From ‘Shchedryk’ to ‘Carol of the Bells’: the untold story of the famous song

The same was true on the streets of Warsaw. The head of the art department of the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, Pavlo Zaitsev, wrote in his memoirs, “For several months, from all the houses, only “Shchedryk” could be heard.”

In Berlin, a German professor called Leontovych’s song “gasheish”, such that it had a narcotic effect on the audience. In London, the editorial staff of the satirical magazine The Punch declared a crisis in the “College of Cosmopolitan Pronunciation”, as their members were unable to pronounce the name of “Shchedryk”, “one of the program’s most beautiful compositions”.

In the Belgian city of Liège, future four-time Nobel Prize nominee for literature Franz Hellens wrote after the choir’s premiere at the Royal Conservatory, “Thanks to folk poetry, Ukraine is revealed as one of the most picturesque nations of Eastern Europe.” And next to it was a sample of this presentation poem “Shchedryk”, translated into French.

In the capital of Belgium, Brussels, the premieres of “Shchedryk” had aroused a particular interest among the Flemish. They were fascinated not only by the song of Mykola Leontovych, but also by the whole project of musical diplomacy of Ukraine. “Symon Petliura internationalises the Ukrainian issue with a song,” wrote a correspondent of the Ons Vaderland newspaper and published the text of “Shchedryk” in Flemish.

“We think that we have songs that can also show the world that we, like Ukrainians, want to hold our heads high,” wrote a journalist from another Brussels newspaper, De Volksgazet. “Ukrainians have given us not only beauty but also a lesson in national self-awareness.”

Even Belgian Foreign Minister Paul Hymans, who was against the Flemish (as well as Ukrainian) self-determination, had to support the choir of the Ukraine’s People Republic. It was admired by Queen Elisabeth of Belgium (1876-1965). After the Ukrainian concert in Brussels, she told the conductor Oleksandr Koshyts, “All my sympathies are on the side of your people” and left an autograph in the choir’s guestbook. According to the protocol, all ministers present at the concert were also required to put their signatures in it.

During the two years of European touring, Oleksandr Koshyts’s choir performed in 45 cities in 10 countries of Western Europe as a cultural ambassador of Ukraine. During this time, about 600 reviews about Ukraine and Ukrainian culture were published in the foreign press. “Shchedryk” was translated into English, French, German, Polish, Czech, Flemish and Spanish. The song became the voice of the Ukrainian people in the struggle for independence. More like “the cry of the nation”, as it was written about the Ukrainian tour in Switzerland.

Mykola Leontovych has been called by European critics “the Homer of music”, Symon Petliura “a commander-in-chief in love with art”, and Oleksandr Koshyts “one of the best choral conductors in Europe”.

Everywhere, Ukrainian musical messengers softly but convincingly conveyed European audiences: Ukraine is fighting for its independence; Ukraine is not Russia; Ukrainian folklore is proof of the existence of the Ukrainian nation. Not by political speeches, but by the charm of Ukrainian songs and their loyalty on stage, they inclined the world in favour of Ukraine. In response, piles of letters of support were received from concerned European ambassadors and MPs, directors of music academies, famous conductors and composers, music critics and the general public.

“I already had a warm sympathy for your glorious homeland,” one of the French women wrote the chorus, “…and wanted to do something, but didn’t know what. Now I know that I will pray to God that the Faith that lifts up nations, will lift up the nations of the world to help you establish your independence”.

At one point, the prayers of thousands of the indifferent were heard. After establishing a military-political alliance with Poland, Symon Petliura succeeded in getting back Kyiv from the Russian occupiers in May1920. Ukrainian activists immediately emerged from the “underground” and began to create their national life. But once again, this didn’t last for long. Within two months, the Russians had pushed them back to Ukraine’s western borders, this time threatening to invade not only Warsaw, but also Paris, London, and Berlin. Only the Polish Army, armed by the Entente and supported by the soldiers of the army of the UPR, managed to stop the Russian advance near Warsaw. This battle will be known as “the Miracle on the Vistula”.

