Skip to content

← Home

Taras Shevchenko

Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (1814–1861) — Ukrainian poet, prose writer, artist, thinker, and national prophet, author of the "Kobzar". Although he himself, probably, never visited Crimea, his figure and work became firmly embedded in the cultural and civic life of the peninsula — from the 19th century to the present day, which refutes the myths about the alleged "alienness" of Crimea to Ukrainian identity.

Overview

Shevchenko was well known in Crimea both during his lifetime and after his death. In the 19th – early 20th centuries, teachers at Crimean gymnasiums privately acquainted their students with his works, and quotations from his poetry even became epitaphs on the tombstones of figures of Ukrainian cultural life on the peninsula. The Crimean Ukrainian community traditionally gathered in churches and community centers (Simferopol, Sevastopol, Yalta, Yevpatoria, Feodosia) to honor the memory of the Kobzar on the anniversaries of his birth and death, organizing religious and cultural events — despite the sanctions of civil and spiritual authorities.

In the Crimean press ("Krymskiy vestnik", "Yaltinskiy vestnik", "Krymskiy kurier", "Tavrichanin", "Krym") articles and poems dedicated to Shevchenko by local and "mainland" authors were printed, including the outstanding writer Oleksandr Konysky. Ukrainians of Feodosia and Yalta had contacts with the united committee for the erection of a monument to Shevchenko in Kyiv, making donations for this cause.

Key Details / Subtopics

  • Connection with Crimea without personal presence: Shevchenko became an organic part of the Crimean Ukrainian cultural space through reading, honoring, and publications, although the direct evidence of his stay on the peninsula is not provided by the source.
  • Poem by a Crimean (1908): published in the Feodosia newspaper "Ridnyy kray" (Kyiv, No. 9/20 (7), March 7, 1908) the poem ""Kobzar" by T. Shevchenko" signed by Valentyn Viichenko (Feodosia) — evidence of the living perception of the "Kobzar" by a Crimean reader at the beginning of the 20th century.
  • Sadovyanu — translator of Shevchenko into Romanian: in 1945 the classic of Romanian literature Mikhail Sadovyanu translated Shevchenko's works "Ivan Pidkova" and "Sadok vyshnevyy kolo khaty" into Romanian, and in 1957 wrote a foreword to the first Romanian edition of the "Kobzar". He also dedicated a separate historical novella to Hetman Ivan Pidkova (article in the rubric "Crimea in the Works of Foreign Literature", "Krymska svitlytsia", 2019, No. 21-22).
  • Ban during the russian empire: in the last years of the empire any public honoring of Shevchenko was prohibited — it was not allowed to name educational institutions and streets after him, to hold events and collect funds for them.
  • Soviet period: cases of installation of monumental images of the Kobzar in Crimea were rare (village Slavyanske, Rozdolne district; the Shevchenko cinema in Simferopol); his name was given to individual toponymic and cultural objects.
  • Period of Ukraine's independence: monuments to Shevchenko appeared in the large cities of the peninsula. It was planned to install them in Dzhankoi and the urban-type settlement Novoozerne (Yevpatoria region), but these plans were hindered by the russian occupation of Crimea in 2014.
  • Losses due to occupation: the memorial stone in Novoozerne as of 2015 was dismantled; the fate of the bust to the Kobzar on the territory of the HQ of the Ukrainian Navy in Sevastopol, captured by the occupiers, is unknown.
  • Monument in Simferopol: one of the famous monuments to the Kobzar on the peninsula.

Controversies and Open Questions

  • The source provides the poem ""Kobzar" by T. Shevchenko" signed by "Valentyn Viichenko" (1908) as a work of a Crimean honoring the Kobzar; the very status of this text (author's poem or republish) requires additional verification against the primary source of the newspaper "Ridnyy kray".
  • The question of whether Shevchenko visited Crimea personally is not directly resolved by the source; the article emphasizes the influence of the poet's figure on Crimean society, rather than his biographical movements.

Sources and References

  • Shevchenko and Crimea — article by Serhii Konashevych in the newspaper "Krymska svitlytsia" (2018, No. 10), the main source of this page.
  • Andrii Shchekun — chief editor of the newspaper "Krymska svitlytsia", where the article about Shevchenko's connection with Crimea was published.
  • Dzhankoi — a city in Crimea where, during independence, it was planned to install a monument to Shevchenko (hindered by the occupation).
  • Crimean Orthodox Diocese — churches of the diocese were places of traditional honoring of the memory of the Kobzar by Ukrainians of Crimea.
  • School Education in Crimea — context of teaching Shevchenko's works and the russification of school education on the peninsula.
  • Mykola Hohol — both are key figures of Ukrainian literature, mentioned in the materials of "Krymska svitlytsia" (Hohol — in the article "Hohol yak nashe vse", 2017, No. 35).