Ukrainian Museum-Archives
Taras Shevchenko's 1933 Famine Kobzar
In 1932-33, Ukraine had bountiful crops of grain, yet the country was gripped by famine. This was the result of Joseph Stalin's collectivization policy. In order to force people to give up their land to the state, he ordered an army of Communist Party activists to seize grain and other food from Ukraine's independent farmers. In one of the greatest crimes in history, more than seven million Ukrainian peasants were deliberately starved to death. This coincided with a period of terror that was unleashed against Ukrainian artists and cultural figures. For more than fifty years afterward, any mention of the Famine and the Terror was subject to total censorship in Soviet Ukraine. Eyewitness accounts and other records from this period were suppressed and destroyed.
One of the few surviving works illustrating these horrible times can be found in the UMA's collection. This is the extraordinary edition of Taras Shevchenko's Kobzar, featuring drawings by Vasyl Sedliar. (1899-1937). Although the Kobzar was written in the 19th Century, the 48 full-page sketches and the accompanying quotations from Shevchenko's poems, make it clear that Sedliar and his editor Andriy Richytsky (1890-1934) were commenting on Stalin's Famine and not Tsarist Russia. Reminiscent of Henri Matisse, Sedliar in these long-forgotten drawings, shows great technical skill as well as breathtaking artistic courage. Despite inquiries, we have been unable to determine the location of the originals of these drawings or whether they still exist. Both Sedliar and Richytsky were arrested and shot by the NKVD (Soviet Secret Police).
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