However, for Ukraine, the miracle did not happen. Weakened by the war with the Bolsheviks, the Poles signed an armistice with them in October 1920. Poland recognised the independence of the puppet Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic created by the Bolsheviks, agreeing to the Russian occupation of Dnipro Ukraine. Western Ukrainian lands were given to Poland. Symon Petliura was not invited to the negotiations. And although the head of the Polish state, Józef Piłsudski (1867-1935) later apologised to the soldiers of the Ukrainian army, the Ukrainian statehood was once again lost. The only compensation from the ally was political refuge for the government and the UPR troops.

The murder of Mykola Leontovych

In January 1921, the choir of Oleksandr Koshyts, with the government’s last money, went on tour to Paris. This time, however, the choristers did not need money or government support. The most famous impresarios in Europe competed for them. “I would very much like to direct these tours,” wrote the Dutch impresario Geza de Koos to Oleksandr Koshyts. “Concerts organised without my supervision will not bring you the financial results that I am offering you,” said a representative of the London-based Keith Prowse & Co. Ltd.

Eventually, the Ukrainians settled with Joseph Schurman, a well-known impresario who had previously produced tours by Enrico Caruso, Isadora Duncan, Adelina Paty, French and English operettas, and other stars of the world stage. He offered the Ukrainians to perform in one of the most prestigious Parisian concert halls, Theatre of the Champs-Elysées (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in French — ed.), followed by a tour to other European cities.

The opening of the Ukrainian season in Paris brought together the heads of the French society: General Maurice Pelle, ballerina Isadora Duncan, director of the Champs-Elysées Theatre Jacques Eberto, well-known composers and music critics. “Tuxedos, costumes from Palen and Wort. Perfumes and diamonds from the Rue de la Paix… Limousines and Rolls-Royce cars with livery-clad drivers and often crowns on their hats were in front of the theatre door,” wrote an enthusiastic correspondent for the Ukrainian magazine “Volia” (Will — ed.). As always, the works of Mykola Leontovych were accepted by the public for the encore.

Isadora Duncan wrote in the choir’s guestbook “Bravo!” and called on Oleksandr Koshyts to cooperate.

“They proposed to combine their art with ours and form a symphony of choreography with choral singing,” wrote Oleksandr Koshyts in a report to the Ukrainian government. Russian figures known in Paris, entrepreneur Sergei Diaghilev and composer Igor Stravinsky wanted to join Ukrainian singing. “Merging was suggested, we declined,” said the conductor ironically.

On Sunday, 23 January 1921, the Ukrainians gave the final concert-matinee (morning concert) of the series of Paris premieres at the Champs-Elysées Theatre. “The great and undefeated nation of Ukrainians deserves to win the friendship of all free peoples,” French critic and playwright Adolphe Adère reacted the same day in the newspaper Le Petit Parisien.

But none of those present at the concert had any idea that on the morning of the same day, in the Bolshevik-occupied Division, an agent of the Russian Cheka (All-Russian Emergency Commission for Combating Counter-revolution and Sabotage — ed.) shot and killed Mykola Leontovych. The murderer spoke in “Russian, soldier’s language”, recalled the composer’s father. Mykola Leontovych never finished his opera…

Because there is one nation in the world that does not need “the great and invincible nation of Ukrainians”. It wants a “Russia without borders”.

“‘The Independents’ may be trying to make some political demonstration with their ‘sponsorship’ of Mr. Koshyts’ choir,” a correspondent of the local Russian newspaper General Affairs wrote about the Ukrainian performances in Paris, “…but in fact, those attending the concert of the Ukrainian choir, receiving enormous artistic pleasure, have to once again see the diversity and breadth of artistic creativity in different regions of Russia without borders.”

The appearance of “Shchedryk” in the United States

Having never gained international support for Ukraine, in September 1922 the choir of Oleksandr Koshyts left Europe for good and moved to the United States. Within a few months, the Bolsheviks proclaimed the creation of a new Russian empire in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan — USSR.

That’s how “Shchedryk” got to the American continent. Only after the murder of the author of this piece and the Russian occupation of Ukraine. And also only after the song became a music brand for Ukraine in ten Western European countries.

But Ukraine was no longer on the political map of the world. The Ukrainian government could no longer support the overseas tours of the choir of Oleksandr Koshyts. There were no resources for this: no money, no diplomatic channels. Washington did not recognise Ukraine’s independence and did not accept the diplomatic mission of the Ukrainian National Republic that arrived there in 1919. The only effective channel for the popularisation of the Ukrainian idea was art.

