Songs of the Ukrainian Struggle in the Cultural Identity of the Nation: Prerequisites, Figures

Abstract

The purpose of the work is to investigate the prerequisites and significance of the songs of the Ukrainian struggle of the Sich Riflemen period in the creation of the cultural identity of the nation; to characterise the historical and cultural continuity of Ukrainian song art throughout the liberation struggle; to outline the significance of the song heritage in the cultural identity of the nation. The methodology is based on cultural, musicological, and comparative analysis. Cultural analysis allowed us to study the songs of the Sich riflemen in the context of historical, social, and cultural processes in Ukraine of the specified period that contributed to their emergence and development. Comparative analysis made it possible to determine common and distinctive features, motives, themes, authors of songs of the Sich riflemen and to trace the evolution of the development of the song genre. With the help of a musicological approach, vocal, poetic, and instrumental works about the war, authors of music of the Ukrainian struggle of the period of the OSS (Ukrainian Sich riflemen), professional composers, and poets, their contribution to the development of the song heritage of the war, which became a means of creating a worldview and a weapon of spiritual resistance of Ukrainians, is presented. The scientific novelty of the study is that the art-historical-culturological, historical-social prerequisites for the emergence of Ukrainian Sich riflemen’s struggle songs and their significance in the preservation and reproduction of the cultural heritage of Ukrainians have been clarified. Conclusion. Songs of the Ukrainian struggle appear as a weapon of national self-identification in wartime conditions. They sublimate musical folklore, spiritual culture, the heroic epic of the liberation wars, vocal-poetic motifs of the Ukrainian polyphonic song heritage. Songs of the Sich riflemen became a battery of victory, inspiration and elevation of fighting spirit, growth of patriotism, creation of military folklore for the transfer to the new generation of authentic riflemen’s melodies as a weapon in the current struggle for cultural identity, for the right to be called Ukrainians.