Taras Shevchenko: neither marbled nor bronzed

The world saw the unique album of rarities – reproductions of manuscripts and pictures of a genius poet

Who is Taras Shevchenko? The first answer is like a scream of the soul: strange question! Everybody knows: the author of lyric masterpieces, thinker, Ukrainian prophet. Ratified by school textbooks, canonized by literary critics, glorified by writers and artists, converted into an icon, sanctified sometimes… Usual, self-evident image.
And what was Shevchenko like, in actual fact? Reasoning of our contemporaries, which are united by ever-lasting love to Kobzar, are about it.

Mykola SLAVYNSKYI