Notes on descendants some of whom are not relatives
Looking into this man’s eyes, you involuntarily feel awed and excited. What makes him look like his famous ancestor is his forehead, eyes, nose, chin, mustache, wrinkles, genetic baldness, and unusual calmness that indicates inner, perhaps still unconscious, strength. Mykola Lysenko is the great-great-grandson of Taras Shevchenko.
It is Liudmyla Shevchenko, director of the Taras Shevchenko Homeland state preserve (the villages of Moryntsi, Shevchenkove, and Budyshche), who told The Day about the existence of the poet’s close and surprisingly similar looking relative. Moreover, Mr. Lysenko resides not somewhere far away but in the same village — Shevchenkove, formerly Kyrylivka — where “little Taras walked barefoot...” The old name, although remembered, is no longer used. It is here that our greatest poet lived from the age of one and a half to 14 years. Here he went to “school” and then stayed for some time in the deacon’s house, the only surviving architectural monument of those times. It is in this village that his family owned some land, the greatest possession of the then (and now) peasant farmer. In a word, homeland.
Genealogy, as a system of knowledge, is not very widespread and nor in very high esteem in Ukraine. The reason is quite obvious: the mass extermination and emigration of the aristocracy, wars, manmade famines, and forced resettlement of peoples always break the family tree whose branches vanish without a trace into historical limbo.
As a result, one can usually trace his family roots for not more than 4- 5 generations, which looks ridiculous against the backdrop of a centuries — or even millenniums-old history of some peoples. Genealogy is a science for the elect — hence emphasis on the aristocracy.
NATIONAL HYPOCRISY TEST, OR TWENTY METERS OF HISTORY
As we know, Taras Shevchenko had no direct descendants. Yet, his brothers Yosyp and Mykyta and sisters Kateryna and Yaryna did have children. Mykola Lysenko’s line comes from Yosyp. He is one of the few relatives who constitute the fourth generation of closest descendants — closest because the Shevchenko family, like most Ukrainian families, also had cousins once, twice, etc., removed. They also take pride in their blood. Yet, pride of place naturally belongs to the former. Unfortunately, very few fourth generation representatives still survive: people go the way of all flesh. For example, the only great granddaughter, Mariya Malyshkina (also descended from Yosyp), lives in Kyiv. There also is a great granddaughter of Mykyta. The total number of the famous family’s descendants is over a thousand. They follow the geography of Taras himself: Ukraine, the Baltic states, Russia, and far overseas. They last had a reunion in Kaniv in 1995.
Mykola Lysenko began to study his genealogical tree about twenty years ago. Asked by this writer, he answered quite to the point, “If not we, then who?” He began his “fieldwork” in Kaniv and at Kyiv’s Vernadsky Library, then talked at length with eyewitnesses and looked into family legends. He says he came across much unverified and simply bogus information “about relatives” in the mass media. The unscrupulous writers play on this essentially speculative subject. Incidentally, Ms. Shevchenko also says the museum is often requested to make inquiries about some relations. The museum carefully checks the information and often finds it erroneous. In this case, the aspiring relatives leave disappointed.
Mr. Lysenko does not have a computer, which is quite natural for a rural engineer working at the local agricultural college. His other job, chairman of the Shevchenkove branch of the All-Ukrainian Taras Shevchenko Charitable Cultural and Research Foundation headed by Liudmyla Krasytska (a relative descending from Kateryna), pays nothing at all. This is why he has to write out everything in longhand. Yet, this anachronism has certain advantages.
I have in mind first of all the visual effect. Lysenko’s main pride is a roll with the complete genealogical tree of Kateryna (1804-1848). We had heard in Kyiv that this was something big — over twenty meters. But when we saw it!.. About six years ago he bought a roll of poster cardboard at a leading Kyiv printing shop and got down to stitching, drawing, and writing. This resulted in a very impressive, heavy, more than a meter wide piece of this length. A stranger will easily get lost in this maze of information, while the host feels here like a fish in water. The point of departure is naturally Kateryna who married Anton Krasytsky in 1823 and moved to the neighboring village of Zelena Dibrova. She had twelve children. Another relative, Vyacheslav Shkoda (Kateryna’s line), helped Lysenko make this huge scroll.
Lysenko also explored Yosyp’s line. This genealogical tree was printed in Rodovid magazine, 1996, No. 13. There are also many other materials on the subject. They are available not only in Shevchenkove but also in Kyiv, with Mykola’s cousin Natalia who works at “her own” museum. Natalia herself admits, however, that these materials need to be corrected before being published. There also are books devoted to the Shevchenko genealogy, including the tree publications edited by Oleksandr Vidomenko (Yosyp’s line). Lysenko is convinced that it would not be so difficult to make a his own study. However, he so far feels no interest in such a publication on the part of the state.
