As Ukraine tries to repel an invasion from Russia, the country’s defiant national anthem is being sung around the world in protest of the Kremlin-lead aggression.
The anthem originates from a 19th century Ukrainian poem titled “Ukraine Is Not Dead Yet,” which was set to music, according to the National Anthems Info website. But singing and performance of the song was banned when Ukraine became part of the Soviet Union in 1922.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the song regained anthemic status and in 2003, the country’s parliamentary body, which had adopted the music as an anthem in 1992, approved lyrics. Those were changed slightly in the first stanza to say, “Ukraine’s freedom has not yet perished, nor has her glory,” instead of “Ukraine hasn’t yet died, nor has her glory or freedom,” NationalAnthems.info says. (Still, some online sites continue to use the “has not yet died,” phrasing.)
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As Russia’s invasion began, performances of the song became prevalent across the globe.
A video of a group of women and children singing the anthem while sheltering Friday in the central Ukraine city of Cherkasy spread on social media and was covered internationally on media sites including the Daily Mail of London. Several sites also included a trumpet soloist playing the anthem in Sumy, a city in northeastern Ukraine.
Reuters, NBC News, and CNN were among outlets who covered a scene that also spread on social media: Kyiv resident Katya Gulenko singing the national anthem while cleaning debris at her mother’s apartment home, which had its windows apparently blown out by a Russian bomb.
Ukrainian baritone Yuriy Yurchuk, who was born in Kyiv and performs at the Royal Opera House of London, sang the anthem during a protest Thursday outside Downing Street in London, music site Classic FM reported. “This is an extremely important day not just for Ukraine, but for the entire world we live in today,” he posted on Instagram.
The singing of the Ukrainian national anthem became part of protests, too.
On Saturday, Ukrainians living in Hungary sang outside the Russian Embassy in Budapest.
The night before, the singing of the anthem at the University of Debrecen in Hungary was captured in a video posted on Twitter.
That same night in Riga, Latvia, a choir was seen singing the Ukraine national anthem near the Russian embassy there.
Irish pianist Rónán Murray also posted his own performance of the national anthem onto Twitter Friday as a show of support for Ukraine.
Anti-war demonstrators in New York City on Thursday included the singing of the anthem in their protest. And in Warsaw, Poland, an antiwar protest Thursday also reportedly included the anthem as a show of support for Ukraine. Interestingly, the lyrics for Poland’s own anthem inspired those of Ukraine’s.
Ukrainians began publicly singing the anthem in the weeks ahead of the Russian invasion as troops began massing at the country’s borders. On Feb. 12, protestors sang the song during a rally in Kyiv, the Kyiv Post reported.
The national anthem was sung by those who took part in a Feb. 19 unity march in Lyiv and at a protest in Kramatorsk in East Ukraine the night before the invasion began, Classic FM reported.
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Japanese singing trio the Yokohama Sisters shared their rendition of the anthem on February 15 in honor of Yokohama’s sister city Odesa.
“We only wanted to express our support for our partner city, and our aim wasn’t to send a political message,” the singer Maho told Japanese newspaper The Mainichi. “But as a result, it (the video) directly reached the hearts of Ukrainians facing difficult times. It made me realize once again that singing a national anthem is a way to respect that county.”
Ukraine’s freedom has not yet perished, nor has her glory,
Upon us, fellow Ukrainians, fate shall smile once more.
Our enemies will vanish like dew in the sun,
And we too shall rule, brothers, in a free land of our own.
CHORUS:
We’ll lay down our souls and bodies to attain our freedom,
And we’ll show that we, brothers, are of the Cossack nation.
We’ll lay down our souls and bodies to attain our freedom,
And we’ll show that we, brothers, are of the Cossack nation.
Brethren, stand together in a bloody fight, from the Sian to the Don
We will not allow others to rule in our motherland.
The Black Sea will smile and grandfather Dnipro will rejoice,
For in our own Ukraine fortune shall flourish again.
Chorus
Our persistence and our sincere toils will be rewarded,
And freedom’s song will resound throughout all of Ukraine.
Echoing off the Carpathians, and rumbling across the steppes,
Ukraine’s fame and glory will be known among all nations.
Translation courtesy NationalAnthems.info
Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.