Anthem of Ukraine and Verbytskyi

7 December 1870 Dr.. the author of the melody of the National Anthem of Ukraine, Mykhailo Verbytskyi, died. Він народився 4 March 1815 Dr.. with y. Yavirnyk Rusky near Przemyśl. He studied at the Lviv Theological Seminary. I really liked the work of T.G. Shevchenko and dreamed of writing music for all his works. Created a choral composition for his "Testament". Вважається, that he wrote the music for the future hymn in 1863 р., which was performed at the community meeting of the Przemyśl Seminary in the same year. Although "Ukraine is not dead yet" was first performed as an independent piece 10 March 1865 Dr.. In 1917–1920. the work became one of the anthems of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic, in 1939 Dr.. - the anthem of Carpathian Ukraine, а з 1992 Dr.. - National Anthem of Ukraine.

In the Chernihiv regional historical museum named after V.V. Tarnovsky has preserved interesting materials related to the difficult history of the anthem. In particular, this is a case against Kyiv publisher Oleksa Kovalenko, which issued in May 1910 Dr.. the text of the hymn to the words of P. Chubynsky and music by K. Stetsenko. It is interesting, that O. Kovalenko was born in Voronezh region, that is, the historical Slobozhanshchyna, but he was a firm Ukrainian patriot. The publisher was accused by the Kyiv Court Chamber of printing the work in the "Little Russian dialect", which was prohibited by the infamous Ems decree and Valuev circular. He was awarded 2 weeks in prison and the destruction of the brochure.

That fact also attracts attention, what is the last name Verbytskyi connects the East and West of Ukraine. In particular, among the materials of the Museum, we meet such bearers of this surname as Yakiv Verbytskyi, Sedniv protopope, 1798 Dr.. Oleksandr Verbytskyi, artist, 1917 р., Verbytskyi-Antioch Mykola, поет, educator, 1872– 1874, Verbytskyi M.M., photojournalist, 1978– 1979, Oleg Verbytskyi, general director, association of Chernihiv Oil and Gas Geology (1941–1991), Verbytska V.P., a worker at the Nizhyn Canning Plant, 1962 Dr.. тощо.

Старший науковий співробітник музею,

кандидат історичних наук Ігор Ситий