“KISS THE HANDS OF YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER ONLY”
In 1914, relatives planted a few oaks to honor the centennial of Shevchenko’s birth. This was done in strict secrecy because the valiant gendarmes took a dim view of this activity. Word has it they planted the trees at night, then each drank a shot and poured some vodka under an oak, as if to cheer the celebrant. Only one of those oak trees is still standing. It was not so lucky either: as it is taller than the neighboring trees and structures, it has often been the object of lightning bolts. The tree was split and almost withered — like Ukrainians in history, one might think. God forbid, of course.
The theme of the relationship between the family and the authorities would be incomplete without family stories about annual celebrations of Taras’s birth and death anniversaries. Under the “good and fair” tsars, the priests who conducted the memorial service had to be hidden behind baskets in a barn. Under the Soviet system, the relatives, like millions of other compatriots, were persecuted and deported to Siberia forever. Behind baskets, people could at least stay alive.
Among other family legends, Mykola Lysenko told us a famous story he had heard from his grandma. So the poet’s granddaughter said that in 1859 Taras Shevchenko came to his home village (his last visit to Ukraine — Ed.). The relatives worked at the vegetable garden at the moment, but the children were, as usual, the first to know. They came running and said, “A gentleman has come round...” Then they ran back to kiss his hands, as the then tradition required. Shevchenko stopped them, saying, “Don’t. Kiss the hands of your father and mother only.”
Several generations have retold the textbook story of Shevchenko’s arrival at home on September 30, 1843. A child had just been born to his bother Yosyp, and Shevchenko became the godfather of baby Trokhym.
As time passed, the family grew, spreading out its diverse branches to the families of Karpenko-Kary (Tobilevych), Russian writer Leonid Andreyev, et al.
And the following story stuck in the memory of our contemporaries’ parents because they took part in it. In 1939, to commemorate the birthday, (then Communist Party of Ukraine First Secretary) Nikita Khrushchev invited the relatives to Chernecha Hora (Kaniv) “to visit Grandpa Taras.” Naturally, the descendants wore their best clothes. They were riding on a truck, of all things, down an awful road. It began to rain. The truck had to be pulled out of the mud more than once, with the “passengers” having to get down and do the pushing. You can just imagine the condition of their clothes. Yet, the humor and kindheartedness of the family helped to keep overall spirits high. When they at last arrived, Comrade Khrushchev personally shook hands with each relative. Then they took a week-long sightseeing tour of Kyiv, staying at the homes of writers.
A great deal has been said about how kind the famous ancestor and the whole Shevchenko family were. We also felt this: not always can one receive such a warm and sincere welcome. All you want after this kind of reception is come back again with thanks. Thank you all for everything!
POLISHING THE SYMBOL
Neither Mykola nor Natalia Lysenko are, thank God, the last in the genus. The former has a daughter and grandson Mykyta, while the latter has a son Taras. Speaking of the powerful Shevchenko family, one cannot help but mention the talents of its members: it has produced prominent musicians and first-class artists. The almost 18-year-old Taras also displays considerable achievements in sculpting and writing, according to his mother, but he wants to choose a different calling, one that would allow him to survive in a state where culture is viewed as something secondary and is financed accordingly on a low-priority basis. Meanwhile, Shevchenko — the nation’s sacral and venerated talisman — has turned into a hackneyed symbolic cliche in addition to such catchwords as “building the state,” “democracy,” etc., which many bureaucrats consider indispensable for holding an office today. This is a requirement of our rather specific market. The symbol in turn needs polishing from time to time — until it shines and dazzles your eyes. So they polish it, with “sh” sounds endlessly ringing from podiums and television sets on March 9-10. Some hypocritically lay flowers; others speculatively throw them out, as is they are guilty of something. It is always easy to cash in on a great name if you lack talent of your own.
Another eloquent detail: employees at the National Taras Shevchenko Museum, where the president usually conducts the Shevchenko Prize awards ceremony, have had their salaries delayed for three months. Official rhetoric and everyday life continue to exist in parallel universes.
All the three houses of Taras — his mother’s, the one he was born in, and the one he lived in — stand on high cliffs. The slopes run down to ravines and ponds: for example, there is a series of seven ponds in Shevchenkove. Add to this the majestic apple orchards... An almost unearthly beauty and fantastic apples! If you stand atop these hills, your glance easily runs up and down, spreads out, and flies far away into the infinite distance. If you have talent and the power of imagination, you can develop the inner sensation of spatial freedom. Balancing on this brink, one feels the grandeur and fragility of existence. This must have happened to Shevchenko. One of his traits was courage: he maintained a truly firm and consistent position, without affectation; he was sure of his being right. Otherwise he would not have dared to challenge he tsar. In those times, such a thing as human values weighed still less than today. This is the condition of absolute equilibrium, outer peace, and a gentle look that can in fact cut you in two. Mykola Lysenko’s eyes also pierce like gimlets — the genes make themselves felt.
One more thing. The residents of Shevchenko’s native villages love him as a young man. In monuments, portraits, group sculptures Taras appears as not the old fellow wearing a heavy fur hat and tragically drooping mustache (could he really have looked like that if he did not even live to be fifty?) but as a young, good-looking youth full of hope. I think this is important.
