Chapter VII: Historic and Political Songs, Continued

Once more, after the Union with Russia at Pereyaslav, the whole nation arose against the Moscovites under the leadership of Hetman Mazepa, who made a covenant with Charles XII, King of Sweden; but both were defeated near Poltava, Ukraine, in 1709. Peter the Great and Catherine (II) the Great abrogated all the liberties of the Ukrainian nation and destroyed the last camp of the Cossacks in 1700 and in 1775 razed all Ukrainian schools, and forbade speaking and praying in Ukrainian. It is estimated that 170,000 Cossacks perished at the compulsory building of St. Petersburg, making canals and general improvements in Northern Russia, while hundreds of thousands perished in Siberia, dying from disease and hunger!

“... So it came to pass that the famous Zaporoghians became
melancholy
And no wonder, for the Moscovites besieged them all around,
The hateful Russian lords, generals, the heretic sons
Have wasted the serene land and the wide steppe.”[1]

* * * * *

The Zaporoghians have shed tears on their way to Turkey....”[2]

“... Alas he went to Moscovy and there he perished[3]
Never has he abandoned his native Ukraine....”[4]

The sad condition of affairs owing to the economic slavery, and compulsory labor or servitude, that were gradually imposed by the Russian and Polish land owners, caused the Haydamaki war or the peasant uprising first under Simon Paley who desired to reunite the Left and Right-Bank Ukraine in 1704, and then in 1768 under the two national leaders Gonta and Zalizniak, who were the authors of the renowned massacre at Uman (1768); it was a chain of bloody reprisals of the people for the many abuses and sufferings:

... Let us go, beloved brethren,
Into the steppes, and become the Haydamaki,
We may, perchance, some day
Revenge ourselves on the oppressors.[5]

... Do not ask, O, Lach, for any direction in Ukraine,
Just look up and see how Cossacks are hanging from the oak trees.[6]

(e) _Songs of the Servitude and Compulsory Army Service._

After the partition of Poland (1772-1795), the entire Ukraine--except East Galicia, Bukovina and Hungarian Ruthenia which fell to Austria--went under the Russian yoke, and Catherine the Great razed the last remnant of the Zaporoghian Sitch in 1775, just when the United States were struggling for independence; both Russia and Austria began recruiting soldiers from among the Ukrainians; thus, recruited soldiers had to serve twenty five years in the army and one was never certain of seeing home and relatives again; life was lost for such a one forever, for if not killed, he returned home old and maimed.

... When shalt thou return, dear brother?
Take, my sister, a handful of sand,
Sow it, sister, upon a stone.
When this sand begins to grow
Then thy little brother will return.[7]

Just then the servitude or compulsory labor and slavery were introduced in Ukraine with all the hardships, for, while the feudal system and servitude were much older, they received the sanction and protection of both these governments again:

... It was well for the fathers
To live in Ukraine,
While now their sons
Must perform servitude.[8]

... A priest walks in the church, reading a book,
Why good folks, don’t you attend the church?
And how can we, reverend, come to church,
If they tell us to thresh grain from Sunday to Sunday?[9]

(f) _Songs about Freeing the Peasants from Servitude._

Austria, in order to acquire the sympathy and support of the peasantry of all nationalities, officially abrogated the servitude in 1848, and Russia in 1861, mostly on account of democratic principles, disseminated by Ukrainian savants and writers best expressed by tenets of the Cyryllo-Methodius Society of Kiev; this caused a great jubilation among the Ukrainian peasantry, uttered in numerous songs:

OY LETILA ZAZULENKA

Flying, did the little cuckoo cry:
Stay, good folks, I have ought to say!
On my return trip to you, the groves grew green,
I sat in the thick of the forest and reposed.
It clattered and roared, so I turned around
And saw such a marvel that it made me wonder.
Freedom drove out and pursued Servitude;
She drove Feudal Service into woods and down precipices.
Lords and masters followed her, earnestly entreating
“Come back, return, oh, Servitude; no incomes to live from.”
While Servitude retorted: “’Tis not my fault,
A trusty servant was I--ye dismissed me.”
“We know not how to thrash, nor our wives to reap,
We’re aware how hard it is to earn one’s livelihood.”

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Antonowitch and Drahomanow: “The Historic Songs of the Ukrainian Nation,” Vol. II, p. 40.

[2] Antonovitch and Drahomanow: “The Historic Songs of the Ukrainian Nation,” Vol. II, p. 40.

[3] Ibidem, Vol. II, p. 114.

[4] Drahomaniw: “Political Songs of the Ukrainian Nation,” Vol. II, p. 114.

[5] Drahomanow: “New Ukrainian Songs about Community Affairs” p. 34.

[6] Holowacky: “National Songs of Galician and Hungarian Ruthenia (Ukraine),” Vol. I, p. 16.

[7] Lysenko: “A Collection of Ukrainian Songs,” Vol. VI, p. 7.

[8] Drahomanow: “New Ukrainian Songs about Community Affairs,” p. 36.

[9] Ibidem, p. 25.