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Taras Shevchenko
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Taras Shevchenko appears on the 100 Ukrainian Hryvnia bill. He was an artist and a poet who helped to give Ukrainians consciousness of their own nationality. His writings are said to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian Literature.
“Body and soul, I am the son and brother of our unfortunate nation.” - Taras Shevchenko
Taras Shevchenko was born on March 9, 1814 as a serf in Moryntsi in central Ukraine, which at the time was part of the Russian empire. He grew up nearby in a village called Kyrylivka. In 1822, Shevchenko started taking grammar classes. His mother died when he was nine years old in 1823. In1824, Taras and his father became traveling merchants. His father died two years later leaving Shevchenko an orphan.
He ran away to Kiev and for a time worked for Dyak Bohorsky. After getting tired of being mistreated by Bohorsky he ran away in search of a master painter in surrounding villages. After other jobs he became the servant of Pavel Engelhardt. Engelhardt noticed Shevchenko's artistic talent and took him to Vilnius, Lithuania in 1829. In Lithuania, Shevchenko studied under an experienced craftsman, Jan Rustem. When the Polish rebellion for national liberation from Russia began in 1830, Engelhardt went to St. Petersburg, Russia. The following year Shevchenko also went to St. Petersburg.
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In 1832, he received professional training when he was contracted to the master painter V. Shyryayev.
Because Shevchenko was a serf, some other writers and artists raised the 2500 rubles which were required to free him from his responsibilities as a serf. He was officially released from serfdom when he was 24 years old. In the same year, he was accepted as an external student in the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.
After being freed, Shevchenko was accepted as a resident student at the Association for the Encouragement of Artists. At the Academy of Arts' annual examinations he was given a silver medal for a landscape. The next year his first oil painting The Beggar Boy Giving Bread To A Dog got him another silver medal. His first and most famous collection of poetry, Kobzar, was published in 1840. The famous poet Ivan Franko said about Shevchenko's 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.”
While living in St. Petersburg, Shevchenko went to Ukraine three times, the first of which was in 1843. During his visit to Kiev, he painted several more paintings. He also visited his hometown, Kyrylivka, and saw his siblings for the first time in fourteen years. While visiting Ukraine, Shevchenko saw how his people were living under hard conditions and this became a new subject for his writings. During another trip to Ukraine, in 1845, he was commissioned to paint Ukrainian historical sites. During this same trip, he found and joined a political society called the Kyrylo-Methodius Society in Kiev. This society's goal was to politically liberalize Ukraine from the Russian empire and make Ukraine its own country.
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In 1847, when the Russian empire began arresting members of the Kyrylo-Methodius Society
began, Shevchenko was arrested for his involvement while on a ferry crossing the Dnipro River near Kiev. Shevchenko was the most severely punished of all the people under the investigation. He was arrested and imprisoned in St. Petersburg. While in prison, he wrote a collection of poems called In The Dungeon. He was exiled as a private in the Russian army and was stationed in Orenburg, Russia, which is near Kazakhstan. Later on he was stationed in Orsk, Russia which was even farther east from Ukraine. In both places he was banned to paint or write. However, this ban was not strictly enforced and he was able to make several sketches and writings during his exile. His creative works were found and he was arrested again and sent to another fort.
Finally, in 1857, he was released from exile and was given permission to go to St. Petersburg, but in Nizhniy Novgorod he found out that he was not allowed into St. Petersbug or Moscow. If he was found in either of these cities he would have been forced to return to Orenburg. He spent the winter in Nizhniy Novgorod. This was a productive winter for Shevchenko. He painted many portraits and other works of art and also transcribed poems from his exile and wrote new poems there.
