1814–1861
Taras Shevchenko
National poet of Ukraine
The national poet of Ukraine, an artist and thinker. His work laid the foundations of modern Ukrainian literature and the literary language, and shaped Ukrainians’ national consciousness.
Key accomplishments
- The poetry collection Kobzar (1840), a milestone of modern Ukrainian literature
- The poems Haidamaky, The Caucasus, The Dream and “Testament”
- Academician of engraving at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1860)
- More than 800 paintings and drawings
Who he was
Taras Shevchenko was born into a family of serfs in the village of Moryntsi in the Kyiv region and was orphaned early. His talent for drawing brought him to Saint Petersburg, where in 1838 artists bought his freedom from serfdom: Karl Bryullov painted a portrait of Vasily Zhukovsky, which was raffled in a lottery, and the 2,500 rubles it raised paid for his release. He later studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts.
In 1840 Kobzar came out, a collection that became a milestone of modern Ukrainian literature. For his part in the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius and for poems that mocked imperial power, Shevchenko was exiled in 1847 as a soldier to the Separate Orenburg Corps (Orsk Fortress, later the Novopetrovsk Fortification) and forbidden to write or draw. He was released from exile in 1857, and a few years later he died in Saint Petersburg. He was buried on Chernecha Hill in Kaniv.
Why it matters today
Shevchenko made Ukrainian a language of great literature and put into words the ideas on which Ukrainian national consciousness grew: freedom, dignity and resistance to oppression. His “Testament” has been translated into more than 60 languages, and his words “Fight on, and you will prevail!” still ring out today.
Interesting facts
- He spent most of his life outside Ukraine, in Saint Petersburg and in exile.
