A snapshot of Kaniv
Kaniv was founded
sometime in the tenth century by Yaroslav the Wise.
Initially it was part of the Kievan Rus, but since the
fourteenth century it has been ruled in turn by
Lithuania, Ottoman Turks, Poland and Russia. Apart
from a few months in 1918, which were blighted by
warring factions, Ukraine only became an independent
nation in 1991.
In the last century Kaniv suffered two battles for its territory during WWI and WWII. In 1918 Polish forces failed to penetrate the Austro-German lines. During WWII Kaniv was the target of liberation in a spectacular, but unsuccessful, drop of Soviet paratroopers.
Today Kaniv is a culturally rich town on the banks of the River Dnieper in the Cherkasy oblast with a population of around 25,000. This pleasant town is known today mostly because it is the burial site of Taras Schevchenko, Ukraine’s greatest poet and artist. He was buried on Chernecha Hora (Monk’s Hill, since renamed Taras Hill) to grant his wish in his famous poem “My Testament”, the first verse of which, according to a translation by E.L. Voynich, is as follows:
Dig my grave and raise my barrow
By the Dnieper-side
In Ukraina, my own land,
A fair land and wide.
I will lie and watch the cornfields,
Listen through the years
To the river voices roaring,
Roaring in my ears.
For comprehensive information on his life and works, go to the website of the Taras Shevchenko Museum at Oakville in Ontario, Canada.
Another hero of Kaniv is Oleksa Hirnyk. In 1978 he committed suicide by setting fire to himself on Chernecha Hora in protest against the suppression of the Ukrainian language by the Soviet authorities. The website of Wikipedia gives a good account of this.
Not far from Kaniv is the important Kaniv Nature Reserve, the habitat of many species, of flora and fauna, including some that are listed as endangered.
Kaniv was founded
sometime in the tenth century by Yaroslav the Wise.
Initially it was part of the Kievan Rus, but since the
fourteenth century it has been ruled in turn by
Lithuania, Ottoman Turks, Poland and Russia. Apart
from a few months in 1918, which were blighted by
warring factions, Ukraine only became an independent
nation in 1991.
In the last century Kaniv suffered two battles for its territory during WWI and WWII. In 1918 Polish forces failed to penetrate the Austro-German lines. During WWII Kaniv was the target of liberation in a spectacular, but unsuccessful, drop of Soviet paratroopers.
Today Kaniv is a culturally rich town on the banks of the River Dnieper in the Cherkasy oblast with a population of around 25,000. This pleasant town is known today mostly because it is the burial site of Taras Schevchenko, Ukraine’s greatest poet and artist. He was buried on Chernecha Hora (Monk’s Hill, since renamed Taras Hill) to grant his wish in his famous poem “My Testament”, the first verse of which, according to a translation by E.L. Voynich, is as follows:
Dig my grave and raise my barrow
By the Dnieper-side
In Ukraina, my own land,
A fair land and wide.
I will lie and watch the cornfields,
Listen through the years
To the river voices roaring,
Roaring in my ears.
For comprehensive information on his life and works, go to the website of the Taras Shevchenko Museum at Oakville in Ontario, Canada.
Another hero of Kaniv is Oleksa Hirnyk. In 1978 he committed suicide by setting fire to himself on Chernecha Hora in protest against the suppression of the Ukrainian language by the Soviet authorities. The website of Wikipedia gives a good account of this.
Not far from Kaniv is the important Kaniv Nature Reserve, the habitat of many species, of flora and fauna, including some that are listed as endangered.