Liudmyla SHEVCHENKO:

On the eve of the anniversary of Taras Shevchenko’s birth, when so many grandiloquent words were spoken, we were curious, as always, about how people live in the poet’s native places. We put this question to Liudmyla SHEVCHENKO, director of the Taras Shevchenko’s Homeland National Museum Complex.

It is two years now since the Golden Horseshoe program was launched in Cherkasy oblast with the aim of popularizing the region’s eight famous sites. The program also calls for social actions, such as bringing gas to neighboring villages, repairing roads, etc. Much work has been done in the birthplace of Taras Shevchenko with funds provided by the program and the Ukrainian government.

The courtyard of Yakym Boiko, Taras’s maternal grandfather, was rebuilt in Moryntsi. The authentic 1896 woodshed was transferred there from Kerelivka. The apiary was reconstructed, as was the smithy near the house of Kopii, a cartwright from whom the Shevchenko family rented a house, where the poet was allegedly born. In addition, our employees, who had been working in poor conditions for the past 15 years, had a two-story wooden building constructed in 2005, part of which is devoted to exhibit halls. Here and in Kerelivka’s literary and memorial museum we hold solo art exhibits as well as pre-selection competitions for talented children from all over Ukraine. We will soon be showing the Petrykivka- style works of Olha Martsevych, a pupil at the Kerelivka School of Arts.

What’s happening with Shevchenko’s parents’ house in Kerelivka? This museum complex turns 70 next year.

Restoration work has been completed in the deacon’s house (little Taras’s first ‘university’). We are waiting for a nice day to renovate the facade of the literary and memorial museum. The school, which took a long time to be built and was commissioned in 2004, was finally hooked up to the gas and public sewer system in 2006.

As for Budyshche, Pavel Engelhardt’s summer villa was located there. Only part of the manor has survived, but it is still surrounded by relict oak trees that were there during Shevchenko’s life and by a number of ponds that carry us back to the 19th century. Architects decided to make this park ensemble look older, so builders are now erecting arches and installing such accessories as benches and fountains to recreate the period and the place where Shevchenko lived, left his family at fourteen, and came back three times to visit his family. In Vilshana we are planning to restore the house of Oleksandra Branytska, the sister of the elder Vasyl Engelhardt, where we are going to open a village history museum.

In a 2003 interview with The Day, I said that visitors to the Shevchenko memorial had no place to eat or stay overnight. This problem has been resolved to a certain extent. Private entrepreneurs have built cafes in Kerelivka and Moryntsi. Cherkasy oblast, including Moryntsi and Kerelivka, has seen the growth of green tourism lately, although it is not booming as much as in the western regions. To tell the truth, in our place this is mostly based on the enthusiasm of local residents.

I also said at the time that there were no road signs. This problem is being tackled by the administrators of the Golden Horseshoe program, who install various signs on the eve of certain anniversaries and celebrations. It is no longer a problem to get to Kyiv, Cherkasy, Poltava, or the places associated with Shevchenko’s childhood.

President Yushchenko is going to visit the museum complex on March 9. What problems will you be discussing with him?

I would say “routine issues” instead of “problems.” Our visitors often want to buy The Kobzar at a reasonable price. The leading national publishing houses reprinted this book recently, and visitors could buy it at the museum complex for a low price. This book is still being sold, but now it costs between 150 and 300 hryvnias. So I want The Kobzar to be accessible to every Ukrainian family. We are also thinking of reissuing it in time for the 70th anniversary of the museum located in the Kerelivka house of Taras’s parents. We are planning to illustrate the publication with drawings by local artists.

Have you solved the transportation problem?

We tour Ukraine extensively, holding exhibits within the framework of the Golden Horseshoe program. But we still don’t have our own transportation. We should have a modern minibus to transport our rarities. We also need transportation to be able to move around the country quickly in search of exhibits because our repositories should be expanded regularly.

Have there been more visitors in the past few years?

Yes. The main reason behind this is the growing affluence of Ukrainians. There are also more private tourist agencies in the region, which include sightseeing trips of our country. The museum complex is getting more visits from groups of schoolchildren and students as well as young and old individuals in general. There have been more visitors from all over Ukraine, especially from the Kirovohrad, Poltava, and Odesa regions. But gas prices have gone up now, so it is difficult to say what will happen next.

A lot of visitors usually come every year on March 9-10. Right now we have traditional meetings with the Kyiv-based poetess Zoia Ruzhyn, who always brings well-known performers, such as soloists of the Veriovka National Folk Choir of Ukraine, bandura players, and others. There is also a big influx of guests on May 22, the day the Bard was reburied in Ukraine. Ukrainians are probably becoming increasingly aware that Shevchenko is the Atlas who holds Ukraine’s horizons on his shoulders.

