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The Influence of the Orthodox Church on Ukrainian Dumy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Natalie K. Kononenko
Natalie K. Kononenko*
Affiliation:
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
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Extract

Dumy, the oral epic songs of Ukraine, like other heroic poetries, have a military subject matter. One duma cycle tells of battles with the Turks and Tatars in the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries; another sings of the Khmel'nyts'kyi uprising against the Poles that began in 1648. In addition to the expected narratives about armed conflict, the duma tradition also contains a group of songs, usually called the cycle about everyday life, that deals with topics only tenuously connected to war. These songs tell of such problems as filial ingratitude and sibling disloyalty. The popularity of this "unheroic" body of dumy relative to the other cycles suggests a powerful nonmilitary influence on the Ukrainian epic tradition at some point in its development. Other content features, some unusual elements in duma form, and many unique characteristics of duma performers likewise indicate such influence.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , Fall 1991 , pp. 566 - 575
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1991

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References

I would like to thank IREX for their support of my research in Ukraine in 1987.

1. For a tally of duma variants and a discussion of their relative popularity, see my “Widows and Sons, Heroism in Ukrainian Epic,” Harvard Ukrainian Studies (forthcoming). Form will not be discussed here. See Filaret M. Kolessa, Melodii ukraiins'kykh narodnykh dum (1910-1913; rpt. Kiev: Naukova Dumka, 1969), 31-59.

2. Efimenko, P. S., “Shpitali Malorossii,” Kievskaia Starina 4 (1883): 708–727 Google Scholar; idem, “Bratstva i soiuzy nishchikh,” Kievskaia Starina 7 (1883): 312-317. Zhytetskyi, Pavel, Mysli o narodnykh malorusskikh dumakh (Kiev: Kievskaia Starina, 1893), 157–176 Google Scholar. For a review of the scholarly discussion, see Hrushevs'ka, Kateryna, Ukraiins'ki narodny dumy, 2 vols. (Kiev: Derzhavne vydavnytstvo, 1927, 1931) 1: cxli–clviiiGoogle Scholar. Hereafter Hrushevs'ka's work will be referred to as HUND.

3. Nikolai Sumtsov, “Zametki o malorusskikh dumakh i dukhovnykh virshakh (po povodu soch. Zhitetskago, P. I.: Mysli of narodnykh malorusskikh dumakh, Kiev, 1893)Google Scholar,” Etnograficheskoe obozrenie (Moscow, 1895), 79-107. See also the material on early kobzari in Lavrov, Fedir I., Kobzari: Narysy z istorii kobzarstva Ukraiiny (Kiev: Mystetsvo, 1980), 52–62 Google Scholar.

4. Kolessa, F., Ukraiins'ki narodni dumy (L'viv: Prosvita, 1920), 7–10 Google Scholar, Hrushevs'ka, HUND 1: cci-ccx; F. Lavrov, 53-56, and Kirdan, Boris P., Ukrainskie narodnye dumy (Moscow: Nauka, 1972), 11–12 Google Scholar. Hereafter Kirdan's work will be referred to as KUND.

5. Jakobson, Roman, “Slavic Epic Verse: Studies in Comparative Metrics,” Selected Writings, 7 vols., 4Google Scholar: Slavic Epic Studies (The Hague: Mouton, 1962-1982>) 4: 444-447.

6. Hrushevs'ka's introduction to volume 1 of HUND is an excellent survey of duma collecting and scholarship.

7. Lavrov, Kobzari, 27; Mikhail N. Speranskiy Iuzhno-Russkaia pesnia i sovremennye eia nositeli (po povodu bandurista T. Parkhomenko), Kiev, 1904, 113. Zguta, Russell, Russian Minstrels: A History of the Skomorokhi (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8. Efimenko, “Bratstva i soiuzy nishchikh “; Valerian Borzhkovskii, “Lirniki,” Kievskaia Starina 9 (1889): 653-708; Vasilii Horlenko, “Kobzari i lirniki,” Kievskaia Starina 1 (1884): 21-50; (1884): 639-657.

9. Borzhkovskii, “Lirniki,” 665-671; Horlenko, “Kobzari i lirniki “; see also Khotkevych, Hnat, “Vospominaniia o moikh vstrechakh so slepymi,” Tvory v dvokh tomakh, ed. Fedor P. Pohrebennyk, 2 vols. (Kiev: AN URSR, 1956) 1: 455–456 Google Scholar. Efimenko “Shpitali Malorossii “; Boris P. Kirdan and Omel'chenko, Andrii F., Narodni spivtsi-muzykanty na Ukraiini (Kiev: Muzychna Ukraiina, 1980), 39–40 Google Scholar; Lavrov, Kobzari, 27, 28; Speranskiy Iuzhno-Russkaia pesnia, 113, 114. The first kobzari who were not blind were Opanas Slastion and Hnat Khotkevych, scholars who studied the minstrels and decided to take up singing themselves.