The famous American impresario Max Rabinov (1878-1966) organised tours of Ukrainian choristers in the United States. He was born in the city of Mogilev (now Belarus), where many Ukrainians lived, so he was used to hearing the language and Ukrainian songs from childhood. But when he suddenly came across the choir’s concerts in Europe, he immediately had an idea of organising a tour in the United States.

“I’ve heard the Ukrainian national choir in five different European countries,” he said in an interview with The Washington Times. “And every time they’ve received an ovation I’ve rarely seen. I decided, ‘America needs to know this beautiful art’.”

On 26 September 1922, the Ukrainian singers arrived in New York on a large transatlantic ship and immediately dove into the touring life. For a whole week, they recorded the best songs from their repertoire for the Brunswick record company, among them was “Shchedryk”.

And even though the studio did not record all eighty singers (this was the composition of the choir during the European concerts) or even fifty (the amount that came to the US), but only about twenty selected choristers, this audio recording of the song by Mykola Leontovych is a unique testimony of the first performance in the United States of the melody of the future “Carol of the Bells”.

Finally, the day of the premiere came. On 5t October 1922, thousands of people came to New York’s most prestigious concert venue, Carnegie Hall, to listen to Ukrainian singing. Famous American musicians, politicians, and the press were there. There were also a lot of Ukrainians in the room. As early as 1919, they actively advocated for their compatriots in Europe, keeping an eye on the press coverage of their tour. They came to the concert on that day, not just from New York and the suburbs, but from all neighbouring states.

“May God grant that in the free land of Washington, the will of Ukraine will be sung!” wrote local Ukrainian priest Lev Sembratowych in the newspaper Svoboda.

And so, Mykola Leontovych’s “Shchedryk” was heard for the first time on the American continent. “Flowers flooded the stage…,” wrote a columnist for The Sun. “The audience supported the reception with great applause. ‘Shchedryk’ was asked on the encore.”

That’s right, Russian performers. After all, the impresario Max Rabinov managed to “federate” the Ukrainians with the Russians. The native of the former Russian Empire, who brought to the United States the Russian balalaika orchestra and the ballet of Anna Pavlova, was closer to the idea of the “Great Russian Culture” than the project of an independent Ukraine. Therefore, he introduced two Russian performers, Oda Slobodskaya, Petrograd Opera singer and Nina Koshyts from the Moscow Opera (who was actually a Ukrainian, a niece of Oleksandr Koshyts), into the Ukrainian choir. In the interval between Ukrainian songs, they performed works by Russian composers: Modest Mussorgsky, Mikhail Glinka, Sergei Rachmaninov and others. However, as noted by American critics, during these long compositions, the audience got bored and asked for Ukrainian songs on the encore.

Because of this “integration”, the American press began to call all Ukrainian singers Russians, and Ukraine Mallorussia, (“Little Russia”). The choristers were outraged. “Your newspapers call us Russians,” the tenor of the choir Leonid Troitsky complained in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. “But they are wrong. We are Ukrainians, even though the Soviets rule our country.”

The choir and President Symon Petliura continued to emphasise the Ukrainian mission. “When you are interviewed, quietly say these words: Ukrainian music, song, independence, our own, different, authentic, a part of independent Ukraine,” he wrote to the conductor Koshyts on the eve of the choir’s arrival in the USA.

After the premiere in New York, the Ukrainians continued to tour in Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, St. Louis and in other major cities in the United States. The choir had performed not only in the most prestigious concert halls but also in the luxurious auditoriums of famous American universities (Yale, Princeton, and others).

“We didn’t even expect that they had a thorough knowledge of art”, admitted a correspondent for the American newspaper St. Louis Globe-Democrat. “If someone sings only with their voice, these people sing with their history,” said a critic in The Pittsburgh Post. “This performance is the embodiment of the highest form of art,” wrote John Grigg, president of Princeton University, to Max Rabin. “Our Princeton audience greeted them with enthusiasm.”

In order to win even more favour with the American public, conductor Oleksandr Koshyts decided to study several songs by American composers with the choir. In addition to “Shchedryk” and other Ukrainian compositions, the choir began to perform during the tours the songs “Oh, Susanna” and “Old folks at home” by “father of American music” Stephen Foster (1826-1864), as well as the song “Listen to the Lambs” by African-American composer Robert Nathaniel Dette (1882-1943).

