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During this period, Shevchenko was hired by the Archeological Commission to travel through Kiev, Poltava and Volyn provinces to record in sketches and paintings significant cultural sites.
In 1847, the members of the Kyrylo-Metody Society were betrayed by a police informer and Shevchenko was arrested on April 5 and transported to St. Petersburg for disposition by the Tsarist authorities. The more liberal, or reformist, members of the Society apologized for their actions and received very lenient sentences. Shevchenko reftised to repent for his actions, which included reading subversive and "openly unlawful" verses, some of which ridiculed the Tsar's family. In his defence, Shevchenko denounced Tsarist repression in Ukraine and throughout the Empire.
Shevchenko received a sentence of exile as a rank and file soldier to Orenburg in the East. He was to be kept under strict scrutiny so that "from him wouldn't come, in any form, any outrageous or libellous works". To this order, the Tsar personally added, "He is to be under the most strict surveillance, with prohibition to write and to paint".
It is interesting to note that Shevchenko's colleague in the radical wing of the Society, M. Hulak, who also refused to repent, received a three year jail sentence. Shevchenko's sentence, if Tsar Nicholas I had not died ten years later, would have been for life. His treatment by the Tsarist regime is perhaps the greatest possible tribute to Shevchenko's dedication and effectiveness in the cause of freedom.
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