He got permission to go to St. Petersburg and there he focused much of his attention on
engraving. In May 1859, he got permission to go to Ukraine. He planned to live near Pekariv in northern Ukraine, but he was arrested on the charge of blasphemy and was ordered to return to St. Petersburg, where he lived for the rest of his days. This last period of his life was the highest point in his creative development. The Academy of Arts gave him the official title “Academician of Engraving” in September 1860. Shevchenko started feeling increasingly ill and he died in his studio at the Academy of Arts on March 10, 1861, the day after his birthday. He was buried in the Smolensk Cemetery in St. Petersburg, Russia, but later his friends fulfilled his wish to be buried in Ukraine. He was reburied in Chernecha Hill (now called Taras Hill), on the bank of the Dnipro River between the Ukrainian cities of Cherkasy and Kiev.
Taras Shevchenko was one of Ukraine's cultural founding fathers. Knowing how devoted
Shevchenko was to help Ukraine become its own country, it's easy to see why he was put on the 100
Hryvnia bill.
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On the back of the 100 Ukrainian Hryvnia note appear several symbols of Ukraine including a Kobzar holding his Kobza instrument, The Dnipro River and Taras Hill which is near the city of Cherkasy.
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| Kobzar with his Kobza and a guide boy |
Kobzars were singers and musicians who played and sang religious songs for a living playing the musical instrument called the Kobza. To be an official Kobzar, the person had to be blind and had to go through an apprenticeship. Many people started training to be a Kobzar at a young age. There were even some songs that only qualified Kobzars were allowed to play and sing. Kobzars would go from town to town performing for families who would pay them to sing and play. The Kobzars would have children who were paid to guide them, because they were blind. Usually these children were orphans. Kobzars did have places to live and could marry like anyone else. If their children were blind they could also become Kobzars, but otherwise they would be just like regular people.
The instruments that Kobzars played were called Kobzas. Kobzas are similar to the Ukrainian national instrument, the Bandura. Kobzas are stringed instruments that are plucked by the fingers and belong to the lute family. Kobzas come in many variations with different numbers of strings. The name Kobza can also be used for many other stringed instruments.
Taras Hill is the grave site of the famous Ukrainian writer and artist Taras Shevchenko. This hill is located on the bank of the Dnipro River near Kaniv, Ukraine in the Cherkasy region. This place was a cave monastery in the 11th century and was a hospice for old and cripple Cossacks in the 16th century. The hill now part of a national park and nature reserve where there is an ancient forest. Near the hill is a memorial museum that has works of writing and art. Shevchenko said in his poem, The Testament, that he wanted to be buried in a hill. There are also many Ukrainian military commanders buried in this hill.
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| Our Family on "Glory Hill" |
The Dnipro River is the largest and most famous river in Ukraine. It is called Dnipro in Ukrainian, Dnieper in Russian and Dnjapro in Belorussian. It flows southward through Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and finally into the Black Sea. At its widest point, the Dnipro River is this over 21 miles wide and is approximately 1,350 miles in length from its beginning in Russia to its end in the Black Sea. On a trip to Cherkasy, we saw part of the Kremenchuk reservoir where the river is 4-5 miles wide. This river is important to the country's transportation. It also has many dams and hydroelectricity stations.
“Motherland” on “Glory Hill”
Cherkasy is the capital city of the Cherkasy region in central Ukraine. The city is located on the west side of the Dnipro River. This part of the river is known as the Kremenchuk reservoir. This area was also important to the Cossacks. Cherkassy is the cultural, educational and industrial center of the Cherkasy region. We noticed that there was much culture and education in Cherkasy. There are TV stations, radio stations and newspapers from Cherkasy. This city has large monument called “Motherland” located on “Glory Hill” on the bank of the Dnipro River. This city has seasonal sculpture festivals. In the summer festival, sculptures are made of wood, in the autumn festival they're made of stone and in the winter festival they're made of ice. After the wooden sculptures are made in the summer festival the sculptures are put in parks. We were at a park in Cherkassy that had several wooden sculptures, probably most of them from the summer sculpture festival. This city also has a biking festival attended by bikers from Ukraine, Russia and other European countries. It is the biggest festival of that type in Ukraine. Cherkassy is a nice city with many interesting things to see and do.
There is a lot you can learn about Ukraine's nationality by looking into the people, places and things on the back of the Ukrainian one hundred hryvnia bill.
