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The tragedy of the Ukrainian kobzars was described in “Testimony,” Dmitri Shostakovich’s memoirs as edited by Solomon Volkov, a russian musical journalist, which was published in London in 1979.
Since time immemorial, folk singers have wandered along the roads of Ukraine.” - Volkov quotes Shostakovich.
“They were almost always blind men but no one ever touched or hurt them… and then in the mid thirties the First All-Ukrainian Congress of Lirnyks and Bandurysts was announced, and all the folk singers had to gather and discuss what to do in the future.”
“Life is better, life is merrier,”, Stalin had said.
The blind men believed it.
They came to the congress from all over Ukraine, from tiny forgotten villages.
There were several hundred of them at the congress, they say.
It was a living museum, the country’s living history.
All its songs, all its music and poetry.
And they were almost all shot, almost all those pathetic blind men killed…”
They came to the congress from all over Ukraine, from tiny forgotten villages. There were several hundred of them at the congress, they say. It was a living museum, the country’s living history.
All its songs, all its music and poetry.
And they were almost all shot, almost all those pathetic blind men killed…