35 years of the Shevchenko monument in Nizhyn: the monument's history and its link with the city

On 21 September 1991 a monument to Taras Shevchenko was unveiled in Nizhyn. This year the monument turns 35.

The monument stands in the central part of Taras Shevchenko Park. The author of the monument is the Ukrainian sculptor, People's Artist of Ukraine Oleksandr Skoblikov. The bronze figure of the poet is mounted on a granite pedestal.

Skoblikov depicted Shevchenko young — roughly the age at which the poet visited Nizhyn for the second time, in 1846. In the monument Taras sits on a stone holding a book in his left hand.

Shevchenko visited Nizhyn twice — in 1843 and 1846. The city is mentioned in his work, and his friends Yevhen Hrebinka, Viktor Zabila and Oleksandr Afanasiev-Chuzhbynskyi, among others, were linked with Nizhyn.

The monument's history is also linked to the events of 1861. After Shevchenko's death his coffin was taken from St Petersburg to Kaniv, and on 17 May 1861 the funeral procession stopped in Nizhyn. A memorial service was held in the city. In memory of that journey a separate memorial sign, “The Kobzar's Last Journey”, was installed in 1991.

According to local-history sources, the initiative to erect the monument came from the local community, in particular the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian Language Society. The city council supported the idea, and the city's work collectives also raised funds for the construction.

The monument has the status of a monument of monumental art. In the first months of the full-scale invasion, in 2022, it was additionally protected against possible damage with sandbags. In May 2023 municipal workers began de-protecting monuments, and the Shevchenko monument was among the first to be cleared of its sand protection.

Today the monument to Taras Shevchenko remains one of Nizhyn's prominent symbols and a venue for commemorative and cultural events.

As MYNIZHYNreported, the city that was one of the key stops of the funeral procession in far-off 1861 will now receive a symbolic reminder of that historic event. Public figure Mykola Tomenko, together with the team of the Ridna Krajina Foundation and KNUCA specialists, visited the city to determine a site for installing a copy of the Kobzar's death mask. We explain where exactly the relic will appear and why it matters so much for modern Ukraine.

Source: itta.info