JOHN PANCHUK'S SHEVCHENKO WORK

B a c k g r o u n d . The poem 'Testament' by Taras Shevchenko, which he wrote on Christmas day, 1845, in Pereiaslav, when he was a guest at Dr. Kozachkovskyi's home, is known throughout the world as a manifesto of freedom. Thanks to this small in size but significant in scope work, the name of Taras Shevchenko entered the cohort of outstanding poets of the world. This opinion is clearly stated by John Panchuk, a well-known American lawyer of Ukrainian origin, in his book 'Shevchenko's Testament. Annotated Commentaries'. In this work, John Panchuk relies on numerous recognized studies of well-known merited Shevchenko experts. John Panchuk's work is especially valuable and unique due to the fact that he comes from a family of Ukrainian immigrants who arrived in Canada at the beginning of the 20th century. He spent his childhood and early adolescence in a Canadian border village. When he was 12 years old, the family moved to the United States. The facts of his rich and vivid biography indicate that his whole life and multifaceted activities were in one way or another closely connected with the USA, Canada, and Ukraine, in particular, with Bukovyna, where his parents and ancestors came from. The memory of his ethnic origin and roots was obviously the driving force and stimulus for his activities, merits and achievements. His interest in Shevchenko's oeuvre, nurtured from an early age in the family environment, flourished and transformed into a research and translation during the opening of the first statue to Shevchenko in the American space in Canada – a significant event in which he was involved and which introduced him to researchers and Englishlanguage translators of Shevchenko's oeuvre, which contributed to his own research on Shevchenko. Moreover, John Panchuk also translated Shevchenko's 'Testament' and published it in his book on Shevchenko. The purpose of this article is to outline John Panchuk's life activities with an emphasis on his interest in Ukrainian studies, in particular Shevchenko studies, and to make an attempt to actualize the English-language work of the researcher 'Shevchenko's Testament. Annotated Commentaries' in Ukrainian Shevchenko studies. M e t h o d s . Common methods in the field of philology are used, such as historical-biographical, historical-documentary, and hermeneutic. R e s u l t s . The results of the study testify that Panchuk interprets Shevchenko's work as universal, global in view of the resonant humanistic ideas of the Ukrainian genius, which proclaim the ideals of freedom, equality, and identity. Moreover, John Panchuk's biography shows that throughout his life he prioritized values consistent with those of Shevchenko. C o n c l u s i o n s . The work of John Panchuk 'Shevchenko's Testament. Annotated Commentaries' is an original thorough study of Shevchenko's oeuvre with a solid bibliographic base and deserves a Ukrainian translation.