In March 1926, a monument of Taras Shevchenko (1814 - 1861) has been unveiled in the Petrovsky Park. Sculptor I. P. Kavaleridze has solved its design untraditionally: it seems a powerful figure of the fighter poet grows up from gray asymmetric blocks.

Thousands of Poltava inhabitants and those of the surrounding villages gathered on occasion of the celebration due to the unveiling the Shevchenko monument. The choir of many thousands performed Shevchenko’s "Testament." Two lines from that immortal artifact are imprinted on the pedestal:

…And water with the tyrants' blood
The freedom you have gained.

The great poet has been to Poltava, to other towns and villages in Poltava region once and again. In this land, he wrote the narrative poems "The Heretic"and "the Blind Man", a poem "Do not envy a rich man" and other works. Staying in Poltava 1845 he visited the farmstead of Kotlyarevsky on Ivan's Hill, drew the house, took an interest in the other places related to the life and work of the author of “Eneida”, “Natalka Poltavka”, “Magician Moskal”. This is the drawing by the Great Poet that was afterward taken by the restorers as a basis during reproduction of the Kotlyarevsky’s farmstead.