Probably as early as 1837 he had begun to write poetry but his writings began to attract attention only after he was set free. In 1840 he brought out a slender volume, the first edition of the _Kobzar_, at the expense of a Ukrainian landowner Petro Martos, whose portrait he was painting. There was something new and startling in the quality of this first work with its emphasis upon the decay of the old Ukraine and the pictures of the sufferings of the people. It was typical of the spirit of Shevchenko that one of the poems _Katerina_ (named after his beloved sister) portraying the sufferings of a Ukrainian girl betrayed by a Russian lover was dedicated to Zhukovsky. Incidentally it may be mentioned that Zhukovsky was himself the illegitimate son of a Russian officer and a Turkish girl who had been captured in war. He then set to work upon the _Haydamaki_, his longest and greatest poem. He finished it in 1841 and published it in the same year. In 1843 he paid a short visit to Ukraine and everywhere he was received with the greatest honors as the Ukrainian poet _par excellence_. He was entertained by the various magnates including Prince Repnin, the governor, who was of Ukrainian origin, and his daughter Barbara. He visited his native village and he could not fail to be impressed as he never had been with the hardships which the people were compelled to undergo. As soon as he completed his course in the Academy, he returned to Ukraine and spent the summer of 1845 travelling around the country, visiting the sites of famous buildings. He soon found a position in the Archaeological Commission where his skill in painting stood him in good stead. He finally settled in Kiev and soon found himself among a group of enthusiastic young men and scholars, including Nikolay Ivanovich Kostomariv and Panteleimon Kulish. Filled with the enthusiasm of youth and stirred by those revolutionary currents which were preparing the movements of 1848, they organized the Society of Saints Cyril and Methodius, for the purpose of creating a great free union of all the Slavonic peoples under a republican form of government. It was typical of the change that had taken place in Russian and Ukrainian life since the time of the Decembrists that this new movement was headed not by members of the gentry or army officers but by a group of professors, scholars, and men of letters. The naturally radical instincts of Shevchenko and his ardent patriotism for Ukraine led him to associate himself with them and he shared their dreams as well as their activity.