“As a Father among Little Children”: The Emerging Cult of Taras Shevchenko as a Factor of the Ukrainian Nation-building in Austrian Eastern Galicia in the 1860s

This article explores the dynamic and main institutional forms of the emergence of the cult of Taras Shevchenko in Austrian Eastern Galicia, and its influence on the shaping of Ukrainian national identity in the province. If prior to the 1860s, Shevchenko’s works were circulated in limited number of printed editions and manuscript copies among the narrow circle of Galician Ruthenian activists, the decade after 1861 was marked by the growth of public attention to Shevchenko’s poetry and personality. The wide exposure to his texts (through both reading and listening) formed the public of Ukrainian national activists. Since the late 1860s, Shevchenko’s cult began to be institutionalized through the regular commemorative practices and school education