Every country has its literary heroes who brought into being the languages we speak today. England has Shakespeare, Italy has Dante, Germany has Goethe, and Ukraine has Shevchenko.
Who is Taras Shevchenko: This 1859 photo by Heinrich Denier is the most popular image of Taras Shevchenko. Photo: Public Domain
Taras Shevchenko may be the most famous Ukrainian poet known outside his homeland, but he's more than that. Today, we'll explain why the 19th-century poet continues to be so beloved and valued by Ukrainians.
1. Shevchenko was a respected artist
Why is Taras Shevchenko important to Ukraine: The artist created an oil painting, Kateryna, in 1842. He has a poem of the same name about the tragic story of a Ukrainian woman who was banished from her home for giving birth out of wedlock. Photo: Public Domain
Although Taras Shevchenko is celebrated today as a poet, he was more widely recognized as an artist during his lifetime. In fact, art helped Shevchenko, who was born into a family of serfs and belonged to a wealthy landlord, Engelhardt, become a free man.
Growing up in the Ukrainian village of Kerelivka, Shevchenko was the only child among his siblings who learned to write and read from a rural deacon. At that time, he began to draw, learned from a local painter, and developed a great talent for art.
Shevchenko saw art as a way to achieve success in life and wanted to become an icon painter. His landlord, who brought the boy with him to Vilnius and then St. Petersburg as a court service boy, noticed his knack for art and sent him to study with local artists.
Who is Taras Shevchenko: Nude (1840) is a watercolor painting by Shevchenko. Photo: Public Domain
Over six years of studying art, Taras Shevchenko met and befriended many artists, including Ivan Soshenko, Karl Briullov, Vasily Zhukovsky, Vasyl Hryhorovych, and more, who played the central role in him getting his freedom — his friends collected the equivalent of $40,000 of today's money to buy Shevchenko out of serfdom.
After being granted his freedom in the spring of 1838, Taras Shevchenko was accepted as an external student at the Academy of Arts, where he developed his artistic talent and started earning money as a fine portrait painter. In his work, Shevchenko also portrayed ordinary people — serfs, peasants, poor children, and Romani women — trying to attract public attention to the oppressed. His position as a national advocate started to form.
2. Shevchenko's language is a standard
Why is Taras Shevchenko important to Ukraine: Shevchenko made many drawings and paintings of himself throughout his life. This one was drawn in 1843. Photo: Wikimedia
After traveling to Ukraine to learn more about its culture and history and record folk stories and songs, Taras Shevchenko worked on his first poetry collection. Even though he lived and studied in St. Petersburg for years, he preserved his Ukrainian identity, had no interest in conforming to imperial rules, and didn't write in Russian. In fact, he only wrote two poems in that language throughout his entire life.
Shevchenko published his first collection of eight Ukrainian poems in 1840 under the title Kobzar. He called it after Ukrainian bards who traveled with their banduras, national musical instruments similar to guitars, around their homeland, collecting and singing folksongs. After publishing his first poetry edition, Taras Shevchenko earned the nickname Kobzar.
Who is Taras Shevchenko: The first two pages of the first uncensored edition of Kobzar, published in Prague in 1876. Photo: Czech Embassy in Kyiv
The release of Kobzar was a game-changer for Ukraine and pushed the development of Ukrainian literature. Another famous Ukrainian poet and icon, Ivan Franko, described Kobzar as a breath of fresh air. He compared Shevchenko's poetry to "a spring of pure, cold water" and said its clarity, simplicity, and poetic elegance made it unlike anything Ukrainian literature had seen before.
In his poetry, Taras Shevchenko elevated his mother tongue to new heights. He defined the vocabulary and grammar of the Ukrainian language, setting the standard for how it should sound and be used, and laid a foundation for modern Ukrainian literature.
3. Kobzar is a Ukrainian Bible
Why is Taras Shevchenko important to Ukraine: Peasant Family (1843) Photo: Public Domain
During his life, Taras Shevchenko wrote 237 ballads and poems and published two more collections, both titled Kobzar. Later, uncovered poems were added to new editions, and eventually, all of Shevchenko's work was united in one collection under the same name. With 129 editions, excluding the translations, released into the world, each generation of Ukrainians had its own Kobzar.
