Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Selected Poems Painting Graphic Works by Biography. Taras Shevchenko (25.02 (9.03) 1814 – 26.02 (10.03) 1861) – the largest Ukrainian , prophet of the new Ukrainian nation. Taras Shevchenko born in the village Moryntsi шт Kyiv region (now Zvenigorod district of region) in a family of peasant serfs. He soon left an orphan – his mother died when Taras was only 9 years and one and half year later, his father died too. Taras studied literacy in local clerks. Around this time, aged 10 – 12 years old, he had a desire to draw. In 1828 the landlord Paul Engelhardt decided Taras must be the servant of his yard. In this role he accompanied master during his stay in Vilnius (1828 – 1831 years) and St. Petersburg (from 1831). In St. Petersburg, the landlord gave Shevchenko for training to the painter Basil Shiryaev that lasted 4 years. Shevchenko later worked as an apprentice of Shiryaev, particularly in the coloring of the Bolshoi Theater (these paintings have not preserved). Then in the Shevchenko's biography came time to wonder. While drawing sculpture in Summer garden, he met with Ukrainian artist Ivan Soshenko, and through him acquainted with Ukrainian poet Eugene Grebinka, arts critic Vasily Grigorovich, artist Alexei Venetsianov. Most important for Shevchenko was acquaintance with the poet Vasily Zhukovsky, who was at those time tutor of heir to the throne – the Crown Prince Alexander (the future Emperor Alexander 2nd). All these people have chosen to help talented serf freed. Engelhardt desired by Shevchenko fantastically large ransom – 2500 rubles. To get the same amount Karl Brüllow painted a portrait of V. Zhukovsky, that had played the lottery. After his release from serf status Shevchenko was able to enter the Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied with Karl Brüllow. The Academy he studied from 1838 to 1845, when he graduated with the title of non-class artist. At the same time, Shevchenko showed a new creative passion – poetry. His first poetic work – the "Mad girl"- was written in 1837, and later became a classic work of Ukrainian literature. Among these classic works also included the early poem "Catherine" (1839) and "Haydamaky" (1841). In 1840 in St. Petersburg was published a small collection of poems by Shevchenko called "Kobzar". This book marked the beginning of a new – Shevchenko's – stage in the development of Ukrainian literature. If the first Shevchenko's poetry inspired by the ruling in the 1830-th romantic cossack enthusiasm, starting from 1843 themes and tone of his poetry changed. In 1843, Shevchenko after 15-year break again visited . with a new force he felt the tragedy of enslavement once free Ukrainian people, the loss of his political and national rights. Under the influence of these impressions Shevchenko turns into a spokesman of violated rights of Ukraine. His poems were a kind of program construction of a new Ukrainian nation, while remaining highly original literary works (not turning into rhymed manifestos or editorials). Moved in 1845 to Kyiv, Shevchenko met here with several young Ukrainians – writer Panteleimon Kulish, poet and historian Nicholas Kostomarov, teachers Nicholas Gulak and Basil Belozersky. At the meetings they read poetry, spoke about Ukraine and then touch the fashionable issue of Pan-Slavism and Ukraine's place among the Slavic peoples. For Russian gendarmes that was enough to implicate them in the creation of "Ukrainian-Slavic Society" (this name appears in the investigation, historiography adopted the name "Cyril and Methodius society"). In March – April 1847 members of the society were arrested and transferred to St. Petersburg. April 5, 1847 at the entrance to the Kyiv Shevchenko was arrested and was deprived his album "Three years" with final versions of his new political poetry. This album, especially the poem "Dream" with a sharp satirical picture of the royal family became the main evidence against Shevchenko. May 30, 1847 Nicholas 1st approved sentences for members of society. Shevchenko was sentenced to soldiers. In the draft judgment Emperor personally added: "Under the strict supervision, with the prohibition of writing and drawing." In 9 days Shevchenko was conveyed under gendarme escort from St. Petersburg to Orenburg, where he identified the service as a private in Orsk fortress. All the while being a soldier Shevchenko was forced to wander through fetid barracks. Although the sentence provided for a "right of seniority" and Shevchenko repeatedly were presented to an advance in the non-commissioned officers, this never happened – scared chiefs were afraid to sign their petition. (For comparison, the Russian writer Fedor Dostoevsky in 1849 was sentenced to prison, in 1854 transferred to the army as a private, in 1855 promoted to non-commissioned officer