Taras Shevchenko
Ukraine’s National Hero
Taras Shevchenko
Taras Shevchenko, artist, poet, and activist of the Ukrainian national movement has inspired generations of Ukrainians. He is the most important figure in Ukrainian language and culture. His writings formed the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature, and he is considered the founder of the modern written Ukrainian language. His most famous monument, among many, stands in Shevchenko Park, facing Shevchenko National University in Kyiv.
Portrait of Taras Shevchenko
He was born a serf on March 9, 1814, and orphaned at age 11. From an early age he demonstrated skill as an artist and poet. He was often severely punished for these activities as they distracted him from his labors as a serf for several successive aristocratic families in Ukraine, Vilnius, and St. Petersburg. Nonetheless, he continued his painting and poetry. Artist, Karl Briulov, donated the proceeds of one of his paintings, enabling Shevchenko to buy his freedom from serfdom in 1838.
Statue of Taras Shevchenko
After his acceptance as a student into the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, Shevchenko, began taking trips to Ukraine visiting his still enserfed siblings. The difficult conditions of the Ukrainian peasantry had a profound effect on Shevchenko. His paintings and poetry reflected the hardships endured by Ukrainians under serfdom and the hegemony of the Russian empire which repressed Ukrainian language and cultural identity. His call was for recognition of Ukrainian national state and Ukrainian language and culture.
In 1847, Shevchenko was arrested by order or Tsar Nicholas I, and eventually served nine years in the Russian military and harsh labor camps. He was released in 1858. The hardships he endured weakened his health and eventually led to his early death in 1861 at the age of 47. He died seven days before the Tsar Alexander ll’s 1861 decree of the emancipation of the serfs.
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
In his early writings and the writings before his death, Shevchenko’s themes focused on Ukrainian cultural life, and Russian imperialism. In his poem “The Caucasus”, he writes about the brutal 50-year war Russia waged to subjugate the region and absorb it into the Russian Empire. Themes in this work uncannily reflect Putin’s argument of conquest in the name of progress, civilization, and security under the dominance of the Russian state. These words are inspiring Ukrainians today to resist and defend a democratic homeland.
Fight---and you’ll be victorious
God is helping you!
On your side is justice, on your side is glory,
And holy liberty
-Taras Shevchenko
