Turning the pages back...

June 4, 2000

It was six years ago to the day that The Weekly reported on June 4, 2000, about the slaying of composer and Ukrainian music artist Ihor Bilozir. According to an RFE/RL Newsline newsbrief, Mr. Bilozir, 44, was fatally beaten on the night of May 8-9 by Russian-speaking attackers who despised that he was singing in Ukrainian with friends at the Tsisarska Kava café. One of the attackers was later identified as the son of a senior police officer in Lviv.

The Kyiv-based daily newspaper Den reported on May 30 that Mr. Bilozir had died overnight on May 27-28 in the Lviv City Hospital, where he had been since the attack on the night of May 8-9.

With the tens of thousands who participated in the funeral on May 30 in Lviv, some 3,000 protesters marched through the streets chanting "down with the Russians" to protest Mr. Bilozir's murder and demand that authorities "de-Russify Ukraine" by sacking all Russian-speaking servicemen from the city's police force.

Mr. Bilozir, who is recognized as a national artist of Ukraine, was the leader of Vatra musical ensemble, one of the most popular ensembles in Ukraine during the 1980s. He was also a pianist and pedagogue.

In 1999 Mr. Bilozir appeared in concert at Soyuzivka during the Labor Day weekend festivities and performed many songs from Vatra's repertoire, leading off with the nostalgic "Svitlytsia," which has become a modern-day classic. He also played his own works, among them his first song, written at age 14, "Pershyi Snih" (First Snow), and his latest work, "Divchyna z Pisen" (Girl of Songs).

The article concluded: "Lviv authorities have declared May 30 as an official day of mourning. Community leaders have described the situation as tense."

Source: "Thousands in Lviv mourn slain songwriter Ihor Bilozir," The Ukrainian Weekly, June 4, 2000, Vol. LXVIII, No. 23.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 4, 2006, No. 23, Vol. LXXIV

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