Liberty, Equality and Fraternity

Dobr. Karen Wasylenko
wasylenko.revp@shaw.ca  

In 1974, I began grade 11 at the Yorkton Regional High School, where Mr. Alex Yachyshen was my homeroom teacher. Mr. Yachyshen had a reputation amongst the students of being a dedicated Ukrainian, and in his home room on the wall stood a huge framed portrait of Taras Shevchenko. How many teachers today would have a portrait of Shevchenko in the classroom? On a bar of the frame was the inscription, “Taras Shevchenko, the Robert Frost of Ukraine.” I remember that to this day some 30 years later. Growing up, under the influence of my parents and grandparents, I knew that Taras Shevchenko was a great Ukrainian poet and the most respected of poets. But in my mind, I often wondered, why is it that Shevchenko is so revered? What is it about his poetry that people so admire and become so emotional about? What stirs up the emotions of this poet who lived over 100 years ago in a far away land of our beloved Ukraine?

Two of our world leaders in the early 1960’s paid tribute to Shevchenko:

“I am pleased to add my voice to those honoring the great Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko. We honor him for his rich contributions to the culture not only of Ukraine, which he loved so well and described so eloquently, but also of the world. His work is a noble part of our historical heritage.”

-President John F. Kennedy, March 25, 1961

“A Century has passed since the death of Taras Shevchenko, the great Ukrainian poet, and it is most fitting that a monument in his honor is to be erected on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature. As a poet he not only enriched the literature of his people but inspired them with new hope for freedom. What he sought for them he sought no less for the oppressed everywhere in the world.”

-John Diefenbaker, Prime Minister of Canada, April 1961

Taras Shevchenko’s poetry was more than just words written on paper, and his paintings were more than just pictures. For underlying each of his poetry and paintings were messages to his fellow man, fellow Ukrainians and to the world about social injustices, human weaknesses and sin. His words said so much and were able to reach the depths of the Ukrainian soul, describing the Ukrainian experience of the times. They say history repeats itself and we have seen this in our time. We have seen similar atrocities of Shevchenko’s time in Ukraine over and over again.

He wrote about not only the abusiveness and oppression by the Russians, Polish, Turks and others on Ukrainians, but he also wrote about the abusiveness and oppressions by Ukrainians themselves on their fellow man. He wrote about Ukrainian aristocrats, intellectuals and leaders of the day who “talked the talk”, but did not “walk the walk”. In the poem “My Friendly Epistle.” Shevchenko Wrote:

“…There is no other such Ukraine,
No other Dnieper on the plain;
And yet you throng to foreign lands
To seek the Highest Good that stands-
True Liberty, that sacred Good
In fair fraternal Brotherhood…
And you have found it as you roam!
From foreign fields you bring it home,
A heap of words that sound most great
And naught else…You vociferate
That God created you to be
His Justice’s epitome,
Yet you still bend your backs today
To aliens, and are prompt to flay
The hide off lowly peasant brothers;
Then, seeking “Truth” beyond all others…
You scurry off to German strands
And to the lore of other lands.
If you could in your baggage bind
The misery you leave behind..
Or carry off beyond appeal
Those gains our forbears had to steal,
There would be left, to mourn our ills,
Lone Dnieper with its holy hills.”

It is said that while visiting Western Europe and studying there, the Ukrainian intellectuals embraced the ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity, and upon their return, neglected to put those ideals into practice for the betterment of the Ukrainian people.

Liberty, equality and fraternity are three characteristics we appreciate in Canada. Or do we?? We talk about liberty and equality as important aspects of life in Canada, but what about “fraternity” or unity amongst all people in Canada. Is there such a fraternity or unity? Fraternity is a theme throughout Shevchenko’s poetry, unity of the Ukrainian people, against adversaries, but he also wrote about the social injustices placed on the Ukrainian people, Christians and Jews alike. It is written that Shevchenko was sympathetic to the Jewish people and their plight. When Shevchenko returned to Ukraine shortly after his emancipation, at the relay station of Lubny, it is said Taras Shevchenko exerted himself energetically in helping to save as many belongings as he could from the fire of a house tenanted by a Jewish family, stating that “one must assist one’s fellow-beings in trouble.”

Taras Shevchenko has been regarded as one of the most prayerful poets known to man. His faith in God remained unshaken. He was an enemy of all human oppression, having been a victim of Russian oppression when imprisoned. Many of his poems began with a quotation from the Bible. The Bolsheviks would like to believe that Shevchenko was anti-religion because of his poems condemning the oppression of Ukrainians by the Czar. Taras Shevchenko was not anti-this or anti-that. Taras Shevchenko condemned the actions of the Czar and the regime of that time, and not necessarily the Orthodox Faith, often associated with the Czar. One can only look at the actions of the Bolsheviks and the oppression of the Ukrainian people in the 1930’s and during the World War II at the hands of Joseph Stalin. I wonder what kind of poetry Shevchenko would have written about this horrible time in world history. He probably would have written poetry condemning the world for ignoring the plight of Ukrainians during the man-made famine of the 1930’s and the 1940’s. Executions of ordinary people, beyond our imagination and understanding occurred at the hands of the Communist regime, in Ukraine. And then we complain and are negative about how hard things are here in Canada.