in 1856 – to the lieutenant, and in 1859 was released from compulsory military service. Those same 10 years of suffering, but for Dostoevsky as a Russian nobleman was opened the road to seniority, which was closed for a Ukrainian serf Shevchenko). Power of Shevchenko resistance increased in proportion to the pressure of the Russian government machine: in 1847 – 1850 years he, in spite of the ban, has created 145 poems – almost half of his poetic heritage. Among them – the poems "Princess", "Kings", "Centurion", "Petrus" and his poetic response to the emperor's judgment – poetry "N. N.": "I am punished, tormented… but I not confess. " In 1848 Shevchenko's fate slightly improved – he was appointed to the expedition to survey the Aral Sea. Being formally as a private, he was doing sketches for the expedition. These sketches of people, nature and monuments are the first images from the territory of modern Kazakhstan. After completion of the expedition in 1849 Shevchenko hoping for reward, and even the permission to paint. But the Russian government "rewarded" him in quite peculiar, purely Russian way: in 1850, Shevchenko was again arrested and brought to serve in Novopetrovsk fort (on Mangyshlak Peninsula in the Caspian Sea). There he spent seven years. After the death of Nicholas the 1st and the coming to power of Alexander the 2nd many political prisoners, including members of the Decembrists and the Polish uprising of 1830 – 1831 were amnestied. Those who opposed the tsarist regime with arms were dismissed, but continued to keep in captivity Shevchenko, who spoke the word. The petition for his release lasted over two years, and only 24 July 1857 he was released. "Will" for Shevchenko was limited, as it turned out, by police supervision and prohibition of entry to and St. Petersburg, after which he all winter in 1857 – 58 years held in Nizhny Novgorod. Only in March 1858 the ban was lifted, and March 27, 1858 Shevchenko returned to St. Petersburg. Return journey took as much as nine months – exactly 30 times slower than the way in captivity. In St. Petersburg Shevchenko began practicing the art of printmaking and also took care of the re-release of his poetic works – even those which were once allowed by censorship. New, increased edition of "Kobzar" managed to release only in January 1860. Of course, the printing of such new poems as "Neophytes" (1857) or "Maria" (1859) then could not even dream (both poems were published only in 1876). Two dreams Shevchenko cherished after release – to marry and settle in his own hut somewhere near Kyiv, on the Dnieper. These his dreams allegorically reflected in his engraving of the characteristic title "Herself in her house" (1859). He lovingly painted different projects of this hut, dreaming that he had been there a good workshop will have here… In 1859 he came to district to personally choose the plot of land, but then he suffered a new disaster. Local Poles-landowners did not want to have such a nasty neighbor, provoked Shevchenko for "seditious" talk through which he was again – for the third time! – arrested and had to go to St. Petersburg. Just failed Shevchenko dreams of marriage. His intention to marry with Lykera Polusmak ended complete rupture (September 1860), and shortly after Shevchenko sick at heart. This disease has progressed quickly and brought him to the grave. Shevchenko lived only 47 years and has written few compared to contemporary writers (compared: works by A. I. Herzen consist of 30 volumes, I. S. Turgenev – 28 volumes, while Shevchenko's literary heritage does not exceed 6 volumes contemporary press). The same situation with painting heritage: there are almost no works in the technique of oil painting, while decisively dominated watercolors, pencil drawings and prints (namely oil painting is crucial when assessing the artist). But the significance of his work is enormous. Shevchenko lifted the authority of the and made it the irrevocable symbol of the Ukrainian people. He formulated in a common manner political ideal of the new Ukrainian nation and therefore rightly considered a prophet of the New Ukraine. M. Zh., May 29, 2014. Please this page? Help us to develop this site! Place link to this page in your site / blog / etc. Code for insertion Should be rendered as Taras Shevchenko – Biography of Shevchenko. Copy HTML code from «Code for insertion» field and paste it to your page. Adjust it as your need. Share this page with your friends via social network. © 2011 – 2021 N.I.Zharkikh (idea, technology, comments), article authors. Reprinting of articles from site are encouraged while reference (hyperlink) to this site is provided. Site powered by Smereka. Load count : 6 216. If you look up the type error on this page, please select it by mouse and press Ctrl+Enter . History of Ukraine: Taras Shevchenko or the first