During a choir concert at Hampton University (at the time a black-only institution), Oleksandr Koshyts, impressed by Nathaniel Dett’s talent, gave him a kiss on stage. It was a shock to those present as “a white kissed a black!” The American managers who accompanied the choir on tour told the Ukrainian conductor off. But he ignored it [criticism]: “I’m glad I did it”, he wrote in his diary. “And if I have another chance, I’ll do it again!” For the Ukrainian envoys, who fought so hard for the freedom of their people, it was unacceptable to treat other nations with superiority.

All of this impressed American critics, who wrote: “The Ukrainian choir demonstrates the true spirit of American freedom.” Although in reality it was a demonstration of the spirit of Ukrainian freedom and strength. After all, in addition to fighting for their cultural separateness and establishing a cultural dialogue with the world, the choristers continued to advocate for the independence of Ukraine, sending money from their American concerts to Symon Petliura for the Ukrainian army. He was preparing a rebellion in the occupied Ukrainian lands and reported to the singers for every dollar.

“I ended up with a decision to organise courses for the officers of the General Staff using donations for the Chapel,” he wrote in February 1923 in a letter to Oleksandr Koshyts about the 160 dollars received. He also congratulated members of the Chapel with the fifth anniversary of Ukrainian statehood and assured: “We here in the ‘Old World’ are following your performances, rejoicing in your glory and sending our best wishes and blessings.”

Glory overseas and “Russian winter” at home

During 1923-1924, the Ukrainian choir performed in 115 cities in 36 states of the US, but also in Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay and Cuba. The choristers even reached Trinidad and Tobago. They were gaining fame and recognition for Ukrainian culture everywhere. “Shchedryk” remained the concert’s hit, as well as a test for local translators. In Buenos Aires, the song was called “Shchelryk”, in São Paulo “Stehedryk”.

The concerts were attended by presidents and ministers, as well as famous composers and conductors. Over 2,000 reviews about Ukrainian culture appeared in the press overseas, and the number of fans of Ukrainian music grew exponentially. 40,000 people attended one of the concerts in Mexico City alone.

As in Europe, Leontovych’s “Shchedryk” continued to broadcast not only Ukrainian culture, but also the idea of an independent Ukraine to foreign audiences. “Sing, imprisoned Ukraine! Sing like a chirping bird!,” wrote Brazilian academic Henrique Coelho Neto after the premiere of “Shchedryk” in Rio de Janeiro. “The spring that you are waiting for will come!”

But the Ukrainians would have to wait a long time for their own spring to come. Because in Ukraine, it was the “Russian winter”. The Ukrainians couldn’t stand up to it on their own without support from the world. In May 1924, the last Ukrainian diplomatic mission ceased its work in Hungary, at the same time the musical Ukrainian republic completed its tours.

Two years later, on 25 May 1926, in one of the streets of Paris, seven shots in the chest killed “art lover”, commander-in-chief Symon Petliura. For more than half a century, Ukraine came under control of the Kremlin. Only “Shchedryk” remained free.

“Shchedryk”on Broadway

In the second half of the 1920s, the famous Ukrainian song began its own life in the US. But even there, they had to fight back against Russia’s attempts to take it. Since everything the Empire has not destroyed, it seeks to appropriate.

Thus, in 1925 in New York the Russian choir included the song, already popular in the States, in its repertoire. On Broadway the choir played “Shchedryk” as a part of the musical “The song of the Flame”. Among the creators of the project was famous American composer George Gershwin. The plot of the musical was based on the history of the Russian Revolution in 1917. However, for some reason, Ukrainian folklore songs such as “Hrechanyky”, “Kozak rode beyond the Danube”, and “Shchedryk” were chosen to portray the events of the revolution. They were sung in Ukrainian, but were referred to as Russian songs.

In 1926, in support of the distribution of the musical, Columbia Records recorded their best songs, “Shchedryk” was among them. The record label stated that it was a Christmas carol, and that it was originally a Russian folk song. There was no mention of Mykola Leontovych.

In 1930, the musical “A Christmas Carol” was created on the basis of a musical which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound. And although the video of the film was lost, the audio of the film was preserved. “Shchedryk” was included there too.

