Taras Shevchenko was a Ukrainian poet and artist born in 1814 in the Russian Empire. He is considered the founder of modern Ukrainian literature. As a serf, he was apprenticed as a painter and eventually gained his freedom. He published his first collection of poems in 1840 which helped establish Ukrainian as a literary language. However, he was later exiled for his nationalist views and banned from writing until 1857. Shevchenko died in 1861 and is revered in Ukraine as an important figure in their history and culture. He is commemorated through many monuments and institutions throughout Ukraine and former Soviet states.

1. Prepared by:
Vdovkina Sveta
pupil of 10 “B” form

2.  Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (Ukrainian:
нко, Taras
Hryhorovych Shevchenko; March 9 [O.S.
February 25] 1814 – March 10 [O.S. February
26] 1861) was a Ukrainian poet and artist.
He is also known under the name Kobzar
after his most famous literary work, a
collection of poems entitled Kobzar. His
literary heritage is regarded to be the
foundation of modern Ukrainian literature
and, to a large extent, the modern
Ukrainian language. Shevchenko is also
known for many masterpieces as a painter
and an illustrator

3. 
Born into a serf peasant family of Hryhoriy
Ivanovych Shevchenko (1782? – 1825) and
Kateryna Yakymivna Shevchenko (Boiko)
(1782? – August 6, 1823) of Cossack descent
in the village of Moryntsi, of Kyiv
Governorate of the Russian Empire (now in
Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine) Shevchenko grew
up in the neighboring village of Kyrylivka
that today carries the name Shevchenkove.
The Shevchenko family moved to Kyrylivka
soon after the birth of Taras. Two years later
in Kerelivka, Taras's sister Yaryna was born.
In the fall of 1822 Taras started to take some
grammar classes at a local Dyak. On
September 1, 1823 Taras' mother passed away.
A month later his father married Oksana
Tereshchenko. Tereshchenko already had
three children. In 1824 Taras, along with his
father, became a traveling merchant
(chumak). At the age of eleven Taras became
an orphan when, in the spring of 1825, his
father died a serf in corvée.

4.  Newly arrived in Kyiv as an
apprentice, Taras went to work for
Dyak Bohorsky. Soon tired of
enduring Bohorsky's
mistreatment, Shevchenko ran
away to seek out a painting
master in the surrounding
villages. For several days he
worked for Deacon Yefrem in
Lysianka, later in other places
around in southern Kyiv
Governorate. In 1827 Shevchenko
herded community sheeps near
his village. He then meets Oksana
Kovalenko, a childhood friend,
whom Shevchenko mentions in
his works on multiple occasions.
Shevchenko went as a household
servant with his Russian aristocrat
lord Pavel Engelhardt to Vilnius
(1828–31) and then to Saint
Petersburg.

5.  "Engelhardt noticed
Shevchenko's artistic talent, and
apprenticed him in Vilnius to
Jan Rustem, then in Saint
Petersburg to Vasiliy Shiriaev for
four years... There he met the
Ukrainian artist Ivan Soshenko,
who introduced him to other
compatriots such as Yevhen
Hrebinka and Vasyl
Hryhorovych, and to the Russian
painter Alexey Venetsianov.
Through these men Shevchenko
also met the famous painter and
professor Karl Briullov, who
donated his portrait of the
Russian poet Vasily Zhukovsky
as a lottery prize, whose
proceeds were used to buy
Shevchenko's freedom on May 5,
1838.

6. 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: "[Kobzar]
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".


7. 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
Mykyta Haidai and in 1843 he completed the
drama Nazar Stodolia.
 While residing in Saint Petersburg,
Shevchenko made three trips to the regions
of Ukraine, in 1843, 1845, and 1846. The
difficult conditions under which his
countrymen lived had a profound impact on
the poet-painter. Shevchenko visited his still
enserfed siblings and other relatives, met
with prominent Ukrainian writers and
intellectuals such as: Yevhen Hrebinka,
Panteleimon Kulish, and Mykhaylo
Maksymovych, and was befriended by the
princely Repnin family especially Varvara
Repnina.
 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.


8. 
On March 22, 1845, the Council of the Academy of Arts granted Shevchenko the title of
an artist. He again travelled to Ukraine where he met historian Nikolay Kostomarov and
other members of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, a Pan-Slavist political
society dedicated to the political liberalization of the Empire and transforming it into a
federation-like polity of Slavic nations. Upon the society's suppression by the
authorities, Shevchenko was arrested along with other members on April 5, 1847.
Although he probably was not an official member of the Brotherhood, during the search
his poem "The Dream" ("Son") was found. This poem attacked Slavophilism, personally
attacked Emperor Nicholas I and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, and therefore was
considered extremely inflammatory, and of all the members of the dismantled society
Shevchenko was punished most severely. The Tsar was about to pardon Shevchenko,
since literature was not as bad as violent opposition, which he also faced (Decembrist
uprising etc.). Then, however, Tsar Nicholas read Shevchenko's poem, "The 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 whilst 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?"