revival. Some trivia about Ukraine on the 29th anniversary of country’s Independence by George V.Pinchuk. Taras Shevchenko or the first revival. Part 4. It is difficult for an amateur like me to write about the history of Ukraine of the 19th and the 20th centuries, because it becomes very eventful and highly branched. I will try to highlight only a few most important personalities and movements. After Kotlyarevsky, the Ukrainian literature – poetry, prose, and – continued to exist and grow, even though the literary Ukrainian language was not taught at any school in the “Russian” part of the country and taught very little in parochial elementary schools in the “Austrian” part. In the first half of the Ukraine was blessed by the person of Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko, the nation’s most talented and prolific poet and almost legendary spiritual leader. Shevchenko was born in 1814, in a village of Moryntsi in central Ukraine, to the family of a serf. (The children of serfs were themselves serfs by the law.) His father died when he was little, soon followed by the young Taras’s mother. The orphaned boy earned his daily bread by working for a local church deacon who taught a parochial school. Taras was not a student at that school; his duties included only cleaning and bringing water from a well. Yet, he very soon learned to read and write, and amazed everyone by his talent for sketching and copying paintings. As a teenager, he became a personal servant to a a rich aristocrat V. Engelhardt, who took him to St. Petersburg. There, the young prodigy was ransomed from serfdom by a group of outstanding Russian artists, including N. Ge and K. Briullov. Shevchenko was admitted to the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, and soon became a dandy with a reputation of a jovial drinker and lady killer. Yet, all of a sudden, a book by Shevchenko’s poems, titled “Kobzar” (“a kobza player,” kobza or bandura being a string instrument used by vagrant folk singers and storytellers), was published in 1840. It was like an explosion. All poems were written in Kotlyarevsky’s real, living, breathing, beautiful Ukrainian language. They were about the history of Ukraine, especially about the life and accomplishments of the Ukrainian Kozaks of the old days before the Sich was demolished; about the beauty of the Ukrainian nature, and the fate of the Ukrainian peasantry. The general tone of the “Kobzar” was much like the tone of the Western European writers and . Some of the poems included characters like mermaids or werewolves. The “Kobzar” was followed by a long poem called “Haidamaky,” about the revolt in the “Polish” part of Ukraine in 1768; there, Shevchenko begins to soar above the particularities of history, reflecting on such eternal problems as the human sense of belonging, memory, gratitude to ancestors etc. At that time, Shevchenko became a member of a secret society called the Brotherhood of St. Cyril and Methodius. Other members of the society included writers and historians M. Kostomarov and P. Kulish. The society was one of the many “Pan-Slavist” organizations that blossomed all over the Slavic world in the first decades of the 19th century, being especially strong where the Slavs had no state of their own – in Austria and in the Balkans. The society members were uncovered and arrested in 1847. They were charged in separatism, although in fact their goal was a kind of “federalization” rather than separation of Ukraine from the as a state. All members except Shevchenko received rather mild punishments. Shevchenko, however, personally infuriated Tzar Nicholas I, because a search found in his apartment a manuscript of a poem titled “A Dream.” There, Shevchenko made an extremely grotesque portrait of the Russian royals, especially of the Tzarina whom he compared to a “dried foam mushroom, faint and jumping on her long bony leg.” The poem also characterized the Tzar Peter I and the Tzarina Catherine II like this: “That’s the First – he who crucified our Ukraine, And that’s the Second – she who delivered the blow of death to our widowed and orphaned motherland.” Shevchenko was sentenced to life in exile. He was stripped of all his Academy privileges, made a private of the Russian army, and sent to a garrison in Kos-Aral in Central Asia, near the shores of the Aral Sea. Tzar Nicholas personally wrote on Shevchenko’s file that “this man must be under the strictest surveillance all the time, and it is strictly forbidden to him to write or draw anything.” The first few years of the exile were not overly tough on the poet because of his popularity among the soldiers and officers as an artist, and also because of the friendship with a famous natural scientist Karl Ernst von Baer, who took Shevchenko to his voyages over the Aral Sea shores as a sketch artist and