Why did women yearn for the poet?
According to the consultants of the issue dedicated to Shevchenko, he was very elegant, polite and knew how to communicate very gently with women. In addition, he sang well and was the life of the party.
First love – Oksana Kovalenko
Shevchenko fell in love with her when he was 13 years old – everyone around thought that she would become first his bride, and then his wife, but this did not happen. At the age of 15, Shevchenko left his native village, and when he returned 14 years later, his first love was already married and raising two children.
Maria Europeus
Researchers of Shevchenko’s work believe that it is she who is depicted in the painting “Woman in Bed,” which he painted in 1839–1840.
Anna Zakrevskaya
When Shevchenko was visiting the landowner Platon Zakrevsky, he fell in love with his 21-year-old wife Anna. Shevchenko was delighted with her beauty, and the married girl reciprocated the poet’s feelings.
Shevchenko dedicated several poems to Zakrevskaya, but their romance did not continue. The landowner's wife died at the age of 35.
Princess Varvara Repnina
Shevchenko began an affair with Varvara Repnina when he was painting a portrait of her father. Feelings flared up between them, but the couple could not be together due to the large difference in social status.
Feodosia Koshitsa
In 1845, Shevchenko fell in love with the daughter of priest Grigory Koshits, Feodosia. His feelings were mutual, but the girl’s parents did not consent to this marriage.
Agata Uskov
During his 10-year exile, Shevchenko fell in love with the wife of the commandant of the Novopetrovsk fortress, Agata Uskov, but his love was platonic.
Maria Maksimovich
The new lady of the poet’s heart was the wife of Shevchenko’s close friend, Ukrainian scientist Mikhail Maksimovich, Maria Maksimovich. Shevchenko dedicated the poem “Cherry Orchard near the Hut” to her.
Ekaterina Piunova
Shevchenko liked the actress from Nizhny Novgorod Ekaterina Piunova, he tried in every possible way to promote the development of her career, helped to get a place in the Kharkov troupe, but she refused to marry him when he proposed to her.
Last love – Likeria Polusmakova
The former serf Likeria Polusmakova accepted a marriage proposal from Shevchenko and was already preparing for the wedding, but cheated on the poet. Having learned about this, he broke off the engagement.
“In his life, the poet did not acquire a garden, a mill, a house, or a wife. No one called him dad, he did not marry a sweetheart and a black-browed woman, but went to his native land as a 47-year-old bachelor,” Ukrainian language teacher Nina Geiko wrote about the poet in a publication published on the website of the Luhansk National Shevchenko University.
Context
Shevchenko was born on February 25 (March 9), 1814 in the village of Morintsy, Zvenigorod district, Kyiv province (now Cherkasy region). Died on February 26 (March 10), 1861 in St. Petersburg. The first collection of Shevchenko's poetry “Kobzar” was published in 1840.
Shevchenko had no official children.
There are 1,167 monuments to Shevchenko in the world. At the initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this result was recorded in the “Book of Records of Ukraine”.
