevchenko foresaw a future social revolution, he hoped to influence the ruling classes through his word in order for them to peacefully renounce their privileges and prevent bloodshed. His appeals were directed to the whole Ukrainian people and can be seen as an attempt to bring about a reconciliation between various social classes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Artwork
Of Shevchenko's known paintings and drawings, generally related to Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan, 835 works have survived as original works or as prints or copies made during his lifetime; 270 other works are lost. Shevchenko produced portraits, compositions on mythological, historical, and household themes, architectural drawings, and landscapes, using oils on canvas, watercolour, sepia, ink, and pencil, as well as etchings. Sketches and studies are known, which are of use in understanding Shevchenko's artistic style and methods. Few of his works are signed and even fewer are dated.Template:Citation required
Heritage and legacy
Template:Main Shevchenko's works of poetry exercised a powerful influence on Ukrainian literature and the whole Ukrainian national movement.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The list of Ukrainian authors inspired by Shevchenko includes Ivan Franko, Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky, Lesya Ukrainka and many others.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His poetry collection Kobzar has been the most widely read book in Ukraine and is frequently compared to a national Gospel. The day of the poet's death, which coincides with his birthday, has been celebrated as a national holiday. Thousands of schools, libraries, reading rooms and theatres are named after him not only in Ukraine, but also in the Ukrainian diaspora around the world. Shevchenko Scientific Society, which served as the most important scientific institution in Ukraine before the establishment of the National Academy of Sciences, also bears the poet's name.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
A great number of his pictures, drawings, and etchings preserved to this day testify to his unique artistic talent. He also experimented with photography and it is little known that Shevchenko may be considered to have pioneered the art of etching in the Russian Empire (in 1860 he was awarded the title of Academician in the Imperial Academy of Arts specifically for his achievements in etching.)<ref name=Zerkalo147>Template:Cite journal</ref> He inspired some of the protesters during the Euromaidan.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The context of his poem "Testament" (Zapovit) was given credit for "resonating" with Ukraine's ongoing struggle during the invasion from Russia in 2022.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
Monuments and memorials
Soon after the poet's death, Shevchenko's grave in Kaniv became an object of pilgrimage of the type ususally reserved for sanctuaries and saints.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The first statue of Shevchenko, unveiled in Romny in October 1918, was constructed in the waning days of the Hetmanate, but many such statues were built in the Soviet Union. Statues erected in Moscow in November 1918 and Petrograd in December 1918 were later demolished because they were made from inferior materials, and needed to be rebuilt.<ref name="Shu">Template:Cite news</ref> The monument erected in his name in Saint Petersburg was remade in 2000.<ref name="She1">Template:Cite web</ref> There are monuments to Shevchenko throughout Ukraine, such as at his memorials in Kaniv, in the centre of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, and Luhansk.<ref name="She1" /> After Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union, some statues of Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine were replaced by statues of Shevchenko.Template:Sfn
Monuments to Shevchenko have been put up in other countries. These include the granite Taras Shevchenko Memorial in Washington, D.C., a monument in Rome, Italy (next to the Basilica of St. Sophia), a monument in Soyuzivka, New York, statues in the Brazilian cities of Curitiba and Prudentópolis,<ref name="She1" /> in the Dječiji Park, Podgorica, Montenegro, and in the Croatian capital Zagreb.<ref name="Vid">Template:Cite web</ref> A bust of Shevchenko was unveiled at Shevchenko School in Vita, Manitoba, Canada in 1987 and another on 24 September 2010 in the Østre Anlæg Park in Copenhagen.<ref name="Cop">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Other commemorations
The town of Aktau in Kazakhstan was named after Shevchenko in the period of Soviet authority.
In 1957, the Ukrainian-American composer Template:Ill wrote the cantata Poslaniie, based on Shevchenko's poem of the same name.<ref name="Wyt">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfn
From 1966 to 1968 artist Hanna Veres made a series of ornamental textiles that she dedicated to Shevchenko. They were used to illustrate the 1971 edition of Kobzar.Template:Sfn
The Tarasa Shevchenka a station on Kyiv Metro is named after Shevchenko.
See also
- List of Paintings and Drawings by Taras Shevchenko
- Legacy of Taras Shevchenko
- List of things named after Taras Shevchenko
- List of Ukrainian-language poets
- List of Ukrainian literature translated into English
Notes
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References
Sources
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Further reading
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- Shevchenko, T. Complete collection of works in ten volumes. Kyiv: Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, 1951–1964.
- Victor Pogadaev. Taras Shevchenko: Jubli ke-200. – in: Pentas, Jil. 9, Bil. 1 – Mac 2014. Kuala Lumpur: Istana Budaya, 45–49 (in Malay)
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External links
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- Taras Shevchenko, Bard of Ukraine (biography by Dmytro Doroshenko, English translation, New York, 1936, 60pp)
- Information about the National Museum of Taras Shevchenko in Kyiv, from Museum Portal
- Taras Shevchenko Museum, Toronto, Canada (official website)
- Information about facsimile editions of works by Shevchenko designed by Volodymyr Yurchyshyn from the British Library
- Pages with broken file links
- Taras Shevchenko
- 1814 births
- 1861 deaths
- 19th-century farmers
- Academic staff of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
- Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius members
- Dramatists and playwrights from the Russian Empire
- Ethnographers from the Russian Empire
- Hromada (society) members
- Illustrators from the Russian Empire
- Members of the Imperial Academy of Arts
- Painters from the Russian Empire
- People from Cherkasy Oblast
- People from Kiev Governorate
- Poets from the Russian Empire
- Serfs
- Ukrainian anti-imperialists
- Ukrainian democracy activists
- Ukrainian nationalists
- Ukrainian people in the Russian Empire