painter. However, for the violation of the Tzar’s prohibition to draw, Shevchenko was transferred to a fortress (essentially, prison) in the mouth of the Syr Darya river. There, his health was completely ruined. He was pardoned and returned to St. Petersburg in 1857 but died of heart failure and liver cirrhosis only three and a half years later, one day after turning 47. His last portraits show a very sick man who looked like he was in his late 60s. In the exile, Shevchenko actually wrote poetry prolifically. He wrote his famous long poems, “The Caucasus,” “The Servant Girl,” “The Convict,” “The Neophytes,” “The Fool of God,” and others; a drama, titled “Nazar Stodolya,” a number of short stories (the only part of his heritage written in Russian), and a large collection of short poems, of which the most famous, perhaps, are “If You Only Knew, You Children of the Nobles,” “I Have Grown Up in a Foreign Land,” “I Don’t Regret About my Golden and Dear Youth,” and a number of poetic renditions of the Bible (Isaiah, Hosea, Ezekiel). My own favorite is perhaps his poem called “To the Dead, and the Living, and to Those Who Are Not Yet Born,” where Shevchenko bitterly writes about the unnecessary squabbles among Ukrainians who want to show each other how much they know of what their foreign spiritual leaders teach them. He concludes the poem by a loud cry coming directly from his suffering heart: “EMBRACE EACH OTHER, my brothers… I beseech you… I beg you!” (Not that Ukrainians ever listened. Hardly any other nation in the world is so divisive and self-hating. They say, “where there are two Ukrainians, there are three factions, each with its own Hetman.”) Shevchenko’s work as a poet was continued after his death by Lesya Ukrayinka (real name Larysa Petrivna Kosach) in the “Russian” part of Ukraine, and by Ivan Franko in the “Austrian” part. In parallel, the late 19th century witnessed the birth of the Ukrainian Nationalism, a huge and very complicated movement with large practical implications. (for illustration used a reproduction of the oil painting Peasant Family by Taras Shevchenko, 1843) Distribution and reprint with reference to the source is welcome! (Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0) InformNapalm social media pages: Facebook / Twitter / Telegram. Selected poetry of Taras Shevchenko (poems translated by Clarence Augustus Manning) Clarence Augustus Manning (born 1893) - thorough commentator, interpreter, and a loving translator of Shevchenko’s work. He worked for 43 years at the Columbia University in New York. In 1945 Clarence A. Manning published a book of his renditions of the Ukrainian poet, "Taras Shevchenko. The Poet of Ukraine. Selected Poems". In 1952 Manning became associate professor of Slavic languages. He retired in 1958, but continued publishing. "Taras Shevchenko. Works. Volume 12. Shevchenko's poetry in ." Title page. Poem of Taras Shevchenko "Meni odnakovo, chy budu" ("Мені однаково, чи буду") 1847, S.- Peterburg (С.- Петербург) Taras Shevchenko's poem "Ne narikaiu ya na Boha" ("Не нарікаю я на Бога") 1860, S.- Peterburh (С.- Петербург) Poem of Taras Shevchenko "A ty, prechystaia, sviataia. " ("А ти, пречистая, святая. ") 1858, Nyzhnii Novhorod (Нижній Новгород) Taras Shevchenko 's poem "Ty ne lukavyla zo mnoiu" ("Ти не лукавила зо мною") 1858, Nyzhnii Novhorod (Нижній Новгород) Poem of Taras Shevchenko "Meni trynadtsiatyi mynalo…" ("Мені тринадцятий минало") 1847, Orska Fortecia (Орська фортеця) Taras Shevchenko. Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (March 9 [O.S. February 25] 1814 – March 10 [O.S. February 26] 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, as well as folklorist and ethnographer. His literary heritage is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and, to a large extent, the modern Ukrainian language. Shevchenko is also known for many masterpieces as a painter and an illustrator. He was a member of the Sts Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood and an academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts. In 1847 Shevchenko was politically convicted for writing in the Ukrainian language, promoting the independence of Ukraine and ridiculing the members of the Russian Imperial House. Taras Shevchenko was born on March 9 [O.S. February 25] 1814 in the village of Moryntsi, county, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire (today Zvenyhorodka , Ukraine). He was the third child after his sister Kateryna and brother Mykyta, in family of serf peasants Hryhoriy Ivanovych Shevchenko (1782? – 1825) and Kateryna Yakymivna Shevchenko (Boiko) (1782? – August 6, 1823), both of whom were owned by landlord Vasily Engelhardt. According to the family legends, Taras's forefathers were Cossacks who served in the Zaporizhian Host and had taken part in the Ukrainian uprisings of the 17th