The origin of the anthem of Ukraine, like everything connected with Ukrainians, is shrouded in a fog of lies. When you listen to the Ukrainian anthem, its boring, boring melody, there is no desire to cry with pride for the country and admire this symbol of the state. Many do not even want to get up. This is more likely not a hymn, but a requiem, a memorial song.
This is not to say that when listening to the anthem there is a feeling of weight and spaciousness. On the contrary, the very first line of the anthem ("Ukraine has not died yet …") in combination with the minor melody creates a feeling of durability, monotony, sadness and depression. Why is that? Why is the Ukrainian anthem a copy of the Polish anthem, which sets out the program for the revival of the Polish state?
Before talking about the authorship and melody of the hymn, it is worth recalling the historical period when this hymn was written. This is 1862, Poland as a state has not existed for more than half a century. It is divided between Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Polish uprising of 1830 was suppressed, a new uprising is being prepared, which will also end in failure the following year.
One of the Polish generals who served in Napoleon's army in 1797 wrote the song “Polska has not died yet,” which quickly became a popular hit among supporters of the restoration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As "Mazurka Dбbrowski", it became the national anthem during the Polish uprisings of 1830 and 1863 and in 1927 the national anthem of Poland.
The Polish gentry, including those who settled on the lands of Little Russia, dreams of restoring the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and seeks to win over the pop-lovers, part of the Russian intelligentsia, mainly young people infected under Polish influence with the idea of a separate “Ukrainian people”.
According to the canonical version, the authorship of the words of the future Ukrainian anthem "Ukraine has not yet died" belongs to the famous Russian scientist Pavel Chubinsky, a Ukrainianophile and a former member of the Polish circle of cotton fans. He allegedly wrote this verse in August 1862, on the eve of the Polish uprising. But Chubinsky himself never claimed authorship during his lifetime.
For the first time, Chubinsky's authorship was written in the memoirs of a certain Beletsky. They were published in 1914 in the Ukrainian magazine "Ukrainian Life", the purpose of which was to promote the so-called Ukrainian cultural heritage. Is it any wonder that the notorious Simon Petliura was the editor of the magazine.
According to Beletsky, at one of the parties of the Kiev pop-lovers, which was attended by Beletsky, Chubinsky impromptu wrote the words of the anthem "Ukraine has not died yet," as if to the tune of a Serbian song. The cunning lies in the fact that there was a party, and these verses were really written on it. But Beletsky tries to hide the shameful primogeniture of the Polish anthem and the authorship of the Poles behind the version of the Serbian trace.
It was not at all difficult to do this, since the Serbian version of Gandria Zeiler “Serbia has not yet died”, and even a similar one among the Muslims of Croatia - “Croatia has not yet died” by Ludevit Gai already existed. An interesting spread of the Polish hit among the nations that did not have statehood! In the memoirs of another party participant, Nikolai Verbitsky, set out in his letters, everything looks much more believable. How a popular hit was being remade at an ordinary student party of sympathizers of the impending uprising.
The verse was the fruit of collective creativity in rewriting the Polish hit "Yeshe Polska did not die" in a Khromoman style. The action was attended by students-clappers, "born gentry of the blood of the Radziwills" Joseph Rylsky and his brother Tadei Rylsky - a famous Polish poet, pseudonym Maxim Cherny (father and uncle of the Soviet poet Maxim Rylsky).
At the party were their fellow Polish Russophobes Paulin Sventsitsky (pseudonym Pavel Svoy), Pavel Zhitetsky and Ivan Navrotsky. The last two were late, but they brought an acquaintance of the Serb, Petr Entich-Karic. Chubinsky himself appeared, as always, the last.
During the party, the Poles Rylsky and Sventsitsky sang "March of Dombrowski", and the idea was born to write the same, but in connection with the Polish-Khromomani ideas. Poems were written collectively. According to Verbitsky, only two lines remain of his text.
