Taras Shevchenko

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/taras-shevchenko

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. When was Taras Shevchenko born?March 9, 1814
2. When did Taras Shevchenko die?March 10, 1861 (age 47)
3. Where was Taras Shevchenko born?Moryntsi, Kyiv Governorate, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)
4. What is the career?Poet, painter, writer, political activist, and national icon
5. Who was Taras Shevchenko?Taras Shevchenko was a Ukrainian artist and poet who used his drawings and poems to inspire people to love their country and fight for freedom.
6. How did he become free from serfdom?He was helped by kind patrons who saw his talent, and then he studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, where he could learn and grow.

Serfdom: A historical system of unfree labor where individuals were bound to the land and subservient to a landowner, lacking personal freedom.
Kobzar: The title of Taras Shevchenko's most influential collection of poems, considered the cornerstone of Ukrainian literary heritage.
National Consciousness: A collective awareness and sense of shared identity, history, and aspirations among the people of a nation.