and 18th centuries. Those uprisings were brutally suppressed in Cherkasy, Poltava, Kiev, Bratslav, and Chernihiv disrupting normal social life for many years afterwards. Most of the local population were then enslaved and reduced to poverty. In 1816 Shevchenko family moved back to the village of Kyrylivka (today - Shevchenkove) in Zvenyhorodka county where Taras' father, Hryhoriy Ivanovych, had been born. Taras spent his childhood years in the village. On May 24 [O.S. May 12] 1816, Taras' sister Yaryna was born, and on February 7 [O.S. January 26] 1819 - Maria. Once, young Taras went looking for "the iron pillars that hold up the sky" and got lost. Chumaks who met the boy took him with him to Kerelivka. On March 20 [O.S. March 8] 1821 Taras' brother Yosyp was born. In the fall of 1822 Taras started to take some grammar classes at a local precentor (dyak) Sovhyr. At that time Shevchenko became familiar with Hryhoriy Skovoroda's works. During 1822-1828 Shevchenko painted horses and soldiers. On February 10 [O.S. January 29] 1823 his older sister and nanny Kateryna married Anton Krasytskyi, a serf "from Zelena Dibrova". On September 1 [O.S. August 20] 1823 Taras' hard working mother died. A month later on October 19 [O.S. October 7] 1823 his father married a widow Oksana Tereshchenko, a native of Moryntsi village, who already had three children of her own. She treated her step children and, particularly, little Taras, with great cruelty. On July 4 [O.S. June 22] 1824 Taras's half-sister Maria from the second marriage of Hryhoriy Ivanovych was born. In 1824 Taras, along with his father, became a traveling merchant (chumak) and traveled to Zvenyhorodka, , Yelizavetgrad (today Kropyvnytskyi). At the age of eleven Taras became an orphan when, on April 2 [O.S. March 21] 1825, his father died as a serf in corvée. Soon his stepmother along with her children returned to Moryntsi. Taras went to work for precentor (dyak) Bohorsky who had just arrived from Kiev in 1824. As an apprentice, Taras carried water, heated up a school, served the precentor, read psalms over the dead and continued to study. At that time Shevchenko became familiar with some works of Ukrainian literature. Soon, tired of Bohorsky's long term mistreatment, Shevchenko escaped in search of a painting master in the surrounding villages. For several days he worked for deacon Yefrem in , later in other places around in southern part of Kiev Governorate (villages Stebliv and Tarasivka). In 1827 Shevchenko was herding community sheep near his village. He then met Oksana Kovalenko, a childhood friend, whom Shevchenko mentions in his works on multiple occasions. He dedicated the introduction of his poem "Mariana, the Nun" to her. This is a part of the Wikipedia article used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). The full text of the article is here → Taras Grigoryevich Shevchenko. Considered the greatest poet of Ukraine and the founder of modern Ukrainian literature, Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861) rose from humble beginnings to the pinnacle of the 19th-century St. Petersburg literary world. His writings draw upon the peasant traditions of his boyhood. Early Years as a Serf. Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko was born March 9, 1814 into a family of serfs in the village of Morintsy in Ukraine, then part of the tsarist Russian Empire. The Shevchenkos soon relocated to the village of Kirilivka, where Taras grew up. He led an early life of misery. His mother died when he was nine years old, and his stepmother mistreated him and those of his siblings who were still living at home (an older sister, Katerina, had married and moved to another village). His father died when Taras was 12, and he was given over to the care of a local priest, for whom he worked as a shepherd and farmhand. Shevchenko studied art with numerous local icon painters, but each time his lessons proved short-lived. When Shervchenko was 14, his master, P.V. Engelhardt, took over his training and employed him as a house servant. He was taught to read and write. In 1829 Engelhardt and his wife brought Shevchenko with them to Vilnius, where they lived until 1831. Shevchenko, with Engelhardt's encouragement, enrolled in the Art Academy. In 1831 the Engelhardts moved to St. Petersburg, and Shevchenko became an apprentice to the painter Shirayev, who was primarily a theater decorator. Shevchenko served under Shirayev from 1832 to 1836. In 1837 Shevchenko met and befriended the Ukrainian artist Ivan Maksimovich Soshenko. The latter quickly recognized Shevchenko's artistic potential and suggested that Shevchenko enroll in St. Petersburg's Imperial Academy of Arts. But as a serf Shevchenko could not do so alone. Fortunately for Shevchenko he had two influential men to champion his cause: the secretary of the