National Anthem of Ukraine

“Shche ne vmerla Ukraina” or “Ukraine's Glory Has Not Perished” in English is the currently modified version of the national anthem of Ukraine. The original of this patriotic poem was written by Pavlo Chubynsky, a prominent ethnographer from the region of Ukraine's capital, Kiev in 1862 and in 1863, a western Ukrainian composer and a Greek-Catholic priest, Mykhaylo Verbytsky composed the music for the national anthem of Ukraine. The Ukrainian national anthem was first performed at the Ukraine Theatre in Lviv, in 1864.

History

Mykhaylo Verbytsky originally composed the music for a solo song and later for orchestra to accompany the anthem. Ukraine's national anthem was first adopted as the national anthem at the time of Ukraine's brief independence during Russia's Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Though it became the anthem of the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic by 1920, it was latter banned by the incoming Soviet regime.

Through various changes and additions over the years, the national anthem of Ukraine was finally restored in 1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union when Ukraine regained its independence. The Ukrainian national anthem was sung at the inauguration of the first President Leonid Kravchuk on December 5, 1991.

In the Ukrainian national anthem Chubynsky expressed Ukrainians mixture of hope and desperation and their continuous struggle to rule their own land. Through his verses he conveyed the people's desire to be free from the clutches of foreign invasion. The anthem is widely sung round the whole country as the “Hymn to Ukraine”.

In spite of its come back the Ukrainian anthem displeased its listeners. People were not happy with the pessimistic tone, so the Ukrainian government hesitated to approve the Chubynsky's lyrics. Even a commission sponsored contest was held for the replacement of the lyrics but none of them were decided upon. Finally on 6 th March 2003 Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament together with the President signed an act recognizing a slight change to the version of Chubynsky's lyrics that were ordinarily sung. Important changes were made to the first line and the title which was interestingly borrowed from the Polish anthem. Ukraine's anthem was also similar to that of the anthems of the Serbian and Israeli.

In the new version, instead of stating “Ukraine has not perished, neither her glory, nor her freedom”, the concept of Ukraine perishing as a nation has been changed and now the line states “Ukraine hasn't perished, and her glory, and her Freedom…” Also the current version of the anthem has just one verse plus the repeated chorus, whereas the previous version had three verses and a chorus. Still many people continue to sing the original lyrics.