Oi u luzi chervona kalyna
Performed by The String Mockingbird
Recorded live March 30, 2023
This is a live concert from the streets of Lviv performed by The String Mockingbird.
This a Ukrainian folk song first published in 1875.
It was banned during the Soviet occupation from 1919 to 1991.
Today in Crimea, singers of the song in an online video were imprisoned and fined.
Due to the song’s association with the Ukrainian people’s aspiration for independence, singing of the song was banned during the period in which Ukraine was a Soviet Republic (1919-1991). Nevertheless, it was sung by Ukrainian patriots, with defiance; anyone caught singing it was jailed, beaten, and even exiled.
Following the 2014 annexation by Russia of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula, and then the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, singing “nationalist anthems” such as Chervona Kalyna in Crimea was deemed to discredit the Russian army, and was punished by fines and imprisonment. In September 2022, Russian occupation authorities in Crimea jailed and fined members of a wedding party for “discrediting” the Russian Armed Forces by playing the song. The singers of the song in an online video were imprisoned and fined.
Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian head of the Crimean peninsula, warned that authorities would punish people harshly for singing such songs. He said that “People who do this are acting like traitors”, and that there was a special FSB security service group working on the matter
Lyrics
Oh, in the meadow a red kalyna has bent down low,
For some reason, our glorious Ukraine is in sorrow.
And we’ll take that red kalyna and we will raise it up,
And, hey-hey, we shall cheer up our glorious Ukraine!
Do not bend low, oh red kalyna, you have a white flower,
Do not worry, glorious Ukraine, you have a free people.
And we’ll take that red kalyna and will raise it up,
And, hey-hey, we shall cheer up our glorious Ukraine!
Marching forward, our fellow volunteers, into a bloody fray,
For to free our brother Ukrainians from the Moscovite shackles.
And we, our brother Ukrainians, we will then liberate,
And, hey-hey, we shall cheer up our glorious Ukraine!
Oh in the field of early spring wheat, there’s a golden furrow,
Then began the Ukrainian riflemen to engage the enemy.
And we’ll take that precious, early wheat and will gather it,
And, hey-hey, we shall cheer up our glorious Ukraine!
When the stormy winds blow forth from the wide steppes,
They will glorify, throughout Ukraine, the Sich Riflemen.
And so we will preserve the glories of these riflemen,
And, hey-hey, we shall cheer up our glorious Ukraine!
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