Fighters on the cultural front

Many heroic songs that were originally sung by the Zaporozhian Cossacks and UPA fighters have reached our day with all the hallmarks of folk songs but with new musical interpretations and lyrics. For example, we all know the song Lenta za lentoiu (Line by Line). There are several versions of the lyrics and even pop renditions. This song is often heard around campfires and during song festivals in Ukraine.

The heroic song component of our national vocal culture with which Oleh Skrypka, the long-time frontman of Ukraine’s premier rock band Vopli Vidopliasova (VV), has armed himself is large. Owing to the complexities of our history, one-third of Ukraine’s entire vocal heritage can be placed in this category. “Heroic songs are those that make you aware of your national dignity and love for your native land, come what may,” the singer Marichka Burmaka summarized.

Ukrainian heroic songs have always been performed during festivals organized by Skrypka, who is a major cultural figure in Ukraine. Every year the separate Kobzar Stage, built during last summer’s famous Kraina mrii (Dreamland) Festival, featuring Taras Kompanichenko, Eduard Drach, Sviatoslav Sylenko, and other musicians, pays tribute to Ukrainian heroes. Skrypka’s decision to separate heroic songs from folk ones and include them in the Moloda hvardia (Young Guard) Festival seems not only justified but also necessary. Why?

Kobzar Sviatoslav Sylenko: The war against our people has never stopped. It is still being waged in the cultural domain. What is happening in the cultural domain can only be described as an intervention or occupation.

Kobzar Eduard Drach: We have everything in our culture, from brothels to the sublime. The bordello trend appears to be predominant these days. Just look at what’s being broadcast from the big icon known as television.

There comes a moment when our government and national cultural elite’s culturally tolerant attitude to these occupiers becomes a threat to our state. This tolerant attitude sometimes becomes a criminal offence. Maybe this is why Ukrainian culture needs this heroic, radical imposition - I mean Ukrainian ethnic music, Ukrainian rock, punk, and, finally, heroic songs that will revive genetic memories of the Cossacks and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).

Nazar Dron, manager of the Haidamaky: This approach should be radical but not aggressive. We must begin ridding ourselves of this cultural occupation, starting from “upstairs.” First of all, state structures must be changed because those who are trying to do this “downstairs” constantly end up smashing up against the rocks. It’s also true that the situation has changed for the better in the past two years: we have more Ukrainian music on the radio, and there are more creative events.

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Dron believes that this festival of heroic songs is a very interesting project, and that Skrypka invited “the right kind” of musicians to help translate it into reality. “But there’s something I don’t understand. Is it possible that the Haidamaky don’t sing heroic songs?” Dron wondered with good reason.

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At the entrance to October Palace the festival visitors were greeted by cadets in full dress uniform from Kyiv’s Bohun Military College and real Cossacks carrying old pistols. Oleksa Rudenko, the head of the department of military and cultural anthropology at the Archaeology and Anthropology Society, together with his brothers-in-arms wearing genuine Cossack attire, fired their pistols into the air, their way of fighting against cultural expansion.

“We are performing the function of a historical citation here. We have prepared an exhibit of historic weapons and uniforms, which is on display at the festival,” said Rudenko, who also believes that cultural occupation can be combated best by a cultural counterattack.

Skrypka launched the concert with these words: “All of our 15 performers are fighters on the cultural front. We are young and brave! Our country is now in a state of cultural ruination, so we are trying to bring it into a state of cultural renascence.”

Some of those “young and brave” ones performed programs especially designed for the concert, among them Foma (Mandry) and VV, who sang a Sich Sharpshooter song for the first time in their 20-year career. The Tanky group amazed the audience with their rendition of “Plyve choven, vody poven” (A Boat Full of Water Is Sailing) in a manner totally uncharacteristic of their style. Taras Chubai organized a small patriotic bacchanalia when he started singing “Lenta za lentoiu,” with the audience joining in. An effective coda to the festival was the national hymn of Ukraine, which was sung by all the musicians together with the audience members. The soiree continued with a ball attended by the Bohun College cadets.