Singing Ukrainian songs was banned in the Kuban – singer Yulia Yurina

In the Krasnodar region of the Russian Federation, the performance of Ukrainian songs was banned and Ukrainian books were burned. This started in 2014. This was reported in the material by Ukrainian singer, performer of folk and modern music Yulia Yurina. Focus “Historical lands. What is happening to Ukrainians on the other side of the Russian border?”

“After 2014, when I came to Kuban and went to my music school, they told me that there was an order from above – Ukrainian songs must be deleted from the repertoires. It was strange because most of the groups sang in Ukrainian. They also banned publishing newspapers, teaching the Ukrainian language and preserving libraries. With the destruction of Ukrainian books “I know the facts; they were just burned in the street.”

Yulia Yurina was born in the Russian Federation and lived in Anapa until she was 18 years old. She later moved to Kiev to study. I studied folklore at the university and wrote a thesis on “Ukrainians in the Kuban”. To do this, Yurina went to the Kuban to explore Ukrainian villages.

“When I already knew the Ukrainian language, I realized that many of my own names are of Ukrainian origin. For example, there is a river called Stavok,” says the Ukrainian singer.

He noted that in the Kuban lands many traditions and songs that are not found in Russia have been preserved, for example, vesnyanka and mermaid songs.

“There the grandparents talked about their traditions, about the songs that remained. I asked where they got such songs, they said that they had known them since childhood. Winter rituals were preserved there – goat driving, Malanka, carols, generosity. Stoneflies also sang and sang Rusal songs. All this is Russia’ “When I interviewed the grandmothers, their fifty-year-old daughter, who had absorbed Russian culture and spoke Russian, was sitting next to them. But these girls helped me. I did the translation because I could not understand the Kuban dialect spoken by the elders,” explains Yurina.

The singer states that he can no longer obtain Ukrainian citizenship, although he has lived in Kiev for 12 years, speaks Ukrainian fluently and, according to his relatives, is of Ukrainian origin.

Let us remind you that President Vladimir Zelensky signed a decree on the protection of Ukrainians on the territory of the Russian Federation. It is stated that Russia, in particular, has systematically destroyed national identity for centuries and continues to do so.

It was previously reported that Zelensky would submit a bill on dual citizenship to the Verkhovna Rada. Passage of the bill would allow all ethnic Ukrainians and their descendants anywhere in the world to obtain citizenship.

Read more in the material Focus“Historical lands. What is happening to Ukrainians on the other side of the Russian border?”