Taras Shevchenko

Ukraine's national poet, born a serf.

Life

Serf

Shevchenko was born a serf and as a boy served as a landlord's servant, revealing a talent for painting. In 1838 the Russian painter and the poet Zhukovsky, among others, raised money to buy his freedom, and he entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg.

The Kobzar

In 1840 he published the poetry collection Kobzar, written in Ukrainian, which laid the foundation of the modern Ukrainian literary language. In 1847 he was arrested for belonging to a secret society and writing poems satirizing the Tsar, and was sent into exile as a conscript soldier for ten years, forbidden to write or paint.

Exile

Released in 1857, he died in Saint Petersburg in 1861; his body was carried back to Ukraine and buried on the banks of the Dnieper.

Legacy

Shevchenko is revered as Ukraine's national poet, and his "The Testament" is the poem Ukrainians know best.

Major works & achievements

• Kobzar
• The Testament

Did you know? There are more than a thousand monuments to him around the world, including one in Washington, D.C., in the United States.

Key dates

• 1838Bought out of serfdom
• 1840Publishes Kobzar
• 1847Arrest and exile
• 1857Released
• 1861Died