On March 10, we celebrate the Day of the National Anthem of Ukraine, which was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on December 7, 2021. Why is the holiday celebrated on this day? In 1865, in the Polish city of Przemysl, on this day, the work of composer Mykhailo Verbytsky to the words of the poet Pavlo Chubynskyi “Ukraine is not dead yet” was first performed.

The National Anthem (Slavonic) of Ukraine is one of the main state symbols of Ukraine, along with the State Flag and the State Emblem. The anthem translated from Greek means a festive song. The National Anthem identifies the state at international gatherings, forums, and sports competitions.

In Ukrainian lands, anthems have deep historical roots. From the "Word of Ihor's Campaign" it is known that the legendary Boian sang songs of the hymn type in honor of the princes. Later, songs of this type appeared based on other genres - historical, Cossack ("Come on, guys, to the weapons", "The steep banks have spilled"). In particular, the last song, created in the middle of the 17th century, contained the later famous lines "Oh, in the meadow there is a red viburnum", which were finalized in the early 20th century and became the anthem of the Sich riflemen. And now they are often performed, both by professional singers and ordinary citizens during the days of our bloody struggle with the Russian aggressor.

The beginnings of the creation of the anthem of Ukraine date back to the end of 1862, when at one of the parties of the famous ethnographer and poet Pavlo Chubynskyi, Serbian students studying at Kyiv University sang a patriotic song, and the chorus contained the words "srcebije i krvlije za svojo slobodu". Chubynskyi was delighted with this song, and later, having retired to another room, he left there with the finished text of the song "Shche ne vmerla Ukraina", which was immediately sung to a Serbian motif.

The first publication of the text of Pavlo Chubynskyi's poem took place in the Lviv magazine "Meta" in issue 4 for 1863. The music for these words was written first by Mykola Lysenko, and then by Mykhailo Verbytskyi. For the first time, P. Chubynskyi's text with notes was published in 1865. The first public performance, as already mentioned, took place on March 10, 1865 in Przemyśl as the final number of a concert dedicated to the fourth anniversary of the death of Taras Shevchenko. Such prominent Ukrainians as Ivan Franko and Lesya Ukrainka defined “She Has Not Died…” as the national anthem. The anthem was first recorded on a record in the Cologne branch of the “Gramophone” in October 1910, performed by Modest Mentsynsky. In 1917-1921, “She Has Not Died Ukraine” became one of the state anthems of the UNR and the ZUNR. In particular, on June 17, 1917, the authoritative American publication "The New York Times" published a note on the approval of the official translation of the Ukrainian anthem:

Nay, thou art not dead, Ukraine,
See, the glory's born again,
And the skies, O brethren,
Smile once more!

"Ukraine is not dead yet" by Chubynskyi and Verbytsky, along with "The Eternal Revolutionary" by Franko and Lysenko, performed by the Stetsenko choir, sounded during the proclamation of the Act of Unity of Ukraine on January 22, 1919. In 1939, "Ukraine is not dead yet" was approved as the anthem of Carpathian Ukraine. In our time, the anthem "Ukraine is not dead yet" was first publicly sung on September 24, 1989 on the main stage of the "Chervona Ruta" festival. On September 17, 1991, Ukrainian Radio began broadcasting with the performance of the anthem song "Ukraine is Not Dead Yet", and on December 5 of the same year it was first performed by the Veryovka Choir at a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine dedicated to the announcement of the results of the All-Ukrainian referendum and the inauguration of the first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk.

On January 15, 1992, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the musical version of the National Anthem by M. Skoryk and E. Stankovych (for choir and piano), which was reflected in the Constitution of Ukraine. Only on March 6, 2003, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law "On the National Anthem of Ukraine". The bill proposed to approve as the National Anthem the national anthem to the music of Mykhailo Verbytsky with the words of the first verse and the chorus of the song "Ukraine is Not Dead Yet" by Pavlo Chubynskyi. The then President of Ukraine L. Kuchma proposed changing the sound of the first stanza of the anthem to “The glory and freedom of Ukraine have not yet died.” With the adoption of this law, Article 20 of the Constitution of Ukraine took on a complete form. The national anthem, to the music of Mykhailo Verbytsky, received words now approved by law, the first lines of which are as follows:

The glory and freedom of Ukraine have not yet died,
Fate will smile upon us, brothers of the youth.

It is symbolic that the anthem was created by representatives of two historical and geographical parts of Ukraine: Eastern and Western. With the proclamation of Ukraine’s independence, it returned to the song treasury of the people and became one of the main symbols of the state.

Now, when our soldiers – our new heroes – are defending the territorial integrity of the state, the Anthem has an exceptionally special meaning for all of us and is that unbreakable spiritual link that unites us with previous generations of fighters for the freedom of Ukraine.

As the modern Ukrainian poet Natalka Poklad wrote in her poem “Hymn”:

This is our oath,
The sacred commandment,
Let friends and enemies hear,
That Ukraine is eternal,
Indestructible,
From it shines a bright light all around.

Volodymyr HRECHENKO – Professor of Ukrainian History