Finally, in 1933, the first English-language version of the Ukrainian song appeared. However, it was not “Carol of the Bells”, but “The Bluebirds”, written by Max Thomas Krone (1901-1970), an American conductor and composer, at the time the director of the conservatory in Indianapolis. He was the first in the United States to make an adapted English translation of “Shchedryk”. His song was also about the birds that bring the joy of spring.

However, there was one “but”. The American conductor indicated in the score of the song that the original language of the piece was Russian. As American choirs began to incorporate the song into their repertoire, the Ukrainian community in the United States immediately responded. “‘Shchedryk’ is not a translation from Russian, the song comes from an ancient Ukrainian Christmas carol song,” addressed the Ukrainian newspaper Svoboda. “Moreover, it is strange to call Mykola Leontovych Russian, since he lived in Ukraine for his whole life. And in 1921 he was killed by a Russian Chekist.”

The birth of “Carol of the Bells”

In 1936, “Carol of the Bells” finally appeared, the English version of “Shchedryk” the whole world sings at Christmas till this day.

The author of the English-language lyrics was American conductor of Ukrainian descent Peter Wilhousky (1902-1978). As he later explained, he heard the song performed by the Ukrainian choir (perhaps in recording). He then asked the singers for notes, as he had decided to perform “Shchedryk” together with his school choir on the popular program Music Appreciation Hour with Walter Damrosch on American radio NBC .

“Since the young people would not sing in Ukrainian, I had to write English lyrics. I removed the Ukrainian words about “swallows”(household birds) and instead focused on the cheerful ringing of bells that I heard in the music,” Wilhousky later wrote in a letter to the Ukrainian musicologist Roman Sawycky. Thus, the Ukrainian “swallows” turned into the American bells and “Shchedryk” turned into “Carol of the Bells”.

Peter Wilhousky recalled that after the radio premiere, music teachers from all over the United States bombarded him with requests for sheet music. So in November 1936, he published “Shchedryk” in the New York music publisher Carl Fischer Music, naming the song “Carol of the Bells”. In the score it was noted that this was a Ukrainian Christmas Carol by M. Leontovych, words and arrangements by P. Wilhousky. However, Wilhousky’s arrangement only consisted of adding a piano part to the score, which, as indicated in the song’s notes, was intended “for repetition only”. This piece of music was also based on a Leontovych’s melody.

Since then, as Peter Wilhousky recalled, “Carol of the Bells” had become a bestseller. “My motive was not commercial,” he remarked. “I just wanted to share good music.” And he succeeded.

After 1936, the song gained a new lease of life and once again gained popularity worldwide. It’s been covered by some of the best-known choirs in America and around the world, and there’s been orchestral versions of the song, rock performances, jazz standards, electro, techno, disco, metal, there are thousands of different arrangements today. Notable performers include The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, Pentatonix, The Piano Guys, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein, Al di Meola, the Spanish opera tenor Placido Domingo, and many, many others.

Mykola Leontovych’s melody also became beloved in American cinema. Since the 1930s, the song has been featured in over one hundred American films and television shows. Among the most well-known are Home Alone, The Muppet Show, South Park, and many others.

It’s also a big hit in the advertising industry. Since 1973, the best-known American and world brands have used Mykola Leontovych’s melody in their advertising campaigns. Those include Coca-Cola, Burger King, IKEA, Amazon, Walmart, Victoria’s Secret, Honda, Audi, Toyota, Audi, and many others.

However, if in the 1920s “Shchedryk” gained worldwide popularity as a Ukrainian song, with its transformation into “Carol of the Bells”, the piece stopped being associated with Ukraine. Although Peter Wilhousky mentioned in his notes that it was a Ukrainian carol, for the world, the song became American. In professional musical groups, it is still often considered a “Russian folk song”. After all, practically everything that came from the Soviet Union was Russian to the Western people. For example, a popular American choir under the direction of Robert Shaw in its Christmas Hymns and Carols (1946) provided an annotation for “Carol of the Bells”, “A typical Russian folk carol by Leontovych, a composer about whom we have been unable to find any information.” This is not surprising. It was challenging to discover information about the author of America’s most popular Christmas hit not only across the world but also in his homeland due to Soviet repression.

