Sharovarshchyna

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Sharovarshchyna (also sharovarstvo,

Sharovarshchyna is usually understood as an imitation of folk peasant culture that substitutes for authentic culture. Sharovarshchyna creates the impression that Ukrainian culture is entirely peasant in origin and cannot go beyond folk peasant culture; that modern phenomena and art trends are impossible in it, but exist only as layers of other cultures. An example would be a situation where at one event only folk songs are performed in Ukrainian, with all other entries being performed in Russian. This creates the impression that Ukrainian culture is backward, cannot develop, and exists only as an imitation of the past.[4] Ukrainian cultural critic Yulia Nikishenko and journalist Viktoria Yermolaeva define "sharovarshchyna" as "a way of representing Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian identity with the help of pseudo-folk peasant and/or Cossack clothing and elements of everyday life.".^[5]

Sharovarshchyna is characterized by the substitution of folk costumes and jewelry for stage costumes. In particular, red trousers, which historically Ukrainians did not wear, are shown as stereotypical folk costumes; shirts made of synthetic fabric, glossy

According to ethnographer Halyna Bondarenko and anthropologist Tina Polek, sharovarshchyna is characterized by imitation of traditional culture, festivalism with a commercial bias, situationalism (a cultural phenomenon becomes sharovarshchyna only in a certain context), and going to opposite extremes. This makes it similar to kitsch.^[10]

Origin of the term

The first use of the word sharovarshchyna is not recorded.^[11] According to the Ukrainian emigrant educator Hryhorii Vashchenko, the term comes from the Bolsheviks.^[12] The word is present in Soviet journalism of the "Perestroika" era of the 1980s, in particular, in Ukrainian it was used by the poet and journalist Oleksa Yushchenko.^[13][14]

However, the Ukrainian cultural critic

Another version connects the sharovarshchyna with the activities of the Ukrainian director Borys Sharvarko [uk], who since 1977 has organized concerts and shows at public expense, where "modern" Ukrainian music was presented with songs in Russian and Russian performers. Hence the variant "Sharvarkivshchyna".^[7][4]

Sharovarshchyna in Soviet Ukraine

Some researchers attribute the emergence of sharovarshchyna to the end of the nineteenth century, but most recognize the Soviet era as the time of its emergence or intensification.^[5] According to Halyna Bondarenko and Tina Polek, sharovarshchyna appears when folk culture becomes commercially successful, when there is a demand for it.^[10]

In 1930,

Since 1977, the main director of festivals and cultural programs in the Soviet Union was Borys Sharvarko, whose name is also associated with the popularization of sharovarshchyna.^[4] The sharovarshchyna became entrenched in the culture in the 1970s and 1980s. Folk choirs contributed to its spread, including Veryovka Choir or the Kyiv Song Theater "Dzherela", which, with their stage costumes and repertoire, formed a distorted view of Ukrainian folk culture as a relic of the past^[3].

Sharovarshchyna in present-day Ukraine

With the development of commercial activity in independent Ukraine, sharovarshchyna has spread to advertising, ethnic restaurants, souvenirs, soap operas, etc., which in one way or another use "nationally colored" elements. Modern examples of sharovarshchyna are concerts by Mykhailo Poplavsky - songs "Salo", "Varenychky", as well as productions by studios like "Kvartal-95",^[7] works by Anatoliy Hnatiuk, Oksana Pekun, the band "Lisapetnyi Batalion", which are imitated by numerous amateur bands.^[8]

The image and performances of

A related phenomenon is "bayraktarshchyna" (from song "Bayraktar"), a similar one-sided comic coverage of the Russian-Ukrainian war in Ukrainian mass culture.^[20][21][22]

Assessments of the phenomenon

Historian, political scientist, and public figure Mykola Tomenko wrote in 1996 that Ukrainians need their own government to raise their own national culture. If the government shares Soviet (Russian) views or sympathizes with Russian culture, then the broad representation of Ukrainian culture will remain "sharovarshchyna".^[4]

Historian Daryna Mishchenko writes that sharovarshchyna appeared largely because of the desire of Ukrainians after Ukraine's independence to have a distinct popular image of their own culture. "There was a thirst to have our own, native, folk culture again. But no one wanted to delve into this history [...] We just paddled everything that came to hand.".^[6]

Music critic Katria Honcharuk describes the place of sharovarshchyna as follows: it "succeeds with its task 100 % – it serves as a simple means of distinguishing one's own from foreign for representatives of a particular ethnic group. It's another thing if the image of a nation is vulgar, primitive, and obscures the deeper meaning of a particular culture.".^[8]

Music producer Yurko Zeleny commented on the phenomenon of sharovarshchyna as a mutual replacement of different layers of culture: "the level of low cabaret was elevated to the rank of high art. Hence we have blatnyak and the likes of Serdyuchka. All this has been imposed for 25 years. Pop culture sharovarshchyna, like the Soviet one, continues to create the image that Ukrainian culture is inferior, low-grade."^[8]

Notes