Statement By Congressman Alvin Morell. Bentley
Michigan 8th District-Republican
U.S. House Of Representatives Hearing
Washington, D.C.
March 31, 1960

THE HONORABLE ALVIN M. BENTLEY BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION, MARCH 31, 1960

Mr. Chairman, we must realize that there are about 45 million Ukrainians who are enslaved by Communist Russia, despite their unceasing efforts and struggle to get rid of the alien and despotic rule of Moscow. To them Taras Shevchenko is a national prophet and symbol of their dreams and aspirations their ideals and hopes.

It is true that the Soviet Government has done everything to remade Shevchenko into its own Communist image. Most of his fiery anti-Russian and anti-despotic poems were "purged" and re-edited to suit the veering Communist line. But for true Ukrainians, be they behind the Iron Curtain or in the free world, Shevchenko remains eternally the same: The intrepid and indefatigable fighter against tyranny and oppression, who was for the freedom and emancipation of all the oppressed and persecuted.

It was Taras Shevchenko, the great Ukrainian poet and advocate of freedom, who for the first time called on the Ukrainians to hope and expect their own George Washington. In 1857, in his poem, 'Yurodyvy' or freely translated, "The Feeble-Minded", he attacked all tyrants, czars, and oppressors, and all enemies of human freedom and decency.

It is extremely important for the American people to know that 103 years ago Taras Shevchenko, poet and prophet of the enslaved Ukrainian people, pointed to George Washington, founding father of our great Republic, as a symbol and liberator of the American people from the colonial rule of a foreign power, a liberator whom he considered a model and predecessor of a similar liberator of the Ukrainian people. The Ukrainians, through this reference of Shevchenko to the Father of Our Country, knew over a hundred years ago that George Washington liberated America and established a "new and righteous law" that is a true democracy, a rule of the people, by the people and for the people.

In erecting a statue of Taras Shevchenko in Washington the United States will give full expression to its understanding and appreciation of Taras Shevchenko and all that he means to the brave and noble Ukrainian people. Such a step would constitute a great psychological weapon against the Communist propaganda systematically being disseminated among the Ukrainians to the effect that only Moscow is a friend of the Ukrainian people, while the United States and other Western Powers are "capitalist enemies" of the Ukrainian people, bent upon their "enslavement and exploitation."

This step is all the more important because in Ukraine under the Communist rule special preparations are underway now to observe the 100th anniversary of the death of Shevchenko with the usual Communist propaganda fanfare to the effect that Shevchenko was a "true proletarian" poet and fighter for "Communist emancipation," which obviously would be a total misrepresentation of the great Ukrainian poet and fighter for freedom (hearing, March 31, 1960).

Statue of Taras Shevchenko In Washington, D.C.
Statement By U.S. Senator Jacob K. Javits
Republican--New York State
U.S. House Of Representatives Hearing
Washington, D.C., USA
March 31, 1960

Taras Shevchenko was a bard of freedom. In 1917 it was the poetry of Shevchenko that inspired the Ukrainian movement for independence and encouraged the Ukrainian National Republic in its desperate struggle, alone and unaided, to protect itself against the aggression of the Russian Communists. It was Shevchenko's poetry that encouraged the Ukrainians, forced within the Soviet Union, to continue their struggles for freedom and in World War II encouraged and fostered the Ukrainian opposition to both fascism and communism.

It is only fitting that the statue of such a national hero, who taught the American ideals of patriotism and service to man, should stand in the capital of the United States.