Taras Shevchenko’s deep faith in God, is why, I believe he wrote so eloquently about the social injustices and the plight of the ordinary person. I do not know of too many Communists (with no belief in God) fighting the social injustices of people. I do not know of too many individuals, with little or no faith in God, standing up too much for their fellow neighbor when he or she is in trouble. The individual with little faith in God possesses no humility, and is only interested in self-interests, like the Ukrainian intellectuals criticized and written about, by Taras Shevchenko. Watch out for the wolf in sheep’s clothing that praises God and speaks in the name of God, but is not really sincere in his words!

There were those individuals who advised Taras Shevchenko that if he desired fame and money, he should write not phrases about ragged, illiterate people, but on subjects dealing with high society (such as were then treated in Russian literature), and furthermore that he should write in the Russian language. Taras Shevchenko replied categorically saying: “The sheepskin coat is warm, but not made to my measure.” He stood on his own and was not swayed because of popular opinion. Taras Shevchenko was strong in spirit by standing up for his beliefs, his faith in God, his love for Ukraine, his love for the underprivileged, his love for humanity, and he did not sway to popular opinion just because his poetry may not be viewed as economical or popular with the majority or to make someone else feel good. He did not worry about what people thought of his words!

What Taras Shevchenko strove to remind people throughout his poetry was to have respect for one another, no matter of what color, race or religion one is and not to be repressive against one’s neighbors even if you did not agree with their particular opinion, belief or practices.

Taras Shevchenko was well respected by many people around the world. Upon his death, Charles Dickens, considered a humanitarian himself in England, wrote about Shevchenko’s death and Charles Dickens agreed with his philosophy.

It is written that Shevchenko’s casket being carried to Kiev, from St. Petersburg, in an oxen drawn carriage, attracted memorial services and valedictories from many throngs of people along the way. Only in Kiev, all orations were forbidden. However, one gesture of a lady surpassed all eulogies when she placed a wreath of thorns on his casket.

How many people in the world today understand Shevchenko’s poetry, aside from the Ukrainian people? How many Ukrainian Canadians truly understand Shevchenko’s poetry, but claim to? Shevchenko’s poetry is overwhelming in word and thought, and should be explored more so today, as what he wrote about in his time, I believe, continues today. There are social injustices in out communities today, but these injustices are of a more subtle kind. I wonder what Taras Shevchenko would write today if he were here, about our communities, and the attitudes of people in our communities. I wonder what he would write about if he saw the attitudes of jealousy, hate, envy, selfishness, lack of faith in God, the “gloom and doom” and negativity spread around by some of our people today here in Canada. His words written in “My Friendly Epistle” say so much. Shevchenko writes:

“…Then ask yourselves: Now, who are we?
Whose children? Of what fathers born?
By whom enslaved in utter scorn?
Then only will you understand
The Brutuses of this your land...”

“… Gain knowledge, brothers! Think and read,’
And to your neighbors’ gifts pay heed,--
Yet do not thus neglect your own:
For he who is forgetful shown
Of his own mother, graceless elf,
Is punished by our God Himself.
Strangers will turn from such as he
And grudge him hospitality---
Nay, his own children grow estranged;
Though one so evil may have ranged
The whole wide earth, he shall not find
A home to give him peace of mind…”

Taras Shevchenko taught about the importance of education, literacy, and to look after one’s own people. Perhaps Shevchenko was viewed by my home room high school teacher as the “Robert Frost of Ukraine,” but I would like to view Taras Shevchenko as the “Martin Luther King” or “Abraham Lincoln” of Ukraine and the world.

Taras Shevchenko’s work touched the soul of the Ukrainian people. The Ukrainian soul is deeper than wearing Ukrainian embroidered shirts, dancing and singing Ukrainian folk songs. The Ukrainian soul consists of liberty, equality, fraternity, and the Ukrainian soul reaches to God with an endearing faith and with humility, with respect for, and fear of God, with respect for mankind and looking out for one’s neighbor, without expecting anything in return. Shevchenko and his poetry should be, and must be, celebrated in a contemplative manner, reflecting about his message to his people and to other nations. The tone of the songs sung at Shevchenko concerts across Canada in themselves are one of contemplation and not of merriment.

We should consider in our thoughts what Taras Shevchenko wrote about and how we can apply his lessons to our life here in Canada today, as Ukrainian Canadians. There is a resemblance of Taras Shevchenko’s times to those times we experience here in Canada and in the world today.

Taras Shevchenko was a poet and even perhaps a genius, but more importantly he was a God loving and God fearing man whose poetry advocated for and suffered for liberty, equality and fraternity of the Ukrainian people and for all oppressed people in the world. Shevchenko was, and his poetry is, a gift to the world to this day. God rest his soul!!

Source: “The Poetical Works of Taras Shevchenko,” Andrusyshen and Kirkconnell, University of Toronto Press, Reprinted 1977