Shevchenko, like any poet, according to the apt expression of V. Belinsky, in contrast to the scientist (who "proves" with "logical arguments"), "shows," "convinces" with "paintings," images. In poetry, factual reliability is not at all necessary in everything; here '"dopantazing" is allowed (Shevchenko himself understood this perfectly). The main task of poetry was, in the words of Marx, the "moral essence" "to exert its effect" on the consciousness of the masses. That is why it is necessary to approach all poetic images and paintings of a folk poet not from the point of view of an abstract analysis of the meaning of a particular term according to modern concepts, but to determine what exactly Shevchenko's contemporaries understood by this, what "moral," socio-political impact these images and paintings had on the broad masses of that era.