ABOUT TARAS SHEVCHENKO
“Struggle on and be triumphant” comes from
this poem:
And glory to you, dark-blue mountains,
Frost and snow protect you;
And to you, great-hearted heroes,
God does not forget you.
Struggle on—and be triumphant!
God Himself will aid you;
At your side fight truth and glory,
Right and holy freedom.
“Born into slavery (the form known as serfdom), Shevchenko gives voice to his people and epitomizes for Ukrainians the human struggle for freedom and dignity. Throughout the heroic protests of the “Revolution of Dignity,” as well as during Russia’s hybrid war in Eastern Ukraine, Shevchenko has been implicitly present as the people’s leader in the struggle for their rights and liberty. The many adaptations of one of the most canonic of his images in the Maidan protests – depicting him as the immediate participant of the resistance to the government’s bloody crackdown – provide undeniable proof for it.