[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 4462-4463]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING SHEVCHENKO AND ALDRIDGE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 17, 2011

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, March is a month when Ukrainians worldwide 
pay tribute to Taras Shevchenko, whose monument here in Washington, 
D.C. bears testament to his prescient writings, prophetic visions for 
human dignity, and aspirations for the worth of each individual. It is 
with deepest respect for his life after purchase out of serfdom, and 
that of his friend Ira Aldridge, purchased out of slavery; that the 
very idea of liberty took flame out of the repressive conditions of 
their forbears. Their lives deserve recognition and revelation, decade 
after decade, so the world remembers and honors those whose paths 
cleared the way for our own.

        [From the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation Update, Mar. 8, 2011]

   Honoring a Friendship Bonded in Defense of Human Rights From St. 
                  Petersburg, Russia to Washington, DC

                        (By Robert A. McConnell)

       While February is Black History Month, a month when 
     attention is given specifically to the contribution of Afro-
     Americans to our country, our society, and culture, March is 
     the month that Ukrainians worldwide honor Taras Shevchenko. 
     For Ukrainian-Americans, both months are a time of reflection 
     on a very special and unique friendship between one of 
     Ukraine's greatest historical figures, Taras Shevchenko, and 
     a famously talented black American, Ira Aldridge.
       Although both men died in the 1860s, one in Russia and the 
     other in Poland, and though both are little known to the 
     general public in America, both of their images are present 
     in the capital city of the United States. A mere two and a 
     half miles apart here in Washington DC stand monuments to 
     Taras Shevchenko and to Ira Aldridge. The first was born a 
     Ukrainian serf who was purchased out of bondage in order for 
     his immense talents to blossom; the second was born a Negro 
     in New York who, because of the color of his skin, had to 
     leave his country to find the full glory of his God-given 
     talent.
       At the corner of 22nd and P streets in Northwest Washington 
     stands the figure of Taras Shevchenko, a monument to the man, 
     his writing, his profound commentaries on human dignity, 
     pleas of help for the plight of the downtrodden and his 
     aspirations for his country, struggling under tsarist 
     repression. Engraved in the granite is his hope for Ukraine: 
     ``When shall we get our Washington, to promulgate his new and 
     righteous law?'' On the other side of the city stands The Ira 
     Aldridge Theatre on the Howard University campus, constructed 
     in memory of a great thespian talent and as a symbol of 
     challenges overcome, paths revealed for other talents to 
     follow.
       Portraits of both men hang in that theater, portraits 
     painted by Taras Shevchenko and donated to Howard University 
     in 1967 from the archives of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts 
     and Sciences in the United States.
       Born a serf in Ukraine, Shevchenko was destined for a 
     lifetime of servitude. Yet when his owner left Ukraine for 
     St. Petersburg, Russia, he took the young Shevchenko along. 
     In St. Petersburg, Shevchenko's artistic talents were 
     revealed. In 1838, the city's artistic circles succeeded in 
     raising 2,500 rubles to purchase Shevchenko's freedom. Once 
     free, he became a student at the Imperial Academy of Arts and 
     his artwork and poetic writing flourished. His poems 
     glorified Ukraine and demanded freedom and justice for all 
     oppressed nations and classes of people.
       Shevchenko returned to Ukraine in 1845 to find great 
     injustices. His poems criticized the tsarist regime and 
     chided the aristocracy's oppression of the peasants. For 
     these expressions, he was arrested and deported from Ukraine 
     to exile in a remote part of Asian Russia, incarcerated in a 
     military penal facility and, by the decree of the Tsar, 
     denied writing and drawing materials. Despite the Tsar's 
     orders and the incarcerations terrible cost to his health, 
     Shevchenko secretly composed some of his most powerful works 
     while imprisoned and in political exile. Moreover, at the 
     same time, Shevchenko's Ukrainian and Russian friends, 
     including Count and Countess Fyodor Tolstoy, worked to secure 
     his freedom again. Finally, ten years after his arrest, 
     Shevchenko was released. Forbidden to return to Ukraine, he 
     returned to St. Petersburg, where he soon met the American 
     Ira Aldridge.
       Although Aldridge had been born in New York, as his immense 
     talents became apparent, he found his opportunities limited 
     due to the significant discrimination against blacks. He 
     chose to emigrate to England in

[[Page 4463]]

     1824 and began acting in small London theatres. Receiving 
     notice and praise, he was soon performing in England's finest 
     theatres and began to tour outside London. By 1852, Aldridge, 
     the first black to act in white roles in Shakespeare's plays, 
     left for his first European tour. Receiving acclaim 
     everywhere he traveled, he returned to London a theatric 
     hero.
       In 1858, Aldridge accepted an invitation from the Russian 
     Imperial Theatre to perform in St. Petersburg. Shevchenko 
     attended the opening performance and the two men were 
     introduced.
       There are numerous letters and notes commenting upon their 
     meeting and friendship. One of Tolstoy's daughters, 
     Katherine, served as an early translator between Aldridge and 
     Shevchenko and wrote about the experience and their 
     friendship. Shevchenko attended Aldridge's performances. 
     Aldridge visited Shevchenko's studio and posed for the 
     artist. They visited one another often and spent time in the 
     same social circles, one that included many artists, 
     performers, intellectuals.
       Their friendship was unique since they had in common not 
     only the creativity of their personalities and their love of 
     the arts, but their shared experiences of social oppression 
     and their dreams of a better future for their people. Though 
     free, famous, with powerful friends, living in the world of 
     Russian aristocracy, neither seemed able to forget his past, 
     the plight of his people.
       Those who wrote about their friendship noted that they 
     often sang together. Aldridge greatly appreciated the 
     sorrowful and melodic Ukrainian songs that captured the 
     unfortunate plight of the people of Ukraine. Shevchenko, in 
     turn, loved the songs of the Negro South, no doubt to great 
     extent for the same reasons.
       When Aldridge returned to England, he took with him a 
     portrait of Shevchenko by a Russian artist. Aldridge returned 
     to Russia several years later but by then Shevchenko had 
     passed away. Between 1861 and 1866, Aldridge made several 
     tours of the tsarist empire including three trips to Ukraine, 
     to Shevchenko's homeland, trips that had been denied to the 
     great poet, artist, and patriot. Ira Aldridge never returned 
     to the United States, however, he did live to know of 
     President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the end of 
     the Civil War.
       Both of these men, historic giants in their artistic fields 
     and in their messages about the struggles of mankind for 
     dignity and the perseverance of individuals, died on foreign 
     soil far from their homelands. Aldridge's body remains in 
     Poland. Eventually, Shevchenko's body was returned to Ukraine 
     from Russia. Their unique friendship remains a story for the 
     ages; it is fitting that among the monuments to their lives 
     and contributions there are the two in Washington, DC, just 
     two and a half miles apart. A friendship that brought them 
     together thousands of miles from here, eventually finds them 
     in the capital of Aldridge's native land, respected and 
     honored, with Shevchenko's question still unanswered: when 
     will Ukraine get its ``new and righteous law?''

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