Taras Shevchenko

Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko, ; (March 9, 1814 - March 10, 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, also an artist and a humanist. His literary heritage is regarded to be a foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and, to a large extent, of modern Ukrainian language. Shevchenko also wrote in Russian and left several masterpiece paintings.

Life

Born into a serf family in the village of Moryntsi, of Kiev guberniya (then a part of the Russian Empire), Shevchenko was orphaned at the age of eleven. As a child he exhibited talent as a painter, and while accompaning his owner P. Engelhardt in trips to Vilnius, and later Saint Petersburg, he received training in painting. His talents were noticed by influential Russian painters who intervened to gain him freedom from serfdom. The famous Russian painter Karl Briullov donated a portrait of his friend Russian poet Vasily Zhukovsky as a lottery prize, whose proceeds were used to buy Shevchenko's freedom from serfdom on May 5, 1838.

First Successes

In the same year Shevchenko was accepted as a student into the Academy of Arts in the workshop of Karl Briullov. The next year he became a resident student at the Association for the Encouragement of Artists. At the annual examinations at the Imperial Academy of Arts, Shevchenko was given a Silver Medal for a landscape. In 1840 he again received the Silver Medal, this time for his first oil painting, The Beggar Boy Giving Bread to a Dog.

He began writing poetry while he was a serf and in 1840 his first collection of poetry, Kobzar, was published. Ivan Franko, the renowned Ukrainian poet in the generation after Shevchenko, had this to say of the compilation: "^* immediately revealed, as it were, a new world of poetry. It burst forth like a spring of clear, cold water, and sparkled with a clarity, breadth and elegance of artistic expression not previously known in Ukrainian writing."

In 1841 the epic poem Haidamaky was released. In September 1841 Shevchenko was awarded his third Silver Medal for The Gypsy Fortune Teller. Shevchenko also wrote plays. In 1842 he released a part of the tragedy Nykyta Hayday and in 1843 he completed the drama Nazar Stodolya. After these successes Shevchenko traveled to Ukraine where he saw the difficult conditions under which his compatriots lived.

Exile

On March 22, 1845, the Council of the Academy of Arts decided to grant Shevchenko the title of artist. He again travelled to Ukraine where he met the historian, Mykola Kostomarov and other members of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, a secret political society, created to advocate a wide set of political reforms in the Russian Empire. Upon the society's suppression by the authorities, Shevchenko was arrested along with other members on April 5, 1847. Although he probably wasn't an official member of the Brotherhood, during the search his poem "The Dream" ("Son") was found. This poem criticized imperial rule and therefore was considered extremely dangerous. Shevchenko was sent to prison in St. Petersburg. He was exiled as a private with the Russian military at Orenburg in far reaches of the Russian Empire. Tsar Nicholas I, confirming his sentence, wrote, "Under the strictest surveillance, with a ban on writing and painting." It was not until 1857 that Shevchenko finally returned from exile after receiving a pardon, though he was not permitted to return to St. Petersburg but was exiled to Nizhniy Novgorod. In May, 1859, Shevchenko got permission to go to Ukraine. He intended to buy a plot of land not far from the village of Pekariv and settle in Ukraine. In July he was arrested on a charge of blasphemy, but was released and ordered to return to St. Petersburg.

Death of Shevchenko

Taras Sevchenko spent the last years of his life working on new poetry, paintings, and engravings, as well as editing his older works. But after his difficult years in exile his final illness proved too much, and Shevchenko died in St. Petersburg on March 10, 1861. He was first buried at the Smolensk Cemetery in St. Petersburg. However, fulfilling Shevchenko's wish, as expressed in his poem "Testament" (Zapovit), to be buried in Ukraine, his friends arranged to transfer his remains by train to Moscow and then by horse-drawn wagon to his native land. Shevchenko's remains were buried on May 8 on Chernecha Hora (Monk's Hill) (now Tarasova Hora or Taras' Hill) by the Dnieper river near Kaniv. A tall mound was erected over his grave, now a memorial.

Dogged by terrible misfortune in love and life, the poet died seven days before the Emancipation of Serfs was announced. His works and life are revered by Ukrainians and his impact on Ukrainian literature is immense.

Heritage and legacy

There are many monuments to Shevchenko throughout Ukraine, most notably at his memorial in Kaniv and in the center of Kiev, just across the Kiev University that bears his name. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukrainian cities replaced their statues of Lenin with statues of Taras Shevchenko. Other monuments to Shevchenko have been and are being built in many countries, including most of the ex-Soviet republics. Under initiative of local Ukrainian diasporas, there are several memorial societies and monuments to him throughout Canada and the United States, most notably a monument in Washington, D.C., near Dupont Circle at 23rd and P Streets, NW. In Paris a Shevchenko square is located in the heart of the central Saint-Germain-des-Prés district.

There is also a monument of him in Kharkiv, Ukraine in front of Shevchenko park, one of the largest parks in the world.

The city of Aktau in Kazakhstan was named Shevchenko from 1964 until Kazakhstan's independence in 1992.

Example of poetry

"Testament" (Zapovit’)

When I die, bury
Me in a grave,
Among the wide steppes,
In my beloved Ukraine,
So that the wide-brimmed plains,
And the Dnieper¹, and steep slopes
There could be seen, could be heard,
How the wailing wail.
When from Ukraine is carried
Into the blue sea
The blood of the enemy. . . then I
And the plains and hills—
Will drop everything and bow
To God Himself
Praying. . . until then
God I do not know.
Bury me and arise,
Break your chains,
And with the enemy's evil blood
Baptize freedom.
And myself in a big family,
In a family free, new,
Don't forget to remember
With a pleasant quiet word.

24 December 1845, Pereyaslav

¹ The Dnieper River, the biggest river in Ukraine, a national symbol

Trivia

English pop group New Order released a live video in 1983 entitled "Taras Shevchenko" (see New Order discography). The concert was recorded in the Ukrainian National Home in New York City, and featured the famous self-portrait (as shown above) on its cover.

References

External links

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Taras Shevchenko