The park was founded in 1860 under the name of University Square. In 1896, a monument to Nicholas I was opened in the park, which was demolished by the Bolsheviks in 1920.
In 1939, on the occasion of Taras Shevchenko's 125th birthday, a monument to Taras Shevchenko, the work of sculptor Matthew Manaizer, was opened at the site of the former monument to Mykola I. In 1938, the sculptor and students created a statue that Lazar Kaganovich said "This Shevchenko will call for the collapse of the collective farm system" and the author was forced to perform the statue based on the idea of the leaders of the Bolsheviks.
"Sadochok"
Sadochok is the southern corner of the park on the side of Leo Tolstoy Street, where residents and guests of the capital play chess, checkers, dominoes, backgammon and cards. After World War II, Soviet men, unable to visit nightclubs and casinos as Westerners, supplied almost all the major cities of the Soviet Union playing corners, mostly dominoes.
In the 1950s, Shevchenko Park became one of the places where "goat slaughter" is usually a local population. In 1962, chess players stood near checkers in Kiev, who were expelled from Zolotvoretsky Square in connection with construction around embassies. In the 1970s, the seats in the corner were fixed and special wooden tables were placed. In the 2000s, they made regular repairs, replaced tables, and threw rain ceilings.
In Kiev, the corner cured a bit of glory, because there under the guise of players often gather crooks, homeless people and parasites.
