08/05/2026
REMINISCENCES ABOUT TARAS SHEVCHENKO
(Excerpts)
Mykhailo Chaly
Chaly, Mikhailo (1816–1907) Ukrainian public and cultural figure who met Shevchenko in 1859 in Kyiv. He was a friend of Soshenko and recorded the latter's recollections of Shevchenko. One of the very first collectors of memoirs, letters and other material about Shevchenko, he published a book, The Life and Work of Taras Shevchenko: a Collection of Material for his Biography (Kyiv, 1882), which was one of the first biographies of the poet.
At this time... [in Poland]... he made the acquaintance of a pretty seamstress and became profoundly conscious of his human dignity for the first time. His love for this Polish girl who belonged to a different walk of life and had an independent way of thinking left a deep imprint upon his downtrodden, maltreated but also profoundly sensitive nature. This first attachment, by the poet's own admission, ennobled his soul and enhanced his self-respect. "It was then," he told Soshenko, "that I first started thinking about why couldn't we, miserable serfs, be the same kind of people as the other, free estates?"
His master retired and went to live in St. Petersburg. Along with the other household servants, Taras was transported under guard to the capital after his lord. This manner of resettling people not guilty of any crimes was due to the landowner's excessive caution: he feared lest they escape on the way.
"In 1832 I turned 18, and, since all the hopes set on my servile efficiency had failed to materialize, he (the master) yielded to my persistent pleas and hired me out for four years to a certain Shiryayev, a guild master of house painting. Shiryayev combined all the qualities of the deacon-Spartan, the deacon-painter, and another deacon who was a chiromantist; but despite all the tyranny of his triple genius, I used to run to the Summer Garden to draw statues on light spring nights. On one of those occasions I met the painter Soshenko."
This is not exactly how his acquaintance with Soshenko began. Soshenko told a different story: "When I was in the head-drawing class or, maybe already in the figure-drawing class (1835–1836), I drew with the brother of Shiryayev's wife. From him I learned that my compatriot Shevchenko was an apprentice of his brother-in-law..."
"The young man's tragic lot moved me to the bottom of my heart, but I was in no position to help him. What could I, a humble painter of lowly birth, toiling constantly to earn my living and having no connections, no patron, and no money, do to alleviate his lot? Yet the gifted youth had to be saved at all costs."
"At that time I was closely acquainted with the well-known Ukrainian writer Yevhen Hrebinka. So first of all I went to him and asked for his advice about how we could help our compatriot. Hrebinka took my proposal to heart, often invited Taras to his home, gave him books to read, informed him of all sorts of things, and so on. Later I introduced Taras to V.I.Grigorovich, the Conference Secretary of the Academy of Arts, urging him to help free the young man from his pitiful condition. With Hrebinka, Taras sometimes visited the court painter Venetsianov who, along with Grigorovich, introduced him to V.A.Zhukovsky."
His acquaintance with such people could not fail to have a beneficial effect on the young man's development. The conversations he heard in their homes and the books he received from Hrebinka quickly moved his education forward.
After a day spent at a job subcontracted by his master and consisting of painting windows, ceilings and sometimes even fences, he would go up to the attic at night and read everything that found its way into his hands. And he had a prodigious memory.