‘Carol of the Bells’ for America, terror for Ukraine

As early as 1928, the Russian authorities in Ukraine shut down the “Committee of Memory of Mykola Leontovych”, created on the ninth day after the composer’s death, as he “led a Ukrainian nationalist line”. At the same time, the artist’s name was declared “not relevant for the Soviet era”. Soon, nearly 200,000 more Ukrainians were found to be so-called “unfitting” and “harmful” [for the Soviet regime]. That’s how many Ukrainian activists were arrested or shot during Stalin’s Great Terror in 1937-1938, a terror that began exactly one year after the New York premiere of “Carol of the Bells”.

While the American choirs were learning the notes of the Ukrainian carol, Moscow was cleansing Ukraine from “chauvinists”. In just one week (28 October to 4 November , 1937), nearly two hundred representatives of the Ukrainian intellectuals were shot in the Sandarmokh forest in northern Russia. Among them is the famous theatre director Les Kurbas, neo-classical poet Mykola Zerov, former Prime Minister of the Ukrainian People’s Republic Volodymyr Chekhivskyi, literary critic and Minister of Culture Antin Krushelnytskyi with his children and many, many others. At that same time, Petro Stetsenko was killed, the only singer of the UPR choir who dared to return to his occupied homeland. He was imprisoned in one of the prisons of Kherson for his Ukrainian choral past in 1937.

What else to say about the Bolshevik terror of the 1920s, the Holodomor [soviet-made famine in Ukraine] of 1932-1933, the post-war repressions and deportations of the 1940s. It was only with the death of Stalin and the Khrushchev Thaw of the 1960s Ukraine got a little “warmer”. It was then for the first time in the Soviet encyclopaedia, the name of Oleksander Koshyts was mentioned. However, it was also noted that the conductor in his speeches “admitted to nationalist claims”. However, the real “Cultural spring” came to Ukraine only in the early 1990s, when “Shchedryk” returned home, although in the English version.

In 1990 “Home Alone” was released in cinemas around the world. People in Ukraine saw it too. Many of them had just heard the song by Mykola Leontovych for the first time. And this was all because in 1921 Russia stole from Ukraine not only its independence, but also its culture.

“Falling under the Kremlin’s thumb, Ukraine couldn’t even comprehend its global cultural victory,” stated Ukrainian literary critic and editor of the anthology Executed Renaissance, Yuriy Lavrynenko in 1962 on the air of Radio Liberty.

Finally, in August 1991, Ukraine regained its state independence, and got access to the archives of the UPR. Among the previously forbidden to review cases were the materials of the choir of Oleksandr Koshyts: numerous reviews of the world press, posters, correspondence and photographs. These materials were collected by the singers during their tours and sent to the UPR government.

It was able to restore the history of one of the world’s most famous songs thanks to those materials. “‘Shchedryk’ was the epitome of our repertoire in all countries for 5.5 years,” wrote Oleksandr Koshyts in his memoirs.

A new war for the independence of Ukraine

Today, Mykola Leontovych’s song continues to live and inspire. Each year at Christmas, new arrangements of “Carol of the Bells” appear. Unfortunately, there are still many performers in the world who do not know anything about the Ukrainian composer, let alone the Ukrainian independent state of the early XX century. The history of this era of Ukrainian statehood can hardly be found in foreign textbooks of world history. But the world is well aware of Ukraine’s struggle for independence today, as Russia has not yet come to terms with the country’s existence.

History has shown, there is one empire that does not need a “great and invincible Ukrainian nation”, it needs a “Russia without borders”.

On 24 February 2022, Russian dictator Putin declared that “Ukraine does not exist” and began the so-called “liberation from Nazism”. On the morning of February 25, the first Russian missile landed in a residential district in Kyiv. It struck a house on a street named after Oleksandr Koshyts, the same conductor who 100 years ago tried to prove to the world that Ukraine exists. And a few days later, the famous Ukrainian musician Andriy Khlyvnyuk recorded a Sich Riflemen’s march “Oi u luzi chervona kalyna” on Sophia Square in Kyiv. A new song of the Ukrainian struggle for independence had appeared on the international stage. It’s been performed by Pink Floyd and hundreds of other famous musicians around the world.

This time, however, the entire democratic world is in solidarity with Ukraine: politically, militarily and economically. And this time Ukraine will win. And “Shchedryk” by Mykola Leontovych will continue to be heard every year at Christmas. In every corner of our planet. As a generous gift from Ukraine to the world. As a pledge of a worthy place for Ukrainians among the free people of the world.