The main figure of the monument is Taras Shevchenko, 5.5 meters tall, mounted on a high pedestal of gray (at the time of construction of bright black) Labradorite. The figures surrounding the pedestal are twice as small as the statue of Shevchenko. According to the sculptor's plan, the figures should be inspected in the sequence of a compositional spiral, starting from the figure “Kateryna„ and moving counterclockwise.
Among the statues of the monumental ensemble, connected ideologically with the general idea of ??depicting the struggle of the people for their will sung by Kobzar (other name of Taras Schevchenko, caused by his poetry, that assonant with national songs), we can distinguish some figures and compositions:
- Sculpture “Kateryna„ - a statue of a serf with a baby in his arms, known as “Kateryna„, sung by Taras Shevchenko in the poem of the same name; embodiment of the image of a woman-mother under the burden of loneliness and sorrow;
- 1st composition (“Dying Haydamak. Haydamak with a scythe. The one who breaks the shackles.„) - all three figures are connected both ideologically and plot - according to the general connection of the composition to the poem by Taras Shevchenko “Haidamaky” devoted to the events of Koliivshchyna lies a life-affirming belief in the inviolability of the people's spirit and faith in its victory. The Koliivshchyna was a rebellion by Ukrainian cossacks called haidamaky against the Polish-Lithaunian and Russian reign of Ukraine in 1768/1769;
- The sculpture „The Bound Cossack“ is one of the most expressive statues, which conveys the patriotic, multifaceted character of the hero, who embodies the people's strength and greatness, sorrow and pain;
2nd composition („Peasant woman. He who carries a millstone. Soldier-recruit.“) - in the images of representatives of various strata of the working people embodied the idea of suffering of Ukrainians for the Russian Tsar;
- 3rd composition („Worker with a bowed flag. Student. Worker with a rifle. Sailor. Red Army.“) - statues of the 3rd composition depict images of the elderly people of social cataclysms of the first decades of 20th century;
- 4th composition („Peasant. Miner. Woman with a book (Girl-rabfakivka).“) - figures of the latter group, according to the author, represent the free labor and youth of Ukraine.
History
From 1907 to 1934, a monument to Vasyl Karazin (1773-1842) - first founder of Ukrainian University and the second oldest Ukrainian University - stood on the site of the modern monument to Taras Shevchenko in the University Garden (now also named after Taras Shevchenko). It was later moved three times, first to University Street to one of the old university buildings, then, in 1958 to the left side of the current main building of Kharkiv University, and finally in 2004 to the central entrance of the building.
Kharkiv is known as the city where one of the first (or even the first) monuments to Taras Shevchenko in Ukraine was erected. The Alchevsky family initiated the creation of the first monument to Shevchenko in Kharkiv.
The city of Kharkiv as the capital of Ukraine (1919-1934) simply had to have a monument to Taras Shevchenko. That is why on June 2, 1929 the Kharkiv City Council passed a resolution on the construction of such a monument. In 1930 the first international competition for the construction of a monument to Taras Shevchenko was announced in Kharkiv. There were a total of three such competitions during 1930 and 1933.
On September 22, 1933, an exhibition of projects was opened, which presented 30 works by leading masters of the time: Fedir Krychevsky (1879-1947), Serhii Merkurov (1881-1952), Matvyi Manizer (1891-1966), Ivan Kavaleridze (1887-1978), Anatolyi Petritsky (1895-1964) and others. Determining the winners of the competition remains another vulnerable and controversial topic, so the best project of the September exhibition included a joint project of Ukrainian artist Fedor Krychevsky and Russian sculptor Serhiy Merkurov. The work of Matthew Manizer was recognized.
Matviy Manizer (1891-1966), at that time a mature master-creator of a number of significant monuments, a supporter of realistic art, actively participated in the competition from the beginning. There is evidence that working on the project, the sculptor worked hard to find the necessary shapes and proportions, images and general concept of the monument - he traveled to Shevchenko, made a large number of landscape and genre sketches, carefully studied the appearance and personality - Taras Shevchenko for his works, correspondence and memoirs about him, self-portraits, a few photographs, a posthumous mask, etc.
He did the first project of the monument (1930) in a somewhat constructivist manner - Shevchenko's large head with an expression of zeal was mounted on a cylindrical pedestal with a bas-relief of a rebel Haidamak, who, standing on his knees, angrily shook the shackles. In the second project (1931) Manizer placed a statue of the poet on a pedestal with low relief, which depicted characters from the works of Kobzar. And only the third version of the project (1933) brought the sculptor creative pleasure and victory in the All-Union competition, and this despite the fact that the competition was attended by many outstanding sculptors of his time.
A total of 30 tons of bronze and 400 tons of labradorite were used to create the monument. About 75 wagons of various construction materials were used in the construction of the monument, including 25 wagons with labradorite.
The grand opening of the monument on March 24, 1935 became a national holiday. Kharkiv was decorated with flags, the streets were crowded. At 2:30 a.m., Volodymyr Zatonsky (1988-1938), People's Commissar for Education of the Ukrainian SSR, cut the ribbon that pulled the taut red veil over the monument. A salute rang out, and a large choir sang Shevchenko's Testament in 700 voices.
At the time of its opening (March 24, 1935), the monument to Taras Shevchenko in Kharkiv was the tallest bronze composition in the entire USSR. Despite its size and ideological orientation, the monument was not damaged during World War II. It was located near the Shevchenko monument in Kharkiv on August 30, 1943 that the first official rally of the city liberated from the German occupiers took place with the participation of Ivan Koniev (1897-1973) and Nikita Khruschov (1894-1971).
