Military Rank in The Lyrics of Taras Shevchenko

<jats:p>Background. Analytical reception is still complicated by the standard understanding and interpretation of T. Shevchenko's creative heritage, reduced to several ideological and thematic layers, adapted to one or another ideological conjuncture, to the sacralization of his figure, interpreted in the sense of a bronzed "prophet" who evolved from a serf to a "leader of the nation", looking into his private life, which is unacceptable from the point of view of ethical culture. The endless variety of T. Shevchenko's poetic and pictorial works, having become a classic of Ukrainian literature and art of the world level, justifies its study under various analytical and methodological approaches, which sometimes leads to the blurring of dominant principles. And they lie in the defining existential of the poet – the will, outside of which he did not think of himself, although he was given only ten years of freedom. T. Shevchenko embodied the mental trait of Ukrainians, who believe that a full-fledged, self-sufficient personality is possible only in freedom. Endowed with an innate sense of human dignity and historical justice, they have always resisted and continue to resist any injustice. This is a nation of rebels. Prone to a lyrical psychosis, to a harmonious worldview, they have repeatedly demonstrated their military character in order to protect themselves, their family, and their land from the encroachment of destructive forces. T. Shevchenko, like no one else, most fully substantiated in his poetry the legitimacy of a military response to the cruel challenges of reality. This was the defining motif of his work and life, consonant with the people's way of existence on the edge. Methods. The method of close reading and objective historicism was applied. The main source base is the lyrics of T. Shevchenko. Results. The article is a continuation and deepening of my previous scientific investigations about T. Shevchenko, touching on military topics: "Irzhaves" in the Hetman's Gallery of T. Shevchenko: coincidence or regularity? // Literary Ukraine. – 2004. – March 11; Hetman also did not spare: A few remarks on Shevchenko's reception of B. Khmelnytsky // Literary Ukraine. – 2007. – September 20; Interpretation of history as a text in T. Shevchenko's poetry // Shevchenko Studies. Collection of scientific works. Issue 10. – K.: PPC "Kyiv University", 2007. – P. 48–55; The problem of reception of inconvenient texts by T. Shevchenko // Shevchenko Studies: Collection of scientific works. Issue nineteen. – Kyiv: VPO "Kyiv University", 2009. – P.73–77; Fairytale aberrations of Shevchenko's haidamachina // Literature. Folklore. Problems of poetics. – Issue 34. Dedicated to the study of the creative heritage of L. F. Dunayevska. – Kyiv: Institute of Mathematics of the NAS of Ukraine, 2010. – P.152–158; Shevchenko's reception of national history // Ukrainian Literary Newspaper. – 2014. – April 11, April 25; Essay "Peasant King" (about T. Shevchenko) by Yu. Lypa in the context of his essays and polemics // Shevchenko Studies. Collection of scientific works. Issue 21. – Kyiv: VC "Kyiv University", 2018. – P. 135–142; Reception of T. Shevchenko's work in Soviet literature and literary studies // Shevchenko Studies. Collection of scientific works. Issue 1 (22). – K.: VC "Kyiv University", 2019. – P. 168–178; Uncomfortable Taras Shevchenko // Ukrainian culture: [cultural journal] – Kyiv, 2020. – Part 3. – P. 2–7. Conclusions. The military rank is decisive in the work of T. Shevchenko, who organically felt the ontology of the Ukrainian, impossible outside the existential will, imbued with an innate sense of historical justice, capable of resisting destructive forces. Any attempt to discredit the defense of human and national dignity caused him to protest, exposed the insidious methods of the "inverted pyramid" or "rotten herring", prompted him to argue for the legitimate right of armed resistance to the attacker, the need for the existence of an unbending subject of his own destiny. Having become the leitmotif of all of T. Shevchenko's work, it is most fully revealed in the poem "Haydamaki". The armed self-assertion conceptualized in it went beyond the text, returned to a new history, became a new history of Kholodny Yar during the national liberation struggle, the insurgent movement during World War II, the Russian-Ukrainian war, starting in 2014, significantly adjusting the military doctrine of Sun Tzu.</jats:p>