March is Taras Shevchenko Month

Ukrainian Canadian Community Honours Great Ukrainian Poet and Freedom Fighter – Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861)

The Ukrainian Canadian community scattered across Canada annually honours in March, Taras Shevchenko – the greatest figure of Ukrainian literature, a major painter - artist and freedom fighter. Celebrations in March (the month of his birth and death) include concerts, symposia and academic presentations by members of Ukrainian organizations, churches and especially youth groups. Similar celebrations with greater intensity also take place in Ukraine every March.

Taras Shevchenko was born on March 9, 1814 and passed away on March 10, 1861. He was born into a Ukrainian serf family in present-day Cherkasy Oblast, Central Ukraine which was then part of Imperial Czarist Russia. Orphaned at the age of eleven, he was very bright, mentored by the village cantor and became a very good student – both academically as well as in the field of art and painting. His talents were soon noticed by Count Pavlo Engelhardt who took him to Vilnius and then St. Petersburg. During this period, he engaged in the formal study of art. In 1838, due to a special art commission, the proceeds gained were utilized to buy Shevchenko’s freedom from serfdom. He continued to draw and paint for the next decade; winning several major awards in the Czarist Russian Empire.

Shevchenko also had a love for writing poetry as a serf and still after his personal emancipation. He wrote in the Ukrainian vernacular that was popular in rural Ukraine but was considered an inferior “tongue” by the Russians. He did this to recognize the importance of the Ukrainian language and culture as a self-identification trait of Ukrainians against political and monolingual policies of their Russian rulers.

In 1840, he published a collection of poems entitled Kobzar. This published volume became a great success due to its “clarity, breadth and elegance of artistic expression not previously known in Ukrainian literature” (Ivan Franko). Later, he wrote the epic poem Haidamaky (1841), the tragedy Nikita Hayday (1842) and the drama, Nazar Stodolya (1843).

All of this was accomplished living in St. Petersburg, Russia, but Shevchenko never forgot about Ukraine. He visited Ukraine in 1843, 1845 and 1846 and witnessed the difficult political, economic and social conditions of his countrymen which had a major impact on his writings and art.

On his 1845 trip to Ukraine, Shevchenko made friends with prominent Ukrainian intellectuals and joined the Brotherhood of Sts. Cyril and Methodius – a secret political organization that inspired Ukrainians to liberate Ukraine from Russia. In 1847, their brotherhood was suppressed by Russian authorities and Shevchenko was arrested and imprisoned. During a search of his belongings, the poem Son (The Dream) was discovered that was a critique of Russian Imperial rule in Ukraine. Thus he was imprisoned in St. Petersburg and then sent to Orenburg (near the Ural Mountains) with the decree that “he was not to write or paint and to be placed under the strictest surveillance.”

During his exile and imprisonment, Taras Shevchenko continued to find ways to be creative as an artist and poet. Finally, in 1857, he was liberated and ordered to the Russian City of Nizhniy Novgorod. Only in May 1859, was he allowed to move back to his native homeland – Ukraine. But another accusation, that of blasphemy, was raised against him and again he was ordered to St. Petersburg, never again to return to Ukraine.

After the difficult years of exile and imprisonment, Shevchenko’s health deteriorated and in 1861 he passed away in St. Petersburg. Initially, he was buried in the Smolensk Cemetery in St. Petersburg, but later his friends arranged the transfer of his remains to Kaniv, Ukraine, south of the capitol Kyiv and he was interred on a hill on the banks of the Dnipro River.

Taras Shevchenko’s works and life are revered and honoured by Ukrainians in Ukraine and the Diaspora. His literary impact on Ukrainian literature was immense and he is known as the founder and father of the modern written Ukrainian language. His poetry, with its patriotic themes, contributed immensely to the growth and development of Ukrainian national consciousness. His volume of poems known as the Kobzar has been reprinted many times including versions in Canada. For Ukrainian Canadian settlers, this most important book brought to Canada from Eastern Europe among their meager possessions and was widely read. His poem, Zapovit (My Testament) is one that is often studied and recited by children and youth across Canada at celebrations honouring Taras Shevchenko.

Many statues of Taras Shevchenko exist in Ukraine and around the world, beginning with the one on his final burial site in Kaniv, Ukraine. On the 100^th Anniversary of his repose in 1961, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress erected a monument on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature in Winnipeg. On that occasion, then Premier of Manitoba – the Honourable Duff Roblin announced to the Ukrainian Canadian community that permission was granted to have the Ukrainian language taught in Manitoba schools, where the number of students was sufficient. This policy was subsequently repeated in the Provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. Today, Taras Shevchenko’s (Ukrainian) language is still taught in numerous schools found on the Canadian Prairies.

Again in 2008, Ukrainian Canadians will be honouring Taras Shevchenko – the “poet laureate” of Ukraine with concerts and celebrations and in so doing paying homage to one of the most important figures in Ukrainian history, literature and culture.