Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko; March 9 [O.S.

Februa
ry 25] 1814
March 10 [O.S. February 26] 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, arti
st, public and political figure, as well as folklorist and ethnographer. His lit
erary heritage is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature a
nd, to a large extent, the modern Ukrainian language. Shevchenko is also known f
or many masterpieces as a painter and an illustrator.
He was a member of the Sts Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood and an academician of
the Imperial Academy of Arts. In 1847 Shevchenko was convicted for writing work
s satirising the Tsar and Tsarina.[4]Taras Shevchenko was born on March 9 [O.S.
February 25] 1814[Note b] in the village of Moryntsi, Zvenigorodka county, Kiev
Governorate in the Russian Empire (now in Zvenyhorodka Raion, Cherkasy Oblast, U
kraine). After his sister Kateryna[5] and brother Mykyta,[5] he was a third chil
d of serf peasants Hryhoriy Ivanovych Shevchenko (1782?
1825) and Kateryna Yakym
ivna Shevchenko (Boiko) (1782? August 6, 1823) who belong to a landlord Vasiliy
Engelgardt. According to family legends, Taras' forefathers were cossacks who se
rved in the Zaporizhian Host and took part in liberation wars and uprisings of U
kraine in 17th and 18th centuries. Those uprisings were brutally suppressed and
normal social life has disrupted for many years in lands of Cherkasy, Poltava, K
iev, Bratslav, and Chernihiv. Most of the local population was enslaved and impo
verished