10. Klement Kvitka, “Profesional'ny narodni spivtsi i muzykanty na Ukraiini. Proharma dlia doslidu iikh diial'nosti i pobutu,” Zbirnyk istorychno-filolohichnoho viddilu Ukraiins'koi Akademii Nauk (1924); reprinted in Kvitka, Klement, Izbrannye trudy, 2 vols. (Moscow. 1971-1973) 2: 279–345 Google Scholar. Lesia Ukrainka, letter to Filaret Kolessa, 18 March 1913. Zibrannia tvoriv u dvanadtsiaty lomakh (Kiev: Naukova dumka, 1979) 12: 445-449. See also Horlenko, “Kobzari i lirniki.” part 2.

11. Metropolitan Ilarion, The Ukrainian Church: Outlines of the History of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, trans. Orysiia Ferbey (Winnipeg: Millennium Committee of the Ukrainian Church of Canada, 1986), 136.

12. Isaevych, Iaroslav D., Bratstva la iikh rol’ v rozvytku ukraiins'koii kul'tury XVI-XVII1 st. (Kiev: Naukova Dumka, 1966), 45–70. 65-67, 71-126. 127–195 Google Scholar: Metropolitan Ilarion, Ukrainian Church, 134. In nineteenth and twentieth century sources on minstrels and minstrelsy, the terms guild and brotherhood are used interchangeably. Outside of minstrelsy guild (hurt) was originally the term used for organizations of tradespeople; brotherhood (bratstvo) was used for religious organizations. Isaevych shows that a trade guild often formed the basis for a religious brotherhood and. thus, guilds and brotherhoods coincided early on. The organization of church brotherhoods was based on the organizational structure of trade guilds.

13. Isaevych mentions minstrel brotherhoods in one brief paragraph (Bratstva, 19). His reasons for ignoring minstrels may be his specific interest in church brotherhoods and in western Ukraine. (On the distinction between east and west, see below.) The most complete source on minstrel guilds is Speranskii, luzhno-Russkaia pesnia. More limited information appears in Porfirii Martynovych, Ukrainskie zapiski (Kiev: Tipografiia Univ. Sv. Vladimira, 1906). On the contributions for the icon, see Speranskii, luzhno-Russkaia pesnia, 113; Lavrov. Kobzari, 27. Also see Horlenko, V, “Bandurist Ivan Kriukovskii (tekst deviati dum, s biograficheskoi zametkoi).” Kievskaia Starina 4 (1882): 481 —518Google Scholar. Kirdan and Omel'chenko, Narodni spivtsi-muzykanty, 39-40, Erimenko. “Bratstva i soiuzy nishchikh. “

14. Kirdan and Omel'chenko, Narodni spivtsi-muzykanty, 40-43; Lavrov, Kobzari. 27-29.

15. Speranskii, luzhno-Russkaia pesnia, 113-120; Borzhkovskii, “Lirniki,” 657-658; Lavrov, Kobzari, 28; Kirdan and Omel'chenko, Narodni spivtsi-muzykanty, 41; Martynovych, Ukrainskie zapiski, 76-77. Isaevych, Bratstva, does not describe a church brotherhood initiation rite, although he does say that entry into a brotherhood was accompanied by an elaborate ceremony. Presumably, accounts of brotherhood initiations were not available because the ceremonies were sacred and secret. For the same reason accounts of minstrel initiation rites appeared late and are succinct.

16. Kulish, Panteleimon O., Zapiski o iuzhnoi Rusi, 2 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1856-1857) 1: 45–50 Google Scholar. Horlenko, “Kobzari i lirniki,” part 1. Borzhkovskii, “Limiki,” 672.

17. There are many repertory lists. See, for example, “Ostap Veresai, odin iz poslednikh kobzarei malorusskikh,” “Kharakteristika muzychnykh osoblyvostei ukraiins'kykh dum i pisen’ u vykonanni kobzaria Veresaia,” and the text list “Dumy i pesni bandurista Veresaia (s notami); Prichitania Veresaia pri vyprashyvanii milostiny,” all in Rusov, A. A. and Lysenko, Mykola, Zapiski lugo-Zapadnogo otdela russkogo geograficheskogo obshchestva (1873; rep. Kiev: Muzychna Ukraiina, 1978) 1: 339–367 Google Scholar. For an example of the attention paid to “Pravda i nepravda,” see Lavrov's chapter on Veresai, 68-96.

