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This painting shows death taking tobacco from a soldier in the setting of a Ukrainian village. Upon close inspection, the soldier is frail. He is without a leg and dark shadows are cast over his body and hidden face. This is the etching of a man who served the Tsar in the military, returning to his native Ukraine, only to be faced with death. Shevchenko, being forcibly conscripted himself, knows the harsh reality of war. This etching was the reality for many Ukrainians—a peasant taken from his village, forced to serve the Empire for years, to return with no possessions, no family. Only death awaits him. The fate of Ukrainians in the Russian Empire.