academy, V. I. Grigorovich, and the artist and professor K.P. Bryulov. Both sought to obtain Shevchenko's freedom, but Engelhardt demanded 2,500 silver rubles in exchange. Soshenko and the others convinced V.A. Zhukovsky to join Shevchenko's cause. As tutor to the tsarevitch–the Russian crown prince–Zhukovsky traveled in the highest circles in . He consented to have his portrait painted by Bryulov and sold, with the proceeds to go toward Shevchenko's freedom. Shevchenko was granted his freedom in the spring of 1838 and at once enrolled in the academy as Bryulov's pupil. This was Shevchenko's formative period intellectually. Not only did he study painting, but under Bryulov's influence he became interested in classical antiquity and began to read Ukrainian history and its nascent national literature. Shevchenko started to write poetry during this time, though a few scholars believe he had begun to write before his emancipation. His oldest known poem is "Prychynna" (The Mad Girl). Growing Nationalism. When a patron who had come to Shevchenko's apartment to have his portrait painted noticed his poems lying about, he asked to borrow them. So enthused was he that he arranged for their publication. Thus, in 1840, Kobzar was produced. The title refers to ancient wandering bards who traveled throughout Ukraine singing epic and heroic tales, often playing the stringed instrument, the kobza. Though this slim book of eight poems, which were really , was attacked by Russian and Western critics, Ukraininans wholly embraced it. In their view Shevchenko's verse was the next step in the evolution of their national literature, and he was hailed as the successor to Ivan Kotlyarevsky, who had died two years earlier and for whom Shevchenko wrote "To the Eternal Memory of Kotlyarevsky." In fact Shevchenko's work was far more mature artistically than Kotlyarevsky's. The main complaints against Kobzar was that it was peasantlike and thus insignificant. But that tone of the ancient bards was exactly what Shevchenko had set out to achieve. Another major literary influence on Kobzar was historical romanticism. Add to this was Shevchenko's growing awareness of Ukrainian nationalism and a newfound desire to see his country independent of Polish domination–just as he himself had gained independence–and the major themes of Shevchenko's work and life are in place. The poems of Kobzar include: "Dedication," "Perebendya," "The Poplar," "Dumka," "To Osnovyanenko," "Ivan Pidkova," "The Night of Taras," and "Katerina." In 1841 Shevchenko published The Haydamaki. The longest of his epic poems, The Haydamaki recounts a mid-18th-century Ukrainian peasant revolt and the massacre of Poles. It is often seen as the culmination of themes Shevchenko first presented in Kobzar. Polish and Russian critics predictably disliked the work, and Ukrainians hailed the poem and Shevchenko. The Haydamaki cemented Shevchenko's literary reputation and made him a central figure among St. Petersburg's Ukrainian population. It also transformed him into something of a national hero. All during this time Shevchenko continued his studies at the Imperial Academy of the Arts, but his painting (mostly portraits) had reached a plateau. After 1841 he received no prizes for his artwork. In 1843 Shevchenko visited the Ukraine, where he was given a hero's welcome. It was his first time back in his homeland since 1829, when he was a serf. Shevchenko's appeal to the peasants was natural, but the landowners and others of the Ukrainian upper classes also admired him for his nationalism. Many from the Ukrainian upper class commissioned Shevchenko to paint their or their family members' portraits. These commissions renewed Shevchenko's interest in painting, and after a brief side trip to Moscow he returned to St. Petersburg to finish his studies. He graduated from the Imperial Academy of the Arts in December 1845. Before he had even received his diploma Shevchenko had again returned to Ukraine. Though he was now a "free artist of the Academy" it was his literary pursuits that engaged him most. While finishing his studies at the Academy he wrote the narrative poem "The Dream" (1844), which he subtitled "A Comedy." The subtitle may have been a calculated bit of disingenuousness designed to deceive the censor, for by this time Shevchenko had undergone a political epiphany. He used the narrative device of the dream in order to ward off any charges of sedition for, as he now saw it, Russia, not Poland, was the main oppressor of Ukraine. "The Dream" was the first in a series of poems that addressed this new idea. It follows Shevchenko as he visits, in his dream, Ukraine, Siberia, and St. Petersburg, all the while decrying the deceit, oppression and poverty which the Russian aristocracy has imposed on Ukraine and Russia. At the end of the poem the narrator wakes up. There is