1838 Taras Shevchenko was bought out
180 years ago, on May 4, 1838, the Ukrainian poet and artist Taras Shevchenko was redeemed from serfdom. This was preceded by difficult negotiations between Shevchenko's patrons - the artists Ivan Soshenko, Karl Bryullov, Alexei Venetsianov, the poet Vasily Zhukovsky and the secretary of the Academy of Arts Vasily Grigorovich - and his master, the landowner Pavel Engelhardt. Engelhardt, having learned that such well-known people were fussing over Shevchenko, raised the price.