A monument to the outstanding Ukrainian genius Taras Shevchenko was erected in front of the House of the Poltava Provincial Zemstvo (now the Poltava Museum of Local Lore named after Vasyl Krychevskyi). It was designed by sculptor Ivan Kavaleridze from reinforced concrete (height of the figure - 1.8 m, pedestal - 3.2 m). Its forms were influenced by the artistic principles of constructivism. The pedestal is presented as an asymmetrical accumulation of planes and volumes from which the poet's figure grows. During World War II, the monument was damaged. Restored in the postwar years.
In the summer of 1845, performing the tasks of the Kyiv Archaeological Commission, Taras Shevchenko came to Poltava. It was at this time that Shevchenko created an invaluable pictorial document - a watercolor drawing of the house of Ivan Kotliarevskyi, as well as a drawing of the Khrestovozdvyzhenskyi (Exaltation of the Cross) Monastery. Impressions from his stay in Poltava were later reflected in Shevchenko's Russian-language novel "The Twins".