Orange Revolution's spirit captured in music and book releases (03/27/05)

Orange Revolution's spirit captured in music and book releases

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - With nostalgic interest in the Orange Revolution already creating a market, Ukraine's most talented musicians and writers have produced work to relive those historic days and cherish the revolt's spirit.

Ukrainian rock legend Oleh Skrypka has taken the lead among musicians by compiling and producing an album that captures the inspiring patriotism and tumult that lay behind the uprising.

The 16-track album is not a collection of rock songs that pop stars sang on maidan's stage (though it does include an acoustic version of Greenjolly's "Razom Nas Bahato").

"There was some discord," during the Revolution, Mr. Skrypka said. "In particular, many felt a lack of revolutionary songs on the maidan - riflemen's (striletski) songs, Kozak songs and dumy."

"Dukh Ne Vmyraye, Dukh Ne Zhasa" collects some of Ukraine's most talented contemporary folk artists, some of whom authored songs during the revolution, while others echoed lyrics written centuries ago.

The selected songs were performed during a concert series organized by Mr. Skrypka in late November to inspire the revolutionaries standing in the freezing temperatures, whether at the barricades surrounding the Presidential Administration Building, or at the steps of the Museum of Ukrainian Art just down the street from the protests at the Cabinet of Ministers.

The idea to dispatch singers to the barricades came to Mr. Skrypka during a spontaneous moment on the stage of Independence Square - a.k.a. the maidan - when he and fellow musicians decided to sing with all their might, "My Smilo v Biy Pidem," a song written in 1918 during Ukraine's struggle for independence.

The audience's reaction was so powerful that Mr. Skrypka resolved to organize folk musicians at every barricade, where they'd chime patriotic songs into the hearts of protesters all through December and onto victory.

Passionate Kozak songs dominate the album, including a remarkable, soul-stirring rendition of Taras Shevchenko's "Hamalia" as performed by 10-year-old bandura prodigy Sviatoslav Sylenko.

His father, bandurist Taras Sylenko, performs a Haidamak song from the 18th century.

Others artists include Foma, lead singer of Mandry; Eduard Drach, an impressive acoustic guitarist and songwriter; and bandurist Taras Kompanichenko, who sings the riflemen's march that inspired Mr. Skrypka and his colleagues, "My Smilo v Biy Pidem" (We Will Bravely Go Into Battle).

Mr. Skrypka himself contributed his enthusiastic accordion melodies and deep, eccentric vocals in two songs on the album.

On the literary front, Kyiv-based publisher Yaroslaviv Val has released one of the first accounts of the Orange Revolution, "Peysazh dlia Pomaranchevoyi Revoliutsiyi" (Landscape for the Orange Revolution), written and reported by Mykhailo Slaboshpytskyi, this year's national laureate of the Shevchenko Prize, which is Ukraine's highest distinction for writers.

Rather than rely on a strictly objective account, Mr. Slaboshpytskyi's work is a journalistic narrative, or what he deems a "chronicle-collage" in which he offers readers his own personal lens through which to view the panorama of events that became known as the Orange Revolution.

His romantic prose is filled with the keen insight and sharp humor that brought him to literary prominence in Ukraine, his colleagues said at the book's presentation held on March 21.

"All present here are people of the maidan," Vice Minister of Defense Minister Volodymyr Pasko told the audience of more than 100 gathered at Ukraine's National Museum of Literature in Kyiv. The League of Arts Patrons (Liha Metsenativ) sponsored the event.

"Mr. Slaboshpytskyi wrote this book so there would be a complete picture of the maidan. We need such books to convey the epoch's spirit and the atmosphere," he added.

In addition to illustrating the many events transpiring in Ukraine's capital during the revolt, Mr. Slaboshpytskyi also includes inspiring anecdotes of ordinary Ukrainians far removed from the Khreschatyk, Kyiv's main boulevard, who played critical roles.

One such woman was Valentyna Rudenko, who had a daughter-in-law working for Ukrnaftohas in Kyiv.

Ms. Rudenko's daughter-in-law called her the day of the election and told her the company bosses were forcing employees to vote once for Viktor Yanukovych, and to board buses headed for Poltava in order to cast more votes for him using absentee ballots. Anyone refusing to engage in the voting fraud would lose her job, her daughter-in-law was told.

As it turned out, the buses never left for Poltava. Ms. Rudenko tipped off Pora, which sent students to swarm the buses. They bravely laid their bodies down underneath the wheels, refusing to move. The bus drivers were the first to give up, telling the factory bosses they would not move the buses.

Mr. Slaboshpytskyi's prose is crisp, direct and lively, making for a leisurely read even for someone who speaks Ukrainian as a second language.

The Ukrainian diaspora, particularly from Canada and Australia, played a significant role in producing the book, contributing their stories of the Revolution, as well as financing.

"Peysazh dlia Pomaranchevoyi Revoliutsiyi" costs 20 hrv and may be obtained by contacting the League of Arts Patrons in Kyiv (Liha Metsenativ) at (38044) 486-53-78.

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