Because Kobzar profoundly impacted the language, it became a cornerstone of Ukrainian identity. For the first time in Ukrainian literature, ordinary Ukrainian people were shown as a strong social and political force. In his writings, Taras Shevchenko condemned landlords and Russian tsarist rule and gave a voice to Ukrainians from the lower classes — his protagonists are fighters against the system.
Who is Taras Shevchenko: The monument was installed in Ottawa, Canada, in 2011. Photo: shevchenko.ca
In poems like Kateryna, he shows social injustice toward Ukrainians, especially orphans and women who had a child out of wedlock. Telling the stories of the Cossacks, the state they created, and their triumphs in poems like Haidamaky and Ivan Pidkova, Shevchenko envisions his people as a distinct and independent nation with a unique culture, language, people, and history distinct from Russia.
Ukrainian families have always valued Kobzar as preciously as the Bible, even calling it the Truth Book. In the past, Ukrainians who fled the war or the oppression of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union brought the editions of Kobzar with them and installed monuments to Shevchenko in their new communities. In present Ukraine, each home has its own Kobzar copy.
4. Shevchenko's words echo through time
Why is Taras Shevchenko important to Ukraine: Russian soldiers damaged the monument to Shevchenko in Borodianka, Kyiv region, during the occupation of the town in 2022. Photo: Associated Press
Сhoosing the path of resistance, Taras Shevchenko sought out like-minded people who, too, saw Ukraine as an independent nation. In 1846, the poet joined a secret political society, the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, whose members — Ukrainian historians, writers, professors, students, and other intellectuals — fought for the revival of the Ukrainian language and statehood.
The following year, for his criticism of Russia's oppressive system, Taras Shevchenko was arrested and then sentenced to years of exile. Because his writings undermined the Russian emperor's authority, he was forbidden to write and draw — he resisted the punishment by hiding papers with his works in his boots. For violating the conditions of his sentence, he was imprisoned for seven years until his friends managed to advocate for his release. After spending 10 years in exile, Taras Shevchenko returned home with the status of martyr and national Ukrainian fighter.
The painting Mobilization (2015) by contemporary Ukrainian artist Yurii Shapoval portrays Taras Shevchenko in the Ukrainian army uniform. Photo: Yurii Shapoval
In the same way that he was a beacon of hope for past generations, Shevchenko continues to inspire Ukrainians today. Year after year, they consider him the greatest Ukrainian who ever lived. He's an important example of a patriot whose words teach Ukrainians to love and respect their homeland and protect their identity:
"Love your dear Ukraine, adore her, love her… in fierce times of evil. In the last dread hour of struggle, fervently beseech God for her."
With ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine, Taras Shevchenko's poetry feels fresh and relevant. The poet is considered a prophet who speaks to his people in his works — each generation of Ukrainians who fought for Ukraine's independence from the Russian Empire and Soviet occupation and are defending their homeland now from the modern Russian fascist state. He urges Ukrainians to fight for freedom:
"Rise ye up and break your heavy chains and water with your tyrants' blood the freedom you have gained."
The billboard with the fragment of Taras Shevchenko's The Caucasus in the liberated town of Balaklia. Photo: Mykola Tymchenko/Rubryka
To this day, Shevchenko's poems reassure Ukrainians that they are strong and capable of fighting for a prosperous future. We'll leave you with a striking example of the power of Shevchenko's words. In September 2023, Ukrainian soldiers who just liberated the town of Balakhlia, Kharkiv region, from Russian occupation were tearing down a propaganda banner with a Russian flag that said, "We and Russia are one people." As they ripped the paper from the billboard, Shevchenko's face and words were revealed:
"And glory to you, dark-blue mountains,
Frost and snow protect you;
And to you, great-hearted heroes,
God does not forget you.
Struggle on — and be triumphant!
God Himself will aid you;
At your side fight truth and glory,
Right and holy freedom."
You can read Taras Shevchenko in English here.
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