Taras Shevchenko is one of the most recognizable Ukrainians in the entire history of the Ukrainian state (except for President Zelenskyi). His most famous works, included in the book-collection of the poet “Kobzar”, were quoted countless times both in Ukraine and around the world. In addition to poetry, Taras Hryhorovych is also known for his paintings, in which he depicted the everyday life of his contemporaries and ordinary Ukrainians.
Ukrainian culture has been gaining great popularity in recent years. This forces many people to “dig” deeper into the history and traditions of their own people, learning more and more new and interesting facts. What did Taras Shevchenko really look like? What do we know about the personal life of the artist? And why, in the end, was he so hated by the Moscow tsarist authorities? Read about this and more in our article.
20 interesting facts about Taras Shevchenko
Undoubtedly, every has heard about Taras Shevchenko, because at least he is studied in literature classes. In this article, we have prepared for you interesting facts that you are unlikely to be told about at school.
- Everyone knows that Taras Shevchenko had a large lush mustache and a deep gaze, with which he is often depicted in many portraits. What about other characteristics of an artist? Few people know that the poet was quite short. According to the “Formular List of Service of the Orenburg Line Battalion No. 1” for 1953, Taras Hryhorovych’s height was only 164 centimeters.
- It is difficult to overestimate the contribution of Taras Shevchenko to the development of Ukrainian culture. And this despite the fact that the poet himself had a rather limited (by today’s standards) education. It consisted of only two classes in the parish school. Nevertheless, this did not prevent the future genius from becoming the author of one of the most famous books in Ukrainian literature – “Kobzar”.
- In addition to his artistic and literary activities, Taras Shevchenko made a significant contribution to the field of archaeology. He never engaged in archeology as a science, he was a draftsman in the Archaeological Commission. His works contain valuable detailed images of places important for modern archeology.
- An interesting fact: there is an assumption that Taras Shevchenko was awestruck by viburnum. After all, in his collection “Kobzar” the poet mentions this word 385 times.
- When Taras Shevchenko was studying, whipping children at school was a common practice. In most cases, this role was performed by an older student, who was called a “consul”. At the school of the future poet, this responsibility belonged to Taras himself.
- Usually, the first job and the first self-earned funds are remembered for a long time. Apparently, Taras also remembered them. The future poet earned his first money by chanting for the dead as a priest’s assistant.
- Taras Shevchenko was not born in a wealthy family, but not in a poor one either. Although the poet’s father was a serf, he was also a chumak and a stelmach, and one of his maternal grandfathers had an apiary with a forge. Such activities helped to earn enough money for a normal life (according to some unverified sources, the family could even afford a servant). Nevertheless, of the five children in the family, Taras was the only one who received a school education.
- You can often hear that Taras Shevchenko knew the French language. In fact, he studied it, but was never able to master it. In general, the poet knew three languages: Ukrainian, Russian and Polish.
- As you know, Taras Hryhorovych was never married. Nevertheless, for a long time, the poet did not leave the irresistible desire to start a family. One of his brightest passions is the 20-year-old peasant Likera Polusmak (Shevchenko was 46 at the time). Unfortunately, the girl did not reciprocate the poet and married someone else. After Kobzar’s death, Lykera took care of his grave and more than once regretted “how honorable it would be to become his widow”.
- Two and a half thousand rubles were needed to redeem Taras Shevchenko from serfdom. This is a very large amount, which in today’s money is about $40,000. To raise funds, Karl Bryulov created a portrait of the poet Vasyl Zhukovsky and sold it through an auction.
- It was because of his statements, which were not liked by the then Tsar Nicholas I, that Taras Shevchenko was sent to Orenburg (the territory of Russia) as a private. In addition, according to the royal decree (which he constantly violated), the poet was forbidden to write works and paintings. What is interesting: researchers call the most fruitful period in Taras’s work the period of exile.
- Masons had a great influence on the formation of Kobzar’s worldview. Unfortunately, since Taras was not born a free man, he could not be a freemason. Nevertheless, he communicated with many members of the Masonic lodge and even visited their estates.
- Every student can easily recognize Taras Shevchenko by his portrait: a stern old man with a mustache, wearing a fur coat and a tall hat. But in fact, the poet dressed quite differently – after the redemption from exile, he was a big fashionista, painted expensive portraits for the residents of St. Petersburg (which brought in a lot of money) and loved expensive clothes (for example, the artist could happily buy a cloak for 100 rubles with his annual income of 150 rubles ).
- Actually, Taras Shevchenko was not so strict, because, first of all, he is an ordinary person. One of his most interesting and controversial works is a nude self-portrait (an image of a naked or semi-naked body). Researchers still argue about the meaning of this work: whether it was an attempt to protest during the exile or whether there were other reasons for its creation.
- Another common myth is that Taras Hryhorovych wrote for the peasants. In fact, at that time most of the peasants could not read (remember the brothers and sisters of the poet himself). The peasants learned about Taras Shevchenko as an artist only at the end of the 19th century. Before that, his main audience consisted of nobles and Ukrainian emigrants.
- Despite the fact that Taras Shevchenko wrote a lot about peasants and their life, Kobzar himself can be called a city dweller. He lived in big cities for several decades: the artist lived in Vilnius for 15 years, and later in St. Petersburg for another 17.
- During all the years that Taras Shevchenko lived in St. Petersburg, he never once mentioned that he loved this city. Instead, Shevchenko wrote a lot about Kyiv and how he misses it.
- An interesting fact: most of the information we know about the Haydamaks comes not from historical sources, but from Shevchenko’s work “Haydamaks”. We owe it to the poet for preserving their memory.
- A portrait of Taras Shevchenko could be found in almost every Ukrainian house among the icons. At one time, in the villages located on the border of Ukraine and Belarus, they decided to draw the border between the two countries as follows. Those villages where there was a portrait of Kobzar in the houses were attributed to the territory of Ukraine, all others – to Belarus.
- An interesting fact: Ukrainian emigrants who settled in distant lands always built a church, a school and a monument to Taras Shevchenko in their community. Myron Hordiychuk (head of the Literary Memorial House-Museum of Taras Shevchenko) believes that this is how people from Ukraine marked their territory. This also shows that the cult of Kobzar is very firmly rooted in the basis of Ukrainian identity.
- Many historians believe that Shevchenko was lucky to be born in the era of romanticism. At a time when everything Ukrainian (that is, Little Russian) became popular. If it weren’t for Taras Hryhorovych, Panteleimon Kulish would have taken first place.
What do you think about this? Was Taras Shevchenko really lucky? Is the merit here only of a great genius? Write in the comments:
