Enter...
Login:
Password:
Remember me
Forgot your password?
Registration
Search Advanced Search
Essays
Brief contents
Complete works
Specifications
Biographies
Criticism
GDZ
Do you have something to add?
Send us your works, get litr's and exchange them for T shirts, notebooks and pens from Litra.ru!
/ Biographies / Shevchenko T. G.
Shevchenko T. G.
Download the biography
Taras Hrygoryevich Shevchenko (Shevchenko Hrushevsky) is a famous Ukrainian poet; he was born on February 25, 1814, in the village of Morintsy, Zvenigorod district, Kiev province, in the serf peasant family of landowner Vasily Engelhardt.
The Grushevsky family, which began to be called first the Grushevsky Shevchenkas, then simply the Shevchenkas, belonged to the number of peasant families that had long lived in S. Kirillovka, Zvenigorodsky district.
The poet's father, Grigory Shevchenko Hrushevsky, married the daughter of a peasant of the village of Morinets, Akim Boyka, moved to Morintsy and settled in the estate purchased for him by his father in law; soon, however, the Shevchenko moved back to Kirillovka, where Taras Grigoryevich spent his childhood.
The Shevchenko family was numerous and poor, and Taras had to get acquainted with the need early.
Up to the age of 9, Taras lived, however, tolerably well.
He was left to himself and partly to the care of his older sister Catherine.
About nine years old, Taras experienced significant changes in his family environment: his beloved sister Ekaterina got married in another village, and his mother died soon after.
Taras ' father, left a widower with a large family, married a second time in order to have a mistress in the house.
Taras Grigoryevich's stepmother was a widow who had three children of her own and had a very quarrelsome disposition.
There was an eternal enmity and fights between the children of the stepmother and the father.
The stepmother tortured her husband's children according to the slander of her children; so, once, at the age of about 11, Taras Grigoryevich was suspected of stealing 45 kopecks, hid for 4 days in the bushes and, finally, found by the stepmother's children, was brutally beaten and locked in a barn.
Later it turned out that the money was stolen by the stepmother's son, Stepanko.
Soon after this fact, the father, it is believed, in order to save his son from the eternal persecution of his stepmother, sent him to school.
What kind of school it was, it is not exactly established.
It is assumed that this was a parochial school, in which the priest Gubsky, who was dismissed from office, taught.
At the age of 12, Taras Grigoryevich also lost his father, who died on March 21, 1825.
After that, Shevchenko's situation at home became even more difficult.
In order to get away from domestic troubles, and also to satisfy his desire to study, T. G. entered the school again, where not Gubsky, but two sextons were already teaching.
There was no one to pay for T. G., and he fell into complete bondage to one of the deacons, for whom he had to work for the right to study.
Shevchenko earned his own food by reading the psalter over the dead, but this meager earnings almost entirely went to the benefit of the sexton.
At this time, Taras Grigoryevich had to severely starve and get cold, and boots and a hat were an unattainable luxury for him.
Shevchenko also had to experience a lot from the sexton, who was an ardent admirer of the rod and the triplet and beat his pupils, and especially Taras, for whom there was no one to intercede, mercilessly.
The sexton brought the boy to such anger that one day, finding his teacher dead drunk, Shevchenko tied him hand and foot and whipped him himself.
After that, Taras could only run, which he did, leaving at night in the town of Lysyanka.
In Lysyanka and the neighboring villages there were many icon painters, among whom there were also clerics.
Shevchenko, who felt a passion for painting from an early age, entered Lysyanka as an apprentice to one of these icon painters, a deacon; however, he soon left this deacon for the village of Tarasovka to a painter who was famous in the surrounding area; but this painter, who was engaged in palmistry, on the basis of this science did not recognize any abilities in the boy, and Shevchenko had to return to his homeland in c. Kirillovka.
Here Shevchenko got into the shepherds of the public flock, but, due to his absent mindedness, he turned out to be completely incapable of such an occupation.
The same absent mindedness and inability to devote himself entirely to small interests made him unsuitable for agricultural work.
In the end, he turned out to be a"pogonich" boy for the priest S. Kirillovka, Grigory Koshitsa.
Here, too, the boy turned out to be incapable and lazy.
From Koshitsa, with whom he stayed for a short time, Shevchenko left and again tried to enroll in the study of a painter in the village of Khlipnovka.
This painter recognized Shevchenko's abilities, but refused to accept him without the written permission of the landowner.
Having gone to the estate manager for this permission, Shevchenko, as a lively boy, attracted the attention of the manager; the latter appreciated the talented teenager in his own way, and Shevchenko was taken into the yard boys, and soon he was made an apprentice cook.
He did not show any talents in studying the art of cooking, and in the end, the manager Dmitrenko sent him to the owner's son, Pavel Engelhardt, to whose "staff" he was intended, with a certificate that Shevchenko was capable of painting, and with a proposal to make him a "room painter".
Young Engelhardt made Shevchenko a room Cossack, and Taras Grigoryevich had to spend whole days in the hall, waiting for the order to bring a glass of water or fill his pipe.
The passion for painting, however, did not leave Shevchenko, and in his spare time he drew pictures that were in the hall.
Once, being carried away by drawing a portrait of ataman Platov, he did not notice the appearance of the owner at this work, who, angry that Shevchenko did not hear his appearance, sent him to the stable.
The passion for painting did not weaken in Shevchenko after this incident, and in the end, the landowner, convinced that he would not make an intelligent Cossack and a lackey, decided to send him to study with a painter in Warsaw.
Six months later, the painter informed the landowner about the outstanding abilities of the young man and advised him to give him to the portrait painter Lampi.
Engelhardt realized the benefits of having his own portrait painter and followed the advice of the painter.
The Polish uprising that was being prepared forced the prudent Engelhardt, who did not want to become hostile to any of the parties (Engelhardt was Orthodox in religion, a colonel in the Russian service, but a Pole in language), to leave for St. Petersburg.
Shevchenko was also supposed to move to St. Petersburg after him.
In St. Petersburg, Shevchenko again fell into the painful position of a Cossack under Engelhardt, which was, of course, much harder after working with Lampi.
He began to ask to study painting again.
Engelhardt again gave it to the painter, Shiryaev.
He was a rude, domineering and ignorant man.
The work that Shevchenko had to do for him had nothing to do with art; the external environment of life was terrible.
Shevchenko had to live with Shiryaev for several years in complete bondage.
The passion for art, however, did not fade even in this unfavorable environment.
The case brought him together with a fellow countryman, the artist Sotenko, who drew attention to the talented young man.
Sotenko introduced Shevchenko to Bryullov, Venetsianov, Zhukovsky, Grebenka.
The fate of the serf painter interested them; they took part in Shevchenko, and a turn for the better began in his life.
Shevchenko's friends took care of some of his education and began to prepare for his release from serfdom.
Grebenka and Sotenko supplied him with books; the latter supervised his artistic studies, begged Shiryaev for a month of freedom for Shevchenko, for which he undertook to paint a portrait of Shiryaev.
To free Shevchenko from serfdom, Bryullov and Venetsianov went to Engelhardt, hoping to convince him to give Shevchenko freedom, taking into account his talent.
Engelhardt demanded 2500 rubles for Shevchenko's freedom.
This money was collected as follows: Bryullov painted a portrait of Zhukovsky, and this portrait was drawn in a lottery.
In April 1838, Shevchenko finally received his freedom.
Then he began to attend classes at the Academy of Fine Arts and soon became one of Bryullov's favorite students.
In the studio of Bryullov, Shevchenko was already thinking about his poems.
His biographers, however, do not find out when he started writing poetry.
The earliest mention of Shevchenko's poem is the mention of Sotenka, who is angry with Shevchenko for his "verses" that distract him from the real thing.
It is very likely that Shevchenko began writing poetry late, after his acquaintance with Sotenko and writers, when he became aware of Kotlyarevsky's "Aeneid", Pushkin's" Poltava " translated by Grebenka, etc.
Before that, he composed only folk songs, which is very understandable, since the form of folk poetry was so "his" for Shevchenko that it is difficult to doubt that his poetic creativity developed directly from the folk poetic tradition.
But, on the other hand, Shevchenko himself says that his first poetic experiments began "in the Summer Garden, on bright moonless nights", and that "the Ukrainian strict muse for a long time shunned his taste, perverted by life in captivity, in the landowner's anteroom, in inns, in city apartments"; this Muse "embraced and caressed Shevchenko" in a foreign country, as the breath of freedom returned to his feelings the purity of the first years.
Thus, probably, the first works of Shevchenko were not written in Little Russian, during his stay in St. Petersburg with Shiryaev (Sotenko met him for the first time in the Summer Garden).
He began to write Little Russian works, apparently, after his release (in the studio of Bryullov, he considered some of his early works).
Shevchenko's little Russian works first appeared in print in 1840, when the first issue of "Kobzar"was printed at the expense of the Poltava landowner Martos.
This issue includes "My Thoughts, thoughts", "Perebendya", "Katerina", "Poplars", "Ivan Pikdova", "Tarasova nich" and some other works.
A prominent role in the appearance of the "Kobzar" was played by Grebenka, who, apparently, owns the very idea of publishing Shevchenko's little Russian works and the merit of obtaining funds for the publication.
Martos, apparently, was attracted to the case by the Comb.
Russian criticism met Shevchenko's works very harshly, and the most severe was Belinsky's review.
Belinsky denied the very legality of the existence of Little Russian literature.
Shevchenko's biographer, Konisky, believes that these reviews were the reason that made Shevchenko start writing in Russian.
But as much as Shevchenko's works were met with Russian criticism, they aroused the same warm sympathy in his fellow countrymen.
Shevchenko soon became the favorite Ukrainian poet, the pride of his compatriots.
Until 1843, Shevchenko wrote in Little Russian, then in Russian.
In 1843, he finally stopped writing in Little Russian and did not write anything in Russian until the half of the 50s.
In the same 1843, Shevchenko plans to publish "Picturesque Ukraine" (this publication did not take place).
In order to collect material for this publication, Shevchenko went to Little Russia in 1843, first of all to Tarnovsky, known as a little Russian patron of art, to his estate in the Chernihiv province.
At the same time, in the Chernihiv province, he met the family of princes Repnins.
Shevchenko has established strong friendly relations with Princess Varvara Nikolaevna Repnina for many years.
On the same trip, Shevchenko visited his homeland in Kirillovka, visited the place of the last Sich, Khortytsia and the place of the Zaporozhye shrine — the Mezhyhirsky Monastery.
While giving himself up to literature, Shevchenko did not, however, abandon painting.
From 1839 to 1841, Shevchenko repeatedly received awards at the Academy of Arts.
After returning from a trip to his homeland, he again started academic work, dreamed of a business trip abroad.
However, the work on the "Picturesque Ukraine" and other troubles related to Shevchenko's national interests prevented him from studying at the Academy, and the trip abroad did not take place.
In February 1844, Shevchenko went to Moscow.
There he met with fellow countrymen Shchepkin and Bodyansky, there he also wrote his poem "Chigirin".
In June of the same year, Shevchenko wrote the poem "Dream", which later served as one of the main reasons for exile.
In the summer of 1844, Shevchenko again made a trip to Little Russia.
He was in his native Kirillovka, staying, by the way, with the landowner Zakrevsky, whom he had met the previous summer.
Zakrevsky was the head of the society "Mochemordia".
This society was something like a "Green Lamp", in which Pushkin once participated: its members spent time in carousals.
Shevchenko became close to Zakrevsky and the "mochemords", which greatly upset his friend — Princess Repnina, who tried her best to distract the poet from this company.
Shevchenko spent the autumn and part of the winter of 1844 with the Repnins, then returned to St. Petersburg, where he continued to work at the Academy.
On March 25, 1845, Shevchenko received a diploma of a free artist.
At the same time, Shevchenko's work on portraits of 12 generals, for the publication of the same name, undertaken by Polevoy, belongs to the same time.
In the spring of 1845, Shevchenko left St. Petersburg, this time for a long time.
He went through Moscow, where he again saw Bodyansky and Shchepkin, and went to Little Russia.
He lived with various friends and in his native Kirillovka, and in the autumn he came to Kiev.
Here he met Kulish personally (he had corresponded with Kulish before, and, according to some instructions, he had seen him before).
Kulish planned to attract Shevchenko to Kiev, as a center of little Russian education, and prepared his appointment as an employee of the Archeographic Commission.
Shevchenko filed a petition in August 1845 and again left for the Poltava province and his homeland.
Shevchenko's matchmaking dates back to this time.
He fell in love with the daughter of the same priest Koshitsa, for whom he once served as a pogonich; the girl also fell in love with him, but her parents did not consider it possible to have their recent "lad" as a son in law, and Shevchenko was refused.
In October, Shevchenko was appointed an employee of the Kiev Commission for the analysis of ancient acts and immediately went to the Poltava province to search for and sketch ancient monuments.
On this trip, Shevchenko visited the famous Gustynsky monastery.
In the same year, he wrote several poetic works, including the poem "The Caucasus".
Shevchenko's excursions covered a significant part of the Poltava and Chernihiv provinces.
At the end of April 1846, Shevchenko returned to Kiev.
At this time, Shevchenko met Kostomarov, who in the autumn of 1845 was transferred from the city of Rovna, Volyn province, as a teacher to the Kiev first Gymnasium.
Kulish was no longer in Kiev at that time, and Kostomarov was the center of Kiev youth.
Shevchenko soon met and became close to him.
At Kostomarov's, Shevchenko met Gulak, Belozersky and some others, who later became part of the so called Cyril and Methodius Society.
In May, Kostomarov was elected a professor at the University of St. Vladimir, and in the autumn the pan Slavic Cyril and Methodius Society was formed, which aimed to spread the idea of Slavic reciprocity and a future federation of Slavic peoples on the basis of complete freedom and autonomy of individual nationalities.
The program of the society included the liberation of the peasants and the enlightenment of the people.
Members of the society had to wear rings with the names of Cyril and Methodius.
The society was organized during Shevchenko's trip to the Poltava province, so that upon his return to Kiev, he was soon introduced into the society by Kostomarov.
In the summer, Shevchenko together with prof.
Ivanishev made excavations in the Vasilkovsky district, near the town of Fastov.
In the autumn, Shevchenko was sent to the south western region to record songs and fairy tales, to draw mounds and historical monuments.
During this trip, Shevchenko visited Kamenets, Pochayev, the village of Verbki near Kovel, Volyn province, where Prince Kurbsky is buried.
In all these places Shevchenko made drawings, of which, however, most have not been preserved.
In December 1846, on the first day of Christmas, Shevchenko attended a meeting of the Cyril and Methodius circle, spoke a lot and sharply.
Others took part in the conversation, and the conversation was frank.
Meanwhile, there was a certain Petrov, a student of the University of St. Vladimir, recently introduced into society by Gulak, to whom he managed to ingratiate himself.
This Petrov crept into the confidence of society in order to track him down and after a while reported all the conversations to his superiors.
The results of the denunciation did not affect now.
After Christmas, Shevchenko went to the Chernihiv province for the wedding of Kulish, and then lived with various friends in the Chernihiv province until Easter.
At this time, he was appointed a teacher of drawing at the Kiev University.
After Easter, Shevchenko went to Kiev, where he was in a hurry for Kostomarov's wedding.
When entering Kiev, Shevchenko was arrested.
The case of the Cyril and Methodius Society, despite the absolute innocence of its program, was given great importance: all the accused were brought to St. Petersburg, where the investigation was carried out by the third department under the direct supervision of Count Orlov himself.
The character of the society was fairly correctly determined by the investigation, which did not exaggerate its danger.
"The goal, according to Orlov's report, was to unite the Slavic tribes under the scepter of the Russian emperor.
The means to achieve this goal were supposed to inspire the Slavic tribes to respect their own nationality, establish harmony among the Slavs, persuade them to accept the Orthodox religion, establish schools and publish books for the common people."
Despite the fact that these tasks do not represent anything criminal in themselves, Count Orlov considered it necessary to subject all these persons "to punishment without trial, but without keeping the decision of the case secret, so that everyone knows what fate those who are engaged in Slavism in a spirit contrary to our government have prepared for themselves, and in order to turn other Slavophiles away from such a direction."
The verdict in this case was unusually harsh.
It was especially difficult for Shevchenko, who, although he was recognized as not belonging to society, but, according to the outrageous spirit and audacity, one of the important criminals.
According to the assumption of gr.
Orlov guilty should have suffered such a punishment: to be imprisoned in fortresses — Gulak in Shlisselburg for three years, Kostomarov in St. Petersburg for a year, Belozersky and Kulish for four months, Navrotsky to be kept in the guardhouse for six months, Andruzsky and Posyad to be sent to Kazan to complete a university course, Shevchenko, as gifted with a strong physique, to be assigned as a private to the Orenburg separate corps, with the rights of service, instructing the authorities to have strict supervision, so that from him under no there could be no outrageous and libellous writings.
The punishment was commuted to everyone except Gulak, Kostomarov and Shevchenko.
On June 9, Shevchenko was already delivered by a courier to Orenburg and enlisted as a private in the fifth battalion located in the Orsk Fortress, where he was escorted on June 20.
The Orsk fortress was an insignificant village in the middle of the deserted Kyrgyz steppe, with a population of military and convicts.
The landscape surrounding the Orsk fortress was oppressive with its monotony and deadness.
If we add to this the disenfranchised position of a soldier and the prohibition to write and draw, it is difficult not to recognize the conditions in which Shevchenko found himself, mainly due to his "strong physique", terrible.
To a certain extent, they were softened by the care of the Orenburg Little Russians: Lazarevsky, Levitsky and others, who managed to win over the battalion commander and some of the Orsk officials in favor of Shevchenko; but nevertheless, Shevchenko had to live in the difficult situation of the backwater barracks of the pre reform era, study soldiers '"literature", shagistics, etc.
All this, after a brilliant period of life in Kiev, free work, a society of sympathetic, intelligent people.
It is not surprising that it was not easy for a person who was tested in misfortunes; "all my previous sufferings," Shevchenko wrote to one of his friends, " compared to the real ones, were only children's tears."
One of the major disasters of Shevchenko was a complete lack of his aptitude for pacing, which he never mastered during all the time of his military service.
Shevchenko was deprived of the opportunity to read, to receive his previous drawings, in a word, he was in the position of being buried alive.
The terrible conditions of existence also affected the physical health of Shevchenko, although he had a strong physique.
In the autumn of 1847, he fell ill with rheumatism, and then with scurvy.
In 1848, Shevchenko took part in an expedition to Kaim and the Aral Sea, under the command of General Schreiberg and Lieutenant Commander Butakov.
Shevchenko was appointed to the expedition as a draftsman, at the request of Butakov, who was asked for Shevchenko by Lazarevsky and other Orenburg friends of his.
The expedition reached the river on foot.
Kaima, and from there on two schooners "Konstantin" and "Mikhail" went along the Syr Darya to the Aral Sea.
The voyage on the Aral Sea lasted two months;
At that time, Shevchenko was engaged in drawing the shores of the Aral Sea.
He lived in the officer's cabin and felt relatively tolerable.
In the autumn, the schooners anchored at the mouth of the Syr Darya, and the expedition stayed for the winter in the Kos Aral fortress.
This wintering was very difficult for Shevchenko, who had to spend all his time in the barracks, without the company of intelligent people (the leaders of the expedition went to Orenburg for the winter") and without any news from the world dear to the poet.
The mail came to Kos Aral once every six months.
In 1849, the Butakov expedition continued its work, and Shevchenko again participated in it.
At the end of the expedition, Butakov asked to send non commissioned officer Thomas Werner (apparently also from exiles) and private Taras Shevchenko to Orenburg to complete the work.
The pretext was the inability to finish their work at sea, but in all probability Butakov just wanted to give Shevchenko the opportunity to spend at least some time in tolerable conditions.
The permission followed, and Shevchenko was in Orenburg in early November.
There he managed to live a human life for some time.
Captain of the general staff Gern took part in it, who offered the poet to settle in his house, giving him a whole wing; the same Gern offered Shevchenko the right to receive letters addressed to him.
Thus, Shevchenko was able to resume correspondence with his friends and conduct it more freely than before.
Fellow countrymen of the Little Russians who served in Orenburg, and exiled Poles vied for the honor of receiving the poet of Ukraine.
There were hopes for liberation, at least for the official lifting of the ban on writing and drawing.
The Governor General Perovsky himself petitioned for Shevchenko.
Shevchenko had the idea to turn to the intercession of Zhukovsky.
However, these hopes were soon dispelled.
In December 1849, Orlov informed the commander of the Orenburg corps, Obruchev, that he had come in with a very detailed report on allowing Private Shevchenko to draw, but "The Highest permission was not followed."
Meanwhile, Shevchenko's friends arranged things so that, after finishing his work with Butakov, he was assigned to the battalion not to Kaim, where the mail went every six months, but to the Novopetrovskoye fortification, to study the coal discovered in the Kapa Tau mountains.
Thus, Shevchenko would have to get rid of the barracks situation for some time.
Fate, however, decided otherwise.
Shevchenko had the temerity to reveal the adventures of the wife of one of his friends with officer Isaev.
This made him an enemy in Isaev, and the hero, beaten by his husband, wrote a denunciation to the corps commander about it.
that Shevchenko not only violates the Highest command not to draw and not to write, but also goes in a particular dress.
The corps commander, who himself sent Shevchenko to the Butakov expedition and ordered him a portrait of his wife, fearing complications, ordered a search to be carried out at Shevchenko, reported the incident to the third department and arrested Shevchenko.
As a result, Shevchenko spent six months in different casemates, was sent to the Novo Petrovskoye fortification, but not for the study of coal, but to the front, under strict supervision.
In Novo Petrovsky Shevchenko, not only was it strictly forbidden to write and draw, but it was not even allowed to have pencils, ink, pens and paper with them.
Shevchenko's situation here was terrible.
Novo Petrovskoye itself was no less a blind corner than Kaim.
Abandoned on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, in the remote steppe, it was cut off from the world for the time of the cessation of navigation.
In addition, Shevchenko got into the company of the rude and cruel captain Potapov, with strict instructions to monitor all his actions.
This situation was worse than hard labor.
The supervision of Shevchenko was so strict that for about 2 years he could not write a single letter.
He lived in the general barracks, a special "uncle" was assigned to supervise him and he was taken to work and to study.
Drunk Potapov mocked Shevchenko in every possible way, bringing him, a battered elderly man, to tears.
It should be added to this that Shevchenko was deprived of the opportunity to receive letters from his friends: Princesses Repnina and Lizoguba, who were, under the threat of very unpleasant consequences, offered gr.
Orlov to stop correspondence with the disgraced poet.
Since the middle of 1852, the oppression that Shevchenko had to endure began to weaken somewhat.
Obruchev left Orenburg, and Potapov left Novopetrovsk.
The commandant of Novopetrovsk, Mayevsky, a kind but timid man, could now make some concessions to Shevchenko, and he got the opportunity to correspond with friends.
However, he still did not have the opportunity to write and draw, and he did not get this opportunity soon.
More significant improvements in Shevchenko's life occurred with the appointment of Major Uskov as the commandant of Novopetrovsk.
Uskov, partly on his own impulse, partly under the influence of Shevchenko's Orenburg friends and some hints from Perovsky, decided to do what Mayevsky did not have the courage to do.
He suggested to the officers not to harass Shevchenko at the front and to release him from heavy work; when Uskov's wife, an educated and humane woman, arrived, Shevchenko began to visit their house and soon became his own person there.
He became especially attached to the children of the Uskovs.
Under Uskov, Shevchenko was able to satisfy his need for creativity at least in a minimal share — he began to sculpt figurines from local clay.
This occupation aroused the question among Shevchenko's superiors about whether Shevchenko was allowed to engage in sculpture?
Uskov had the courage to admit that what is not prohibited is allowed.
Shevchenko also lived in the barracks at Uskov, although one of the artillery officers offered him to settle in his apartment.
One of the facts that took place during this period of time is extremely characteristic.
To give Shevchenko the opportunity to draw, Uskov applied for permission to paint an image for a local church, but this request was refused.
Nevertheless, Uskov gave Shevchenko the opportunity to occasionally draw "thieves" and write, but not in the Little Russian language.
Shevchenko could indulge in these activities in the gazebo of the garden, which was bred on his initiative, in which, with Uskov's permission, he lived in the summer.
His stories were written here in Russian.
The new reign that came, which brought liberation to many political exiles, revived hopes for freedom in T. G. Shevchenko.
However, the manifesto of March 27 did not touch him.
Shevchenko's biographer, Mr. Konisky, says that Shevchenko's name was crossed off the list of political exiles receiving amnesty by the emperor himself.
Despite the efforts of the president of the Academy of Arts, gr.
F. P. Tolstoy, for him, Shevchenko did not wait for the relief of his fate and for the coronation.
Gr.
Tolstoy and Shevchenko's St. Petersburg friends continued, however, to work hard, and on April 17, 1857, the amnesty was signed.
However, even after this joyful day for Shevchenko, he had to wait three months for his actual release, and at that time the authorities, who had not yet received an official notification, continued to demand front line service from him.
It was especially difficult for Shevchenko in the days of the arrival of the battalion commander of Lviv, who did not like Shevchenko and mocked him after the pardon.
At the same time, a very unpleasant incident occurred with Shevchenko, which threatened to deprive him of his newly obtained freedom again.
Engineer officer Campioni invited Shevchenko to a party.
Shevchenko flatly refused, and the offended Campioni filed a report that Shevchenko had insulted him.
Uskov tried to hush up the matter, but Shevchenko had to apologize to Campioni and involuntarily get drunk with his company, but at the expense of Shevchenko.
On the very eve of his release, in July (the official notification of his release was received on July 21), Shevchenko was again diligently trained at the front in order to be assigned to the guard of honor to Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, who was waited for in vain in Novopetrovsky.
Finally, the paper on the release of Shevchenko was received, and on August 2, 1857, Shevchenko left Novopetrovsk.
In total, he stayed in the soldiers for 10 years and several months.
From Novopetrovsk, Shevchenko went by boat to Astrakhan.
Shevchenko had to live in Astrakhan for about two weeks.
Local Little Russians, having learned about his arrival, hurried to the closet hired by him to welcome the poet's release.
After them, intelligent Great Russians and Poles honored Shevchenko.
The millionaire Sapozhnikov arranged an evening in honor of Shevchenko.
On August 22, Shevchenko took a steamer along the Volga to Nizhny Novgorod.
On the way, Shevchenko saw Kostomarov's mother in Saratov, who was in Stockholm at that time.
On September 20, Shevchenko reached Nizhny Novgorod.
In Nizhny Shevchenko had to stay wait for quite a long time.
The fact is that he left Novopetrovsk with a permit issued to him by Uskov, who, not knowing that Shevchenko was forbidden to stay in the capitals, issued a permit to travel through Moscow to St. Petersburg.
Having received an order to send him to Orenburg a few days after Shevchenko's departure, Uskov sounded the alarm and informed the St. Petersburg, Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod police that, upon Shevchenko's arrival, it was necessary to declare him forbidden to stay in the capitals and invite him to go to Orenburg, where he should henceforth live "until the final dismissal to his homeland".
The Nizhny Novgorod administration treated Shevchenko very cautiously.
He was advised to get sick, the certificate of examination was sent to Orenburg, and the Nizhny Novgorod governor issued a permit to live in Nizhny Novgorod "until recovery".
Meanwhile, efforts began to lift the ban on Shevchenko from entering the capitals.
In Nizhny Shevchenko is energetically starting to make up for lost time — he read a lot, began a correspondence with Kulish about the Little Russian magazine and books in the Little Russian language for peasants.
Here he read Shchedrin and the stories of Mark Vovchok.
In Nizhny Shevchenko wrote the poem "Neophytes", he painted a lot, however, mainly portraits, in order to get funds, which he really needed.
He was surrounded by intelligent people who sympathized with him, nevertheless, he was strongly drawn to St. Petersburg.
A lot of joy was brought to him by the arrival of a seventy year old Shchepkin, who came specially to see Shevchenko and spent 6 days in Nizhny Novgorod.
Shchepkin's arrival was the beginning of Shevchenko's novel.
Shchepkin in Nizhny Novgorod performed several times on stage, among other things in the "Moskal Charivnik".
For the main female role of this play, he chose a young, pretty actress Piunova and instructed Shevchenko to study Little Russian pronunciation with her.
Shevchenko became interested in Piunova and, despite the very significant age difference, decided to get married.
This matchmaking brought Shevchenko nothing but grief: he was exploited for some time, but that's all.
In March 1858, Shevchenko received permission to enter the capitals and left Nizhny Novgorod on March 8.
On March 10, Shevchenko arrived in Moscow.
He stayed here a little longer than he expected, due to illness.
For Shevchenko, his stay in Moscow was marked by a meeting with many old friends and new interesting acquaintances.
Here he again saw Princess Repnina, Maximovich, Shchepkin, the Aksakovs, Bodyansky and many others.
Maksimovich arranged an evening for him, which was attended, among other things, by Pogodin and Shevyrev.
Here Shevchenko met the old Decembrist Volkonsky, Chicherin, Babst, Korteli and other representatives of the Moscow intelligentsia.
In total, T. G. stayed in Moscow for a little over two weeks and on March 26 left for St. Petersburg by rail.
In St. Petersburg, after a meeting with friends and acquaintances, dinners, evenings, etc., Shevchenko gets to work; he prepares an edition of his works written in exile, and engages in engraving.
The first painting that Shevchenko undertook to engrave was" The Holy Family " by Murillo.
Shevchenko lived in the Academy building, which was the reason for the entry permit, in the types of" surveillance", which was entrusted to the gr.
Tolstoy.
In addition to etchings, Shevchenko drew with pencil, sepia and paints.
At this time, he wrote several large paintings on subjects from the history of Little Russia.
Kostomarov soon returned to St. Petersburg.
Old friends hardly recognized each other, but their relations were restored.
Kostomarov, speaking about the impression made on him at this time by Shevchenko, notes that Shevchenko has changed little in his views and moral disposition, but tal
