Who was Taras Shevchenko?

Abstract

There is no doubt that Taras Shevchenko is a national poet of Ukraine, and even more, a martyr for the truth, for his native enslaved Ukrainian people. However, who was this national poet, a singer of human destiny: was he a true believing Christian, or, conversely, an apostate from Christ and His holy Church, that is, a godless man, excommunicated from the true Church of Christ - a heretic? It would be ridiculous and absurd to ask these and similar questions to people who knew Kobzar well - to his contemporaries.