Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has signed a decree on additional measures to prepare for and mark the 200th birthday of Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, ordering 2014 to be declared in Ukraine the year of Taras Shevchenko, the presidential press service reported on Wednesday.
The decree orders the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to take a number of measures, in particular, to prepare for the celebration of Shevchenko’s jubilee in Russia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania and Poland, approve the Shevchenko’s House state target program and the Shevchenko Reading humanitarian project, publish a complete collection of Shevchenko’s works in 12 volumes and Shevchenko’s Encyclopedia in six volumes, and publish the Kobzar in English, German, French, Russian, Polish, Lithuanian and Kazakh.
In addition, the government was ordered to conduct reconstruction work at the National Museum of Taras Shevchenko in Kaniv (Cherkasy region) and its branches in Kyiv – the Shevchenko Literary-Memorial House-Museum and the Shevchenko Memorial House-Museum. The Cabinet of Ministers was also instructed to "consider providing support to the activity of the Museum Apartment of Taras Shevchenko in St. Petersburg (Russia)."
