Kobzar on a pedestal

Dnipropetrovsk – The alpinists plan to climb the four-kilometer tall mountain in the Caucasus this summer. Valerii Lomyha, the head of the expedition, told a press conference that the story of this incredible monument dates back to prewar times. In 1939 a group of Dnipropetrovsk alpinists decided to name one of the peaks in Kabardino-Balkaria after the Ukrainian poet. “One participant of this memorable expedition, Illia Katsnelson, still lives in Dnipropetrovsk,” Lomyha said. “During the war he fought in the special mountain squads. Now he is over 90 years old, but still studies local history, particularly that of Taras Shevchenko’s travels.”

Patronage over the Shevchenko peak continued after the war. The alpinists installed a full-sized bust of the poet on the top of the mountain on his 150th anniversary. It was made of light but strong aluminum by the aerospace enterprise Pivdenmash. This masterpiece was marked by the medal of the Shevchenko Anniversary Committee. The alpinists last climbed the mountain in 2004, when they took a professional operator to shoot a documentary. The film shows the bust in satisfactory condition despite the fact that it was struck by lightning several times. The alpinists then decided to reinforce the monument and put it on a real pedestal. They started raising money for the expedition, as they face additional costs on account of having to lift various building materials and find a special route. There is no alpinist camp at the foot of Shevchenko peak and the closest settlement is 30 kilometers away.

The prospective crew is not worried about the unrest in Kabardino-Balkaria. About 30 people including women are to participate in the expedition. “When the bust was installed, they left various souvenirs there, including a Kobzar book, wrapped in plastic and placed in a metal box,” Volodymyr Ivanchenko, the chief trainer of the expedition, said. “In 2004 we brought Shevchenko’s embroidered portrait, made by a student of the Dnipropetrovsk gymnasium. Now we want to make a special niche to keep such treasures.” According to Ivanchenko, the Dnipropetrovsk alpinists are going to make a Shevchenko route in the Crimean mountains and dedicate it to the poet’s 200th anniversary. “The Caucasus now belongs to a different country and it is a tumultuous region,” he explained. “Not every volunteer can go there and climb Shevchenko peak. That is why we want to make a new tourist route in the smaller Crimean mountains and name it after Shevchenko. We hope that by 2014 this route will be popular among the tourists when Ukraine will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Kobzar.”