OLEKSANDRA KULISH’S MEMORIES OF TARAS SHEVCHENKO: ISSUES OF AUTHENTICITY

The paper deals with the set of memoir texts of Oleksandra Kulish (Hanna Barvinok), i. e. essays, notes, and excerpts from correspondence concerning her communication with Shevchenko. Since Kulish’s memoirs have not been annotated yet, one of the current tasks of Shevchenko studies is to establish the degree of reliability of the memoirist’s statements, made decades after the described events. Kulish’s memories of Shevchenko are naturally divided into two groups according to the chronology of the events presented: the wedding in 1847 and her stay in St. Petersburg during 1859—1861. Most of the memoirist’s testimony regarding Shevchenko’s stay in Motronivka as the best man at the wedding is confirmed by other sources; some statements are quite probable, but it is impossible to verify them (for example, that Shevchenko arrived three days before the wedding). However, many statements contradict other memoirs: for instance, Panteleimon Kulish reported differently about how he invited Shevchenko to the wedding and how he and Olexandra planned his trip to Western Europe. As a result, researchers can only hypothetically reconstruct the events. This is complicated by the fact that Oleksandra Kulish often downplayed her role (for example, she very rarely mentioned that she had wanted to give her dowry for Shevchenko’s stay in Europe) in order to magnify the figure of her husband. Even more problematic are Kulish’s memories of Shevchenko’s life in St. Petersburg in the last years of his life. Kulish’s texts can combine facts confirmed by other sources, unique but plausible information and (un)obvious errors in an unpredictable way. Often, senile memory failed the memoirist, and she described the events of different years or even decades as synchronous. A significant part of her statements comes from the works of Panteleimon Kulish, his memoirs or letters. The everyday details presented by the memoirist seem to be the most authentic, as they are not related to either polemical or apologetic goals of the memoirs.