The first version of the future anthem included the quintessence of all Polish complexes on the Ukrainian issue. Which is understandable, given the nationality of the team of authors! One of the first options included the following stanza: “Those who bravely defended Mother Ukraine. Nalivaiko and Pavlyuk …"
Tadey Rylsky and Pavlin Sventsitsky, whose relatives from babies to elders were cut out by Pavel Bout, nicknamed Pavlyuk, did not like the mention of him. Tadei Rylsky offered his own version: "Let's remember the holy death of the Cossack knights …"
And here is a verse from the first versions of the future anthem of Ukraine:
“Oh, Bogdana-Zinovia, our drunken hetman, Why did you sell Ukraine to the nasty Muscovites?"
And then the primordially Greater Poland claims: “Let us become, brothers, in a curve from Syan to the Don.” They see the future of these lands, on the one hand, from the San River, a tributary of the Vistula in the depths of Poland, on the other, to the Don River in the depths of Russian territory That is, immediately claims to part of Poland and Kursk, Belgorod, Voronezh, half of Rostov, part of Lipetsk and Volgograd regions of Russia!
After the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863, Sventsitsky, an admirer of Taras Shevchenko's work and an ardent Russophobe, emigrated to Lviv, then the Austrian Lemberg, and "Ukraine has not died yet" passed off another Ukrainian idol - Shevchenko - as the work of art.
The first publication of poems was carried out not just anywhere, but again in Lviv. Four poems were published in the fourth issue of the local magazine "Meta" in 1863. And the first was the verse "She has not died yet", after which there are really three poems by Shevchenko. And all together ended with his signature. So, at the suggestion of Sventsitsky, they tried to attribute authorship to Kobzar.
But this gave rise to too many doubts. In the 1880s, publishers of Shevchenko's poems requested such an expert in Ukrainian literature as the Ukrainianophile Kulish. He was aware of Shevchenko's innocence. Not wishing to reveal the Polish trace and knowing Pavel Chubinsky (recently deceased), a colleague in the Ministry of Railways, Kulish attributed the authorship to him.
Inspired by the publication, a Galician priest, Pole by origin, Mikhail Verbitsky, the namesake of Nikolai Verbitsky, wrote the music a week later. From that moment on, the Polish hit began to claim the anthem of Galicia. The very same Galicia, where just at that time the Austrians were creating a new, Ukrainian nation, endowing the “Ukrainians” with attributes like a flag, anthem and even history. The official date of the first public performance of the song is considered March 10, 1865, when in Przemysl, in a theological seminary, the Ukrainian society organized an evening in memory of Shevchenko.
The origin and meaning "Ukraine has not yet died" fully corresponds to the political slogans and views of the Polish gentry of Little Russia and Galicia on the eve of the uprising. Since the uprising failed, the lyrics were not disseminated. And he was alien to the Little Russian population, which, by the way, actively helped to liquidate the Polish revolt. The song found fertile soil only among the Galician Ukrainophiles, who eagerly sang to the Polish tune.
Having briefly flashed in 1917-1920 as one of the versions of the national anthem of the fake UNR, the Polish hit was pulled out of the store in 1992. They got it, shook it off of the mothballs, edited it. President Kuchma rewrote the first stanza to read: "Ukraine has not died yet, glory and will," leaving only the first quatrain and the refrain along the way. It was very politically incorrect to claim the San River in Poland and the Russian Don. In this form, this Polish creation was approved in 2003 as the national anthem of Ukraine.
As you know, the anthem of any state is also a program in which the past, present and future have merged, it is also a call to its people, it is also a prayer for its welfare. The anthem should make the citizens of the country feel like they are involved in something great and great, and preserve the memory of it for centuries. The anthem of France, the famous "Marseillaise", is one of the most striking examples of a successful anthem, the melody of which leaves no one indifferent. She perfectly conveys the flavor of the country, its goals and aspirations.
And what associations can the anthem of Ukraine evoke "Has not died yet …"? The first thing that comes to mind: "a little alive", "breathes in incense", "barely a soul in the body." The first line of the national anthem says a lot. As the unforgettable captain Vrungel said: “As you name the yacht, so it will float”. So it is with Ukraine: it is floating in an incomprehensible direction and it is not clear why. There isn't much left until the last reef.
