This article is published with the permission of the public account "Memory Islands Isles"
When I die
Please bury me
In the vast plains of Ukraine
My tombstone stands tall
This field, this endless grassland
This Dnieper, this cliff
So I can witness and feel
Her mighty roar
Taras Shevchenko
Ukrainian poet, painter and founder of modern Ukrainian
On the night of February 21, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a security conference in the Kremlin, and through "pose" discussions, finally decided to immediately support the "Donetsk People's Republic" and the "Luhansk People's Republic" established by pro-Russian elements as independent states in the Republic of Ukraine. Subsequently, the decision spread around the world through Putin's live speech.
When the media account of the Russian Satellite News Agency split Putin's speech like a slice of Spanish ham, we living in the 20s of the new century once again felt a huge shock. Russia's constant trampling and encroaching on the territory of other countries under the appeasement of Europe and the United States under putin's rule not only reminds people of the crazy man who shouted "At five o'clock in the afternoon, we fight back" many years ago.
The Russo-Ukrainian War, which began on February 20, 2014, has lasted for eight full years to this day. From Crimea to Donbass, Putin has used the tactics of "foreign forces" in Ukraine to the fullest, relying on the tactics of supporting pro-Russian forces, recognizing independence, and sending "little green people" to use military power.
Just a few months before the war began, Putin praised a Ukrainian poet named Taras Shevchenko, who was active in the 19th century, as a prophet who left a rich legacy to Russia and Ukraine. However, the poet was once a famous patriot in Ukrainian history and a symbol of the Ukrainian nation's resistance to Russian rule.
In the second half of the 18th century, Catherine II took over most of Ukraine through the Russo-Turkish War and the partition of Poland by the Three Kingdoms. The fate of the Ukrainians was then plunged into catastrophe, and the Tsarina not only legitimized serfdom in Ukraine, but also vigorously pursued the Russification movement. Even the Catholic Church of Eastern Egypt in Ukraine suffered heavy losses and declined under the rule of the Russian Empire. Since the Union of Lublin, Ukrainians with independent laws, language and culture, and religious freedom under Polish protection have lost almost everything they have.
Opus-Austria partitioned Poland
Catherine II died on 17 November 1796, but Russia's policy toward Ukraine did not change. Twenty years later, a child named Taras Shevchenko was born on the banks of the Dnieper River, in a small village in Cherkassy. He was the third child in a serf family whose ancestors were said to have participated in the Zaporizhian Rebellion of the Cossacks. In his youth, his parents passed away one after another, and the orphaned Taras Shevchenko began to be educated and trained by the choir conductor in the village.
Self-portrait of Shevchenko
However, Xie Fuchenke, who loved painting since childhood, was often ridiculed by his teachers for being an orphan and not doing his job. Therefore, he gave up studying very early and began to serve the landlords. In the autumn of 1828, Shevchenko came to Vilnius with his master. There he witnessed the outbreak of the November Uprising in Poland. One winter night in December 1829, Schevchenko's master discovered that he had secretly painted a portrait of a Cossack hero in the Napoleonic Wars and ordered him to be beaten with a stick in the stables. Perhaps from then on, in Xie Fuchenko's mind, in addition to painting, more important careers began to sprout slowly.
Taras Shevchenko spent his childhood in the cottage
Xie Fuchenko, who had shown great talent in painting, was given the opportunity to study painting when he moved to St. Petersburg with his master. In Russia at that time, it was a very decent thing to have a private artist. In St. Petersburg, Shevchenko met the Ukrainian painter Ivan Maksymovych Soshenko in St. Petersburg. Soshenko and Shevchenko saw each other and then introduced him to artists who were famous in the Russian literary and artistic circles at that time. Among them, the Russian painter Karl Briullov sold his own works to redeem Shevchenko.
The Gypsy Fortune Teller
Shevchenko
Silver Medal of the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1841
With the help of Soshenko and others, Sevchenko became a student at the Academy of Arts, and while studying painting, he also began a career of writing poetry. During his days in St. Petersburg, he made three trips back to Ukraine. During that time, he not only met many local intellectuals, but also obtained the status of a member of the Kiev Archaeological Committee in 1845. Shevchenko spent a year visiting ancient architecture and archaeological sites in Ukraine, collecting historical documents and ethnographic materials.
Vedo Beach Abbey
The trip to Ukraine allowed Shevchenko to fully appreciate the oppression and suffering experienced by his people and compatriots. The seeds planted during his life as a serf, when he was beaten by his master in the stables, seemed to grow into a towering tree at this moment. Since then, his poetic works have been permeated with the meaning of national liberation. With these works, Sevchenko gradually became a symbol in the hearts of Ukrainians.
The Bogdan Church in Subodiv
However, for Russian rulers, this symbol is clearly very dangerous. His personality was easily discovered by the Imperial Russian government. In 1847, Shevchenko was arrested and imprisoned for joining the Ukrainian Revolutionary Society. During a month and a half of incarceration investigation, he continued to write 13 poems. Eventually, he was sentenced to 10 years of exile and sent as a second-class soldier to serve in the Orenburg garrison in the Ural Mountains.
Self-Portrait in 1847
The Russian thinker Vissarion Belinsky wrote in his memoirs that after Sevchenko's arrest, Tsar Nicholas I read one of his poems called "Dreams." Nicholas I knew Ukrainian very well, and when he read the part about himself, he just smiled. But when he read the part about the queen, he was furious. Shevchenko laughed at the queen's bloated figure and twitching facial expression. and the Queen's fear of the Decembrists. Thus, Nicholas I deliberately added to Sevchenko's sentence that "this man is subjected to the highest level of surveillance and deprives him of the right to write and paint".
"Shevchenko During Exile"
Kornylo Ustyjanovicz
Despite being banned from composing, Sevchenko remained a prolific artist during the exile period. He managed to hide his work in his shoes, and in this way he not only wrote a lot of poetry, but also wrote about 20 novellas in Russian. In addition, the cruelty and inhumanity of the Russian Empire were attacked in the form of allegorical paintings.
In 1855, Nicholas I died, and at the age of 41, Shevchenko was rescued by friends and returned to St. Petersburg again in 1858, the same year the ban on the publication of his works was lifted. Since then, he has devoted himself to creation again and has also actively participated in social and cultural activities. In 1859, he was allowed to travel to Ukraine. But then he was arrested for blasphemy and taken back to St. Petersburg.
The Last Self-Portrait
1860
In the final stages of his life, Sevchenko continued to devote himself to poetry, painting, and printmaking. However, the exile took irreversible damage to his body. On March 10, 1861, under the supervision of the Russian authorities, Sevchenko completed his life and died in St. Petersburg. His friends buried his body on a hill on the banks of the Dnieper River, following the wishes of Shevchenko's last poem, The Testament.
postcard
Tomb of Taras Shevchenko
Throughout his life, Taras Shevchenko did not see the independence of his native Ukraine.
And 161 years later, Sevchenko's compatriots were still being deceived and violated by Russia.