ARTISTIC AND DIPLOMATIC MISSION OF THE BURLAKA CHOIR IN POST-WAR EUROPE (1946-1949)

Abstract

The issue of migration processes from Ukraine to the countries of Western Europe after the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war remains an important interest for the Ukrainian community. Ukrainians abroad organize festivals, concerts, meetings with foreigners, where they are introduced to the great Ukrainian cultural and artistic heritage. This brings popularity to national art and the Ukrainian idea, and also results in donations for the Armed Forces. The article draws certain parallels between the current emigration and the life of Ukrainians after the Second World War, who preserved their national identity and used artistic means to conduct cultural diplomacy among the citizens of the countries of internment. The Ukrainian song was sung in a choir organized after the Second World War by soldiers of the First Ukrainian Division who were interned in Italy, in the city of Bellaria, in camps near the city of Rimini. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate how, in the difficult conditions of emigration and captivity, talented young men organized a choir that performed a diplomatic cultural mission and popularized Ukrainian musical art among foreign cultures.

Methodology. The research used a complex of interrelated methods, such as analytical, comparative, phenomenology of experience, art therapy. The methodological basis is the concept of national, historical, communicative memory, the biographical method, as well as the method of collective biographies, authored by L. Stone. After all, not only individual personalities have a biography, but also choral creative collectives, for example, the Republican Chapel under the direction of O. Kosyts.  The method of dialogue of cultures is applied, when the represented song reaches the representatives of other cultures and affects the monads of the alien soul with a high level of performance and melody.

The scientific novelty of the study is to represent the cultural and artistic activity of the «Burlak» choir as a team performing a cultural and diplomatic mission among European countries, being held captive in the conditions of camp life after the Second World War.

Conclusions. The cultural diplomacy of a small artistic association made a great contribution to the positive perception of Ukrainians in Italy, added to the understanding of the reasons for their struggle. This political and cultural mission continued in Great Britain, and later on the American continent. Thanks to the successful idea of the talented conductor S. Huminilovych, to spread choral art in the countries of settlement, the artist popularized Ukrainian culture and nation on the European and American continents. Choral art made it possible to organize an institution that represented the Ukrainian nation in foreign territories, on several continents.