THE KOBZAR Of THE UKRAINE
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They are in the peasant language of the Ukraine.
His 'Kobzar' appears in its first edition, with eight poems, in 1840. It is like a lightning flash through Russia.
Great Russian critics sneered at it, saying it was in the longuage of the swineherds. But the whole Ukraine recognized it as the voice of their suppressed nation. The down-trodden masses of all Russia knew that they had found a spokesman.
Shevchenko was now famous but he had chosen, without knowing it, 'The Way of the Cross.'