9.  Shevchenko was imprisoned in Saint
Petersburg. He was exiled as a private
with the Russian military Orenburg
garrison at Orsk, near the Ural
Mountains. Tsar Nicholas I,
confirming his sentence, added to it,
"Under the strictest surveillance,
without the right to write or paint."
 With the exception of some short
periods during his exile, the
enforcement of the Tsar's ban on his
creative work was lax. The poet
produced several drawings and
sketches as well as writings while
serving and traveling on assignment
(in the capacity of a military sketch
painter, the idea put forward by fellow
serviceman Bronisław Zaleski) in the
Ural regions and areas on modern
Kazakhstan.

10.  But 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 ordered to
Nizhniy Novgorod. In May
1859, Shevchenko got
permission to return to his
native Ukraine. He intended
to buy a plot of land not far
from the village of Pekariv. In
July, he was arrested on a
charge of blasphemy, but was
released and ordered to return
to St. Petersburg.

11.  Taras Shevchenko 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. Shevchenko died in Saint Petersburg on March 10,
1861, the day after his 47th birthday.
 He was first buried at the Smolensk Cemetery in Saint
Petersburg. However, fulfilling Shevchenko's wish, 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 where buried on May 8 on Chernecha Hill (Monk's Hill;
now Taras Hill) by the Dnieper River near Kaniv.[1] 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 Emancipation of Serfs was announced. His
works and life are revered by Ukrainians and his impact on
Ukrainian literature is immense.

12.  Shevchenko
entered the
Academy of Fine
Arts in St
Petersburg, there
he became a
student of
Bryullov.
Shevchenko was
awarded three
silver medals for
his works and
later he had
become an
Academician in
engraving.

13.  There are many monuments to Shevchenko
throughout Ukraine, most notably at his memorial in
Kaniv and in the center of Kyiv, just across from the
Kyiv University that bears his name. The Kyiv Metro
station, Tarasa Shevchenka, is also dedicated to
Shevchenko. Among other notable monuments to the
poet located throughout Ukraine are the ones in
Kharkiv (in front of the Shevchenko Park.
Kharkiv|Shevchenko Park), Lviv, Luhansk and many
others.

14.  Outside of Ukraine, monuments to Shevchenko have
been put up in several locations of the former USSR
associated with his legacy, both in the Soviet and the
post-Soviet times. The modern monument in Saint
Petersburg was erected on December 22, 2000, but
the first monument (pictured) was built in the city in
1918 on the order of Lenin shortly after the Great
Russian Revolution.

15.  There is also a monument located next to the
Shevchenko museum at the square that bears the
poet's name in Orsk, Russia (the location of the
military garrison where the poet served) where
there are also a street, a library and the Orsk
Pedagogical Institute|Pedagogical Institute named
to the poet.

16.  There are Shevchenko monuments and museums in
the cities of Kazakhstan where he was later transferred
by the military: Aqtau (the city was named
Shevchenko between 1964 and 1992) and nearby Fort
Shevchenko (renamed from Fort Alexandrovsky in
1939), and a street after him in Vilnius, where he also
lived. In upstate New York there is a small country
road name after Schevchanko as well. There is no
visible monument in the vicinity, just a small road.

17.  After Ukraine gained its
independence in the wake
of the 1991 Soviet Collapse,
some Ukrainian cities
replaced their statues of
Lenin with statues of Taras
Shevchenko and in some
locations that lacked
streets named to him, local
authorities renamed the
streets or squares to
Shevchenko. There is also a
bilingual Taras Sevchenko
high school in Sighetu
Marmatiei, Romania.

18.  A two-tonne bronze
statue of Shevchenko,
located in a memorial
park outside of Oakville,
Ontario was discovered
stolen in December
2006. It was taken for
scrap metal; the head
was recovered in a
damaged state, but the
statue was not
repairable. The head is
on exhibit at the Taras
Shevchenko Museum &
Memorial Park
Foundation in Toronto.

19.  A Taras Shevchenko Museum
& Memorial Park Foundation
is located in Toronto, Canada.
A video tour of the museum
was created in March 2010.
Among other exhibits, the
video tour includes footage of
Shevchenko's death mask.
 There is a statue of Taras
Shevchenko at Ukraine
Square in Curitiba, Brazil.

20.  When he was released in
1857 it was forbidden to
him to live in Ukraine.
He moved to St
Petersburg but on March
10, 1861 the great poet
died of heart disease. He
was buried in St
Petersburg, but his
friends wanted to fulfill
the poet’s wish that he
had expressed in his
“Testament” and they
transferred his remains to
the Chernecha Hill near
Kanev, in Ukraine.

21.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taras_Shevchenko
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