Taras Shevchenko, a son of Ukraine cultivated by Saint-Petersburg

In honor of the 202nd anniversary of Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861), celebrated on March 9, the Presidential Library highlights a collection of unique books about the life of the outstanding poet and humanist.

A son of Ukraine cultivated by Russia - his legacy is equally appreciated by the two Slavic peoples. Two years ago, the Presidential Library offered to make a collection asking to provide it with materials for it. The request was entertained by representatives of the Russian and Ukrainian intelligentsia, who provided a lot of rare documents and publications in Russian and Ukrainian languages. Books for digitization were received from the Russian State Historical Archive, Russian State Library, State Public Historical Library of Russia, Empress Maria Feodorovna Fundamental Library of the Herzen State University, and National Historical Library of Ukraine, Dnepropetrovsk Regional Universal Research Library, and others.

Books from the collection of the Presidential Library fully recreate a short but eventful life of a Little Russian poet. Taras Shevchenko was born in the village of Morintsy, Kiev province in the family of a serf. He lost his parents when he was small, learned by experience the homelessness of an orphan in a situation of complete serfdom. At the age of 14, the teenager found himself in the house of a landowner P. Engelhardt. A year later he was a servant in his house in Vilna, and from 1831 - in St. Petersburg.

The electronic copy of N. Ashenov’s "Taras Shevchenko" issued in 1919, available at the Presidential Library, gives an idea of a hard life of a native of Ukraine:

"Misfortune, grief, tears, loneliness, abandonment, lack of understanding showered on him generously. Thus, he had an ordinary destiny of all the knights of freedom - prison, exile, whips and scorpions from His Imperial Majesty's Office. There were just few joyful and happy moments in the life of Taras Shevchenko."

But still they occurred, these moments, mainly related to the creative environment of St. Petersburg. Having noticed the boy's ability in drawing, landlord Engelhardt decided to make him a domestic painter, so he sent him to the artists to study painting. There Shevchenko met K. Bryullov, V. Grigorovich, V. Zhukovsky, who decided to liberate the young artist from serfdom.

In 1838, the portrait of Zhukovsky written by Bryullov, was raffled off for 2500 rubles. This sum was paid to Engelhardt to ransom Shevchenko. The same year he entered the Academy of Arts, where he became a disciple and friend of Bryullov. He studied a lot and avidly, read, studied art, all styles of which were richly available in the "brilliant St. Petersburg."

"His teacher Karl Bryullov, romanticist in painting, admirer of exaggerated and rhetorical gesture, no doubt, influenced the formation of the original artistic taste of Shevchenko, wrote Starchakov in his essay of 1934, "Taras Shevchenko" digitized by the Presidential Library.

- In his diary Shevchenko said: "What did I do in this sanctuary? In front of his wondrous works, I meditated and nurtured in my heart my blind Kobzar and bloodthirsty "Haidamaka." In the shadow of his elegant, luxurious studio... in front of me stretched a steppe dotted with the mounds, in front of me appeared my beautiful, poor Ukraine in all its immaculate melancholic beauty."

In 1840, Shevchenko’s first Ukrainian collection of poems, "Kobzar" was published in St. Petersburg. It opened a new era in the history of Ukrainian literature. If a village clerk, who taught Taras literacy, could only imagine what a raging literary success would be the publication of his pupil’s works!

"Shevchenko was for certain a rustic poet. And because of this he was not immediately appreciated by critics, but was immediately appreciated by people, says the electronic copy of Zoshchenko’s "Taras Shevchenko" published in 1939. His first book, "Kobzar" made a great impression on readers, it was so strong, deafening, and extremely effective. <...> Critic Dobrolyubov was one of the few critics whose brilliant mind understood Shevchenko: "Taras Shevchenko is a completely popular poet, the one that we don’t have here."

In 1848, Shevchenko, as a painter, joined an expedition to survey the Aral Sea, where he drew a lot and created 350 watercolors of landscapes and portraits. Denounced by one of the officers, the poet was arrested in Orenburg as a member of a secret political society. He was then sent to Orsk fortress and imprisoned in the dungeon.

Later, he was prohibited from entering both capitals. Friends obtained permission for him to live in St. Petersburg, and on arriving there, he found himself in the spotlight, became acquainted with the members of "Contemporary", with a number of Russian and Polish revolutionary democrats. In 1860, the Academy of Arts Council awarded him the title of academician of engraving. A year later, he died in St. Petersburg, at the age of 47, seriously ill. In his "Testament" he wrote: "When I die, bury me in my dear Ukraine..."

Taras Shevchenko was first buried in the Smolensk cemetery of St. Petersburg; later the coffin with his ashes was transferred to the Ukraine and buried high above the Dnieper, on the mountain near Kanev, since then known as Taras Mount.