18. Rusov and Lysenko, Zapiski, 25-26; P. E. Petrov, K repertuaru lirnikov (Nezhin: Tipografiia V. K. Melenevskogo, 1913).

19. Sysyn, Frank E., Between Poland and Ukraine: The Dilemma of Adam Kysil, 1600-1653 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985), 14–17, 29–31 Google Scholar; Kohut, Zenon E., Russian Centralism and Ukrainian Autonomy: Imperial Absorption of the Hetmanate, 1760s-1830s (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988), 24–27 Google Scholar; Metropolitan Ilarion. Ukrainian Church. 138-140.

20. Metropolitan Ilarion, Ukrainian Church, 133-134; Kohut, Russian Centralism, 24, 27.

21. Speranskii, luzhno-Russkaia pesnia, 108, 115; Kolessa, Melodii ukraiins'kykh narodnykh dum, 59-64.

22. HUND l: xix-xxiv.

23. Efimenko. “Bratstva i soiuzy nishchikh. “

24. For variants of “Marusia Bohuslavka,” see HUND 1: 21-27 and KUND, 119-134. “Ivan Bohuslavets” is in HUND 1: 15-20, and KUND. 119-121. and “Kishko Samiilo” is in HUND 1: 35-53. and KUND, 135-149.

25. “Ivas’ Konovchenko” is in HUND 2: 12-109, and KUND. 224-257; “The Widow and Her Three Sons” HUND 2: 238-275. and KUND, 346-383; “Sister and Brother” HUND 2: 276-290. and KUND, 326-344.

26. Variants of the songs of the Khmel'nyts'kyi cycle can be found in HUND 2: 147-207. and KUND, 262-297.

27. This is the most popular of dumy: forty-two variants have been found. See HUND 2: 238-275, and KUND, 346-383.

28. HUND 2: 12-109; KUND, 224-257.

29. HUND 1: 88-137; KUND. 150-223.

30. HUND 1: 54-77; KUND, 384-405.

31. “Buria na mori” is found in HUND 1: 78-85. and KUND. 406-411; “Pro tr'okh brativ Samars'kykh,” HUND 1: 138-144, and KUND, 89-98; “Ataman Matiash staryi,” HUND 2: 126-127. and KUND. 79-80; “Fedir bezridnyi.” HUND 1: 110-123, and KUND, 81-88; ‘Smert’ kozaka na Dolyni Kodymi,” HUND 1: 145-146; KUND, 99-100; “Pro sestru ta brata,” HUND 2: 276-290, and KUND, 81-88; “Pro kozats'ke zhyttia,” HUND 2: 310-315, and KUND, 307-311; “Pro vid “iizd kozaka,” HUND 2: 216-337, and KUND, 312-324; “Pro vdovu Sirka Ivana,” HUND 2: 123-125, and KUND. 295-297; “Smert’ Bohdana Khmel'nyts'koho,” HUND 2: 202-207, and KUND. 290-294.

32. This ambiguity is especially apparent in the duma in which Khmel'nyts'kyi gets Barabash drunk and while he is asleep steals a token that Khmel'nyts'kyi later uses to trick Barabash's wife. Variants can be found in HUND 2: 151-162, and KUND, 262-275.

33. Boris P. Kirdan argues for the importance and vitality of the Khmel'nyts'kyi cycle; see his Ukrainskii narodnyi epos (Moscow: Nauka, 1965).

34. The relative vitality of songs can be seen from the dates of collection and publication of variants in HUND, passim. See also Horlenko, “Kobzari i lirniki.” 43-45, where he congratulates himself on finding a performer who knows Khmel'nyts'kyi songs only to discover that they were learned from books.

35. I have discussed the elagaic tone of dumy at length in Moyle, N. K., introduction, Ukrainian Dumy (Toronto: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 1979), 8–13 Google Scholar.

36. This view of the kobzari appears not only in the nineteenth century scholarship already cited, but also in many Soviet studies that see minstrels as leaders in political and military struggles. See, for example, Lavrov. Kobzari, 30-42, and Lavrov, Fedir I. and Ryl's'kyi, Maksym T., Kobzar Ehor Movchan (Kiev: AN URSR, 1958 Google Scholar), which deals with the political activism of Movchan and other minstrels.