Chapter I: Foreword

It is the opinion of most scholarly critics that there are no other Slavic people so rich in folk lore as the Ukrainians. The Ukrainian songs and airs are innumerable. A Ukrainian peasant is a singer in the full sense of the word; singing is his daily bread; no work, no walk, no family, social entertainment, no engagement of any kind goes without singing or “ex tempore” improvisation of some air and words; the proverb is well known that “a Cossack (a Ukrainian) laughs and sings through his tears,” which means that even in time of his woes and worry a Ukrainian sings: sighs and sings! A Ukrainian, provided he be not depraved and deprived of his original native intuition by a foreign, and especially the modern urban culture (and thanks be to the Providence the aboriginal feeling, the poetry of soul still predominates and is the express characteristic of every Ukrainian of all social and cultural degrees), is a singer, nature’s own musician of no base quality. He has hundred-fold ways of expressing his hilarity or sadness in every instance, corresponding to and depicting every motion of body and soul: whether he be bringing the muck out of his stables to his fields, or the cattle to pasture in the spring, or thrashing his corn, or his wife weaving her cloth in winter; whether he be mowing, reaping, or at some trade in fall, or resting and merry-making amid the heat, verdure and fragrant Ukrainian nature in summer--he constantly sings, alone or in company; even his prayers are mostly performed through singing.

A student well acquainted with Ukrainian geography and the beauties of her nature, will agree with the author that nature herself prompts the Ukrainian to express his very soul in spontaneous singing; by the fragrance of meadows rich with the odors of a thousand flowers; by the song of the nightingales that wake the infants from their slumber in the early morning; by the rich black earth, plains, wide steppes, balmy forests and lofty hills of the Carpathians and the Caucasus; by the gentle, sweet Slavonic temper educated in the bosom of nature’s luxuries; and last but not least--by the history which fortune, otherwise so bounteous with the Ukrainians, has made so harsh and strenuous for them, making the Ukrainians a subject of almost continuous struggle with foreign invaders--Tartars, Turks and the Poles and the Russians especially.

It is to be lamented that many of us do not understand or sufficiently prize the value of the folk songs of whatever origin or language they may be; we fail to see their beauty and meaning in the life of every living national organism; we can not see why so much stress is put on them by the educators. Some regard these songs as merely a pastime or extravagant folly of youthful revelry. True, that some original, charming, pensive songs are and have been adulterated and the effect soiled by wanton pornology and perverted sentences--yet these ought to be easily eliminated from the sacred treasury of the people.

It very seldom happens that the Ukrainian songs are changed in meaning and effect except it be by some foreign, usually Polish or Russian, words; sometimes even a whole, new worthless song is introduced among the Ukrainians, but on tracing its origin it is found out that it was of Polish, Russian or other foreign source brought about by men serving in foreign armies, or being in contact with other nationalities; such songs are commonly avoided with care, and traditional Ukrainian compositions are sung exclusively. This is true also regarding other Ukrainian folklore such as rural tales, ritual songs and ballads.

A noticeable decline in purity and beauty of Ukrainian folklore is observable where Polish or Russian influences have gained their access. The author of this study himself saw this decline twenty-two years ago in the western Ukrainian government of Kholm and Podlakhia, where he was born and brought up in his early childhood. He well remembers how in that part of the country the two foreign cultures wrangled with each other in an attempt to strangle the ancient Ukrainian culture. The Russian culture, by way of the state school system, and the Polish culture by means of the Polish Latin Catholic church wherein Polish national propaganda had its mainstay; both endeavored to deprive the Ukrainian peasantry of their nationality by forcing on them silly imitations of the alleged “higher” culture. It causes the author great pain to recall how the Polish landlords and priests have gradually made the good-natured Ukrainian peasants abandon their “pagan” ritual, Easter and Christmas folk songs and hymns; their beautiful out-of-door ceremonials, weddings, and christenings, which are inseparably connected with singing, changed their aspect to a great extent in the above mentioned Ukrainian territories. Polish religious songs may be more numerous, but the Ukrainian folk-songs thus lost under the forceful introduction of the Polish “Kultura” is a whole treasure lost to the local population--because the Ukrainian folk songs are unequalled, incomparable with any others in the world.