In the post-war period in the USSR, the monument was traditionally a venue for events dedicated to various dates in Ukrainian history and culture, including the commemoration of the Shevchenko anniversary.
Since the late 1980s, the square near the monument has become a place of gathering of national forces, holding democratic rallies. Since Ukrainian independence in 1991, visits to Kharkiv by high-ranking Kyiv officials and international guests, has been possible without laying flower bouquets at the monument. Between 1990 and 2000 the right side of the monument was vandalized several times.
The Kharkiv monument to Taras Shevchenko was erected four years earlier as the main Kyiv monument and monument on Kobzar's grave in Kaniv, and the author (sculptor) of all three, in fact the main and most famous in Ukraine, is Matviy Manizer. This monument to Taras Shevchenko is officially recognized as the most beautiful one in Europe.
Taras Schevchenko’s poems
„Kateryna”
The theme of a betrayed girl or a girl who has not waited for her sweetheart is a typical romantic drama. Among the literary predecessors - European bourgeois drama and sentimental story (the motif of love between a gentleman and a commoner with a tragic ending), Byronic poem - European and Slavic (the motif of love of a native with a stranger, lyricism, features of composition and style). Among Western European writers, works on this topic were written by Goethe, S. Richardson (his novel “Clarissa„, which Shevchenko read in Russian translation in the magazine “Library for Reading„ (? 1-7 for 1848), he mentioned in the novel “The Artist„). »), D. Crabbe, W. Wordsworth, J. Foss, G.-A. Burgher.
In Shevchenko's “Catherine„ the tragic fate of the heroine falls on a completely different historical perspective. The world of the Ukrainian countryside is not yet traditionally and ethically subject to Moscow and organically rejects it. This is exactly the ethical and customary meaning of Shevchenko's warning refrain:
“O lovely maidens, fall in love,
But not with Muscovites,
For Muscovites are foreign folk,
They leave you in a plight.”
In the Ukrainian countryside, the girl had a great will, which, however, was controlled by strict requirements for virginity, and „their“ boys were mostly attentive to the girl's fate, especially since their bad deeds against the girl would be condemned by the community. Instead, the „stranger“, in this case a Muscovite, did not know the responsibility for the girl's honor, lived by other notions and considered it valor to
seduce some rural beauty.
This is the difference between Shevchenko's poem and all the others - numerous in the world, especially romantic literature about the fate of the victim girl. The difference is also that with great poetic power recreates not only the range of all the heroine's experiences, the humanity of her feelings, but also the suffering of her father and mother, the whole „rural“ context of the tragedy. In this multidimensionality of the supposedly romantic collision, Shevchenko goes beyond the romantic way of interpretation, the image of the heroine is not literary, as in the works of Oleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837) and Yevgenyi Baratynsky (1800-1844), but purely folk, a peasant girl with a rich soul and sensuality.
„Testament”
It focuses on the leading ideas, motives and images of the angry muse of the poet-fighter. The whole work sounds like a passionate speech of the revolutionary tribune addressed to the people.
In the elegiac-epic tone, by means of folk symbolism, Shevchenko depicts in the first stanzas of the poem a poetic image of Ukraine, warmed by love. In the following lines, the language becomes fragmentary, excited - the poet can not speak calmly about the enemies of the fatherland.
The image of the steppe mountain tomb of the great Kobzar became a national shrine, sung by the poet in his “Testament”
When I am dead, bury me
In my beloved Ukraine,
My tomb upon a grave mound high
Amid the spreading plain,
So that the fields, the boundless steppes,
The Dnieper's plunging shore
My eyes could see, my ears could hear
The mighty river roar.
When from Ukraine the Dnieper bears
Into the deep blue sea
The blood of foes ... then will I leave
These hills and fertile fields —
I'll leave them all and fly away
To the abode of God,
And then I'll pray .... But till that day
I nothing know of God.
Oh bury me, then rise ye up
And break your heavy chains
And water with the tyrants' blood
The freedom you have gained.
And in the great new family,
The family of the free,
With softly spoken, kindly word
Remember also me.
Friends of the poet, his contemporaries, the people fulfilled the testament. From the far northern capital, Shevchenko's body was taken to Ukraine for a long time, and was not buried in Kyiv; Friends chose a burial place on Monk's Hill, comparing the grandeur of the place with cherished lines, and fragile maiden hands, according to ancient folk custom, rolled a cart with a heavy lead coffin through the mountains and valleys on a long last journey. Here, on a steep mountain, above the Dnipro, and buried.
Taras Shevchenko and the Russo-Ukrainian War
Taras Shevchenko is a national character with an outstanding importance for Ukrainian history and the Ukrainian national identity. Starting from 24 of February 2022, the Russian army tried to occupy Kharkiv. Besides, permanent bombing of the civil infrustructure, including residental and office buildings, parks, roads and monuments, the situation forced local municipality to protect more Taras Shevchenko’s ansemble. The Battle of Kharkiv ended on my 14, 2022 - the monument was not damaged.
Internet sources
www.dic.academic.ru: Monument to Taras Shevchenko (Kharkiv)
www.taras-shevchenko.storinka.org: Taras Shevchenko's poem „My Testament“ (translated by John Weir)
www.taras-shevchenko.storinka.org: Poem of Taras Shevchenko „Katerina“ („Kateryna“) in English, translated by John Weir and Mary Skrypnyk
www.times.kharkiv.ua: The Independence Monument and the monument to Shevchenko in Kharkiv are laid with sandbags (photo)
(Anastasia Kutsa, Lviv Polytechnic National University, 2022. This object was created during the Russo-Ukrainian War in April/May 2022)