Taras Shevchenko
Taras Hryhorovych Shevshenko (March 9, 1814 - March 10, 1861) was a famous Ukrainian poet and nationalist. He was born in the village of Moryntsi, in central Ukraine, then of the Russian Empire. Born into a serf family at an early age he was orphaned at the age of eleven. As a child he exhibited talent as a painter and received training with painters in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He was freed from serfdom by the intervention of several St. Petersburg artists who paid 2,500 roubles to gain his release in 1838.In the same year Shevchenko was accepted into the Academy of Arts as an external student, in the workshop of K. Bryullov. The next year he became a resident student at the Association for the Encouragement of Artists. At the annual examinations at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Shevchenko was given a Silver Medal for a landscape. In 1840 he again received the Silver Medal, this time for his first oil painting, The Beggar Boy Giving Bread to a Dog.
He began writing poetry while he was a serf and in 1840, his first collection of poetry, Kobzar, was published. In 1841, the epic poem Haidamaky was released. In September 1841 Shevchenko was awarded his third Silver Medalfor The Gypsy Fortune Teller. Shevchenko also wrote plays. In 1842, he released a part of the tragedy Nykyta Hayday and in 1843 he completed the drama Nazar Stodolya. After these successes Shevchenko traveled to Ukraine where he saw the difficult conditions under which his compatriots lived.
On March 22, 1845, the Council of the Academy of Arts decided to grant Shevchenko the title of artist. He again traveled to Ukraine where he met members of a secret society known as Kyrylo-Methodius Society. On April 5, 1847, Shevchenko was arrested for being a member of this Society as it was considered subversive. He was sent to prison in St. Petersburg. As a result of the investigation into this group he was exiled as a private with the Russian military at Orenburg in the eastern part of the Russian Empire. Tsar Nicholas I, confirming his sentence, wrote, "Under the strictest surveillance, with a ban on writing and painting." It was not until 1857 that Shevchenko finally returned from exile after receiving a pardon, though he was not permitted to return to St. Peterburg but was exiled to Nizhniy Novgorod. In May, 1859, Shevchenko got permission to go to Ukraine. He intended to buy a plot of land not far from the village of Pekariv and settle in Ukraine. In July he was arrested on a charge of blasphemy, but was released and ordered to return to St. Petersburg.
Shevchenko died in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was first buried at the Smolensk Cemetery in St. Petersburg. However he wished to be buried in Ukraine so his friends arranged to transfer his coffin with the body by train to Moscow and then by horse-drawn wagon to Ukraine. Shevchenko's remains were buried on May 8 on Chernecha Hora (Monk's Hill) (now Tarasova Hora or Taras' Hill) by the Dnipro River near Kaniv. A tall mound was erected over his grave, now a memorial.