music: Mykhailo Haivoronskyj
words: folk, Mykhailo Haivoronskyj
performance: Ivan Kozlovskyj, 1937
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Historical background: "A Cossack Went to War" or "A Rifleman Went to War" is a Ukrainian folk song about a soldier who says goodbye to a girl and goes to war, where he dies. Songs based on this motif have existed in Ukraine since the 18th century, for example, the famous song by Klymovsky "A Cossack Went Across the Danube."
The most famous version of this song was made by Mykhailo Haivoronsky during the First World War. After the fall of the Ukrainian People's Republic, the performance of songs associated with Ukrainian independence, such as the rifleman songs, was censored or rewritten to fit the Soviet narrative. The "Riflemen" in the songs became the "Red Riflemen," while the term "Cossack" was still allowed. During the Soviet era, Haivoronsky was not credited for his version of the song for participating in the war for Ukrainian independence.
During the Second World War, some restrictions were temporarily lifted, and Ivan Kozlovskyj was allowed to sing the song "A Cossack was riding to war" in 1943 in front of Red Army soldiers.
The death of Stalin and Ukraine's independence made a renaissance of Ukrainian rifleman songs possible.
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28 сен 2024
