Kateryna

With his ever-prescient social commentary, Ukraines greatest poet tells a tale of a womans desperate love and ultimate disgrace. Kateryna is a story of a maiden whose love is betrayed by a Muscovite or Moskal -- an epithet that was often used as a pejorative for Russian soldiers or Russians generally. The poem was written by Taras Shevchenko, one of Ukraines greatest poets. He is what Goethe is to Germany, William Shakespeare is to England, and what Alexander Pushkin is to Russia. The poem is strikingly illustrated by Nikolai Tolmachev.