a touch of the sacred imbued in the poem, as "The Dream" is prefaced by a quote from the Gospel of St. John: "The Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him" (John 14:17). In 1845 Shevchenko published Three Years, a collection of protest poems and impressions written during the years 1843-1845. The poems were sent to friends who later copied them for publication. That year he also published "The Caucasus" and "The Testament." He also wrote two novellas during this period, The Servant Girl and Varnak. Arrest and Exile. In 1846 Shevchenko joined the Society of Saints Cyril and Methodius, founded by young progressives in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. While the dream of this organization was to create a pan-Slavic nation, a republic possibly modeled after the United States, the group was largely theoretical. Its stated goals of education, democracy, and autonomy for each Slavic group and a general Slavic council were seen as a threat by the autocratic Tsar Nicholas I. During this period Shevchenko brought out a second edition of Kobzar. He also sketched the countryside around Kiev and did other painting. In his "Preface" to the second edition of Kobzar Shevchenko took a public stand for Ukainian literature. He criticized Kotlyarevsky for vulgarizing Ukrainian literature and opposed those who sought to imitate him. He also took a stand against his contemporary, writer , for forsaking the Ukrainian language for Russian, which Shevchenko considered to be the language of the oppressors. This was Shevchenko's last publication for a while; he was arrested in Kiev on April 5, 1847, after being denounced by a student. After spending a night in jail in Kiev, Shevchenko was taken to St. Petersburg, where he was interrogated. He denied being a member of the Society of Saints Cyril and Methodius and hedged his associations with some other members who had also been arrested. The interrogators recommended to the tsar that Shevchenko be placed on military duty in Orenburg, in southeastern European Russia. The tsar ordered that Shevchenko could not write or paint. Shevchenko spent ten years in exile and was not released until after the death of Tsar Nicholas I. During the period of his arrest and exile Shevchenko secretly wrote some verse. Shevchenko disliked army life, but eventually the prohibition against Shevchenko doing any artwork was slightly altered and he was allowed to make government sketches on an expedition to the Sea of Aral. This expedition lasted for a year and a half. In late 1849, having returned to Orenburg, Shevchenko petitioned to be allowed to resume painting. He was supported by his military unit's officers, who allowed him to live in Orenburg and wear civilian clothes. They also turned a blind eye to his portrait painting. However, after a few months of this relative freedom, Shevchenko was denounced by an officer and rearrested on April 27, 1850. Following a weeklong trial he was exiled to an even more remote outpost-Novopetrovsk on the east coast of the Caspian Sea. Exile did not stop him from writing, however. In the years between his first and second arrests Shevchenko wrote "In the Fortress" (1847) and "The Tsars" (1848). During his exile Shevchenko wrote the long narrative poem "The Princess," and the shorter poetic works "The Musician," "The Captain's Wife," "The Artist," "Fortune" and "The Muse." In addition to the government sketches Shevchenko's watercolors and drawings done in exile include a series titled The Parable of the Prodigal Son and Running the Gauntlet. Last Years. In 1857, Shevchenko was released. He traveled to Ukraine then to Moscow and finally to St. Petersburg. In the years just after his release he wrote "A Pleasant Stroll" and "Not Without a Moral." He published "Fame" in 1858 to complete the trilogy begun with "Fortune" and "The Muse." In 1859 some of his friends published New Poems of Pushkin and Shevchenko in Leipzig, and in 1860 he brought out a third edition of Kobzar. During this period he wrote his best lyric verse as well as the long, narrative poems "The Neophytes" and "God's Fool" (both written in 1857) and "Mary" (1858). Shevchenko fell ill late in 1860 and never recovered his health. He died on March 10, 1861. His funeral in St. Petersburg was attended by such literary notables as Saltykov-Shchedrin, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Leskov. Herzen published an obituary of Shevchenko, and Nekrasov contributed a poem to mark the occasion. Many of Shevchenko's poems were later set to music by Ukranian and Russian composers including Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff. Books. Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Trans. Of Third Ed., Vol. 29, Macmillan, 1982. Manning, Clarence A., Taras Shevchenko: Selected Poems, Ukrainian national Association, 1945.