The Day was one of the first newspapers to discuss the social problems of Moryntsi, Kerelivka, and Budyshche. Our newspaper became a volunteer curator of the Taras Shevchenko Homeland National Museum Complex.

“When the limits of freedom narrow, one must go uphill”
From our Dec. 27, 2002,issue (no. 240):

Our editorial office recently welcomed Liudmyla Shevchenko, the director of the Taras Shevchenko’s Homeland National Museum Complex. She describes herself jokingly as “a landlady of three villages.” But this joke has a somewhat bitter flavor because it takes much self-denial, moral strength, enthusiasm, and love to keep up Moryntsi, Kerelivka, and the former Engelhardt estate on a salary of 240 hryvnias. Although I knew the answer beforehand, I still asked Shevchenko whether she has ever been invited to the Shevchenko festivities in Kyiv. She looked a bit embarrassed and said, ‘No, but that’s alright.’

This is most definitely not alright: it is sheer hypocrisy. If you truly cherish Shevchenko, how can you put up with the fact that for the past 10 years of so the children in his native village have had to wear their winter clothing in an unfinished school? How can you shut your eyes to the fact that people have no work on the two former collective farms that are now in ruins? My question is: are we sincere?

Liudmyla SHEVCHENKO: “There is an energy that links Shevchenko and his native villages”
From our Jan. 10, 2003, issue (no. 3)

I will say frankly that our secondary school (in Kerelivka — Ed.) is not finished. Every year it produces specialists for Ukraine, up to 10 medal winners, who immediately apply to Kyiv’s colleges and universities. But the school has not had proper heating for the past 10 years or so, and the children sit in the corridors and dark classrooms...We receive a minimum average of 20,000- 22,000 visitors every year, although we could handle more. Their numbers rise in jubilee years. There is no hotel, no road signs! It goes without saying that people should have a place to eat and rest. And in my opinion, these should be delicious Ukrainian national dishes attractively prepared. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. If people are driving, there should be a place where they can stop for gas and a place where children can relax. I’d like all this to befit Taras Shevchenko’s homeland, so that people can feel that this is the hub of spirituality of the entire Ukrainian nation.

Student support for our national shrines
From our Feb. 1, 2003, issue (no. 19)

The Day’s two articles on the plight of Chyhyryn, the former capital of the Hetmanate, and the Taras Shevchenko’s Homeland National Museum Complex (No. 225, 2002, and No. 3, 2003) prompted our faculty members at the Department of History and Ukrainian Studies at Kryvy Rih Technological University to try to involve our first-year undergraduates, by word and personal example, in a specific action aimed at supporting our national shrines. This is especially important because 2003 has been declared the Year of Culture in Ukraine. (The students raised 700 hryvnias — Ed.)

The reverse side of the monument
From our March 10, 2004, issue (no. 42)

“Our museum complex actively celebrates Shevchenko days,” said Liudmyla Shevchenko. “We are welcoming all kinds of delegations. On March 4 we held a solemn meeting and a concert in the village of Shevchenkove (formerly called Kerelivka). Our governor Vadym Lioshenko also took part in it. And we are pleased to be the first to launch the celebrations of the 190th anniversary of Taras Shevchenko’s birth in the very place where he was born, took his first steps, and began to shape his world outlook. He devoted the first 14 years of his life to Ukraine, a place where he would return all the time — both mentally and physically. This is why delegations from all over Ukraine continue to visit us. On Wednesday we are going to host a delegation from the civic organization Women Myrrh-Bearers headed by Zoia Ruzhyn. There are schoolchildren coming from Lviv, Uman, and other cities. But as for financial support of the museum complex, things are much worse.”

The first business trip
From our Feb. 16, 2005, issue (no. 27)

The school, which took a long time to be built, was finally commissioned last year in Shevchenkove, but without sewerage and central heating. It is difficult to heat the large classrooms with coal, so the children wear their winter coats and jackets during the lessons. The large-scale construction left the builders and building material factories in Zvenyhorodka, Cherkasy oblast, with a UAH 200,000 debt. Other problems include the construction of an administration building for the employees of the Moryntsi memorial. They have been working without a roof over their heads for 10 years or so. Liudmyla Shevchenko hopes now that the administrative block will also house an exhibition hall. This is required for an exchange of exhibits within the museum complex itself, among the museums of Cherkasy oblast, Ukraine, and the world, as well as for displaying the works of national artists.