Slava Ukraini

For the song by Marcus Paus, see Slava Ukraini! (song).

A protester in New York City on 27 February 2022, holding a sign that reads "Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!" The phrase gained worldwide prominence as a result of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Monument of Independence inaugurated in 1991 in Kharkiv includes the phrase

"Glory to Ukraine!" (Ukrainian: Слава Україні!, romanized: Slava Ukrayini!, IPA: [ˈsɫaʋɐ ʊkrɐˈjinʲi] ) is a Ukrainian salute, it is often accompanied by the response "Glory to the heroes!" (Ukrainian: Героям слава!, romanized: Heroiam slava!, IPA: [ɦeˈrɔjɐm ˈsɫaʋɐ]).

The phrase has gained worldwide attention during the ongoing 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and has subsequently been used in protests in support of Ukraine around the world. It has been used in speeches by Ukrainian politicians like President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as numerous foreign leaders.

History

Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko used the phrase in the form "Glory to Ukraine" in a 1840, rev. 1860 poem

Origins

Records of the 15 March 1917 Rada "in support of a democratic and independent Ukraine", from the journal "Nowa Rada". The phrase Glory to Ukraine is underlined.

The exact moment when the greeting was created is controversial. The first component, "Glory to Ukraine", can be found in use as early as the late 19th century and early 20th century, when the phrase with the answer "Glory to all the world!" (По всій землі слава) was associated with the Ukrainian student community of Kharkiv. In 1840 poet Taras Shevchenko used the phrase "Glory to Ukraine" in one of his poems. Same phrase was used during the Ukrainian War of Independence (from 1917 to 1921), and later by Ukrainian nationalists in the 1920s and 1930s. More controversy surrounds the creation of the full greeting, along with the second component, the response "Heroiam slava!" (Glory to the heroes!).

UPA propaganda poster. OUN-UPA's formal greeting is written in Ukrainian on two of the horizontal lines: "Glory to Ukraine—Glory to (her) Heroes"

According to historian Yana Prymachenko the response was also first used in the 1917-1921 Ukrainian war of independence. According to historian Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe the greeting was first used by League of Ukrainian Fascists. Another historian Sviatoslav Lipovetsky points out another nationalist group, the League of Ukrainian Nationalists (LUN), as the actual creators of the greeting. Historian Yuriy Yuzych argues, that although such greeting was proposed, the LUN never actually adopted it. Both groups later formed the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).

Monument in memory of UPA partisans with the inscription "Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!", in place of the Janowa Dolina massacre, Bazaltove, Ukraine

In 1930s it became widespread as a slogan of the OUN. According to press reports, during the trials of OUN members after the assassination of Boleslaw Pieracki, the accused performed fascist salutes to the words "Glory to Ukraine!". The first public use of the salute occurred in December 1935 during the interrogation of OUN member Vira Svientsitska, who refused to testify in Polish for which she was fined 200 zlotys or 10 days in jail. As she was being led out of the courtroom, passing by the other defendants, she saluted them with an raised arm and shouted "Glory to Ukraine!", to which they responded with the same. She was sentenced to a day in solitary confinement for this.

Second World War

At the Second Grand Congress of the OUN on 27 August 1939 in Rome, the fascist salute "Glory to the leader!" (Vozhdevi Slava!), who was then Andriy Melnyk. In April 1941, the younger part of the OUN seceded and formed its own organisation, called the OUN-B after its leader Stepan Bandera. At that time, the group adopted many symbols modelled on fascist ones, including the red-black flag and fascist salute with calling "Glory to Ukraine!" and responding "Glory to the Heroes!". The greeting became especially popular during the failed