AN UNKNOWN AUTOGRAPH OF SHEVCHENKO’S POEM “IT DOES NOT TOUCH ME, NOT A WHIT…”

The paper examines a convolute that includes the 1860 edition of “Kobzar” with handwritten inserts in place of censorship deletions, the publication of an autobiographical letter in the journal “Narodnoe chtenie,” the section “Kobzarskyi hostynets” from the 1860 almanac “Khata,” and handwritten materials. If the analyzed manuscript inserts appeared shortly after the publication of “Kobzar” in 1860, they likely originate either from records based on Shevchenko’s manuscripts or—given a small number of differences—directly from the poet’s autographs. It is now impossible to precisely date the notes in the edition with certainty. The convolute contains Shevchenko’s previously unknown autograph of the poem “It does not touch me, not a whit…” (1847), dated 22 January 1858. As is known from the poet’s diary, on that day, Shevchenko was visited by Yakiv Lazarevskyi in Nizhny Novgorod. The paper substantiates the hypothesis that the poem was copied on a separate sheet for him. The text of the poem matches the version in the “Small Book,” with only one discrepancy. This aligns with the fact that on 18 March 1858, the author copied the poems of his casemate cycle from this manuscript collection into the “Big Book,” editing, in particular, the text of “It does not touch me, not a whit…” Thus, this version represents the final text of the poem. Most handwritten copies of Shevchenko’s poems reflect either the final text of a work, free from censorship, or, in some cases, a draft version accessible only to a narrow circle of people. The 1860 Kobzar convolute, containing Shevchenko’s previously unknown autograph of the poem “It Does Not Touch Me, Not a Whit…,” is undoubtedly a valuable find that expands our understanding of how the poet’s uncensored works were distributed. If the hypothesis linking the autograph to Yakiv Lazarevskyi is correct, it significantly enriches information about Shevchenko’s relationships with him and his brothers.