Taras Shevchenko: The Making of the National Poet

George G. Grabowicz

Revue des études slaves, Paris, LXXXV/3, 2014, p. 421-439.

The bicentennial of Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861) coincided with a remarkable political and social upheaval—a revolution and a national renewal that as of this writing is still ongoing and still under attack in Ukraine.1 The core, and iconic, presence of Shevchenko in that process, and dramatically and symbolically on the Euromaidan itself, has often been noted and the revolutionary changes in which it was embedded will continue to draw the attention of political, sociological and cultural studies in the foreseeable future.2 If only through those manifest optics, Shevchenko was at the center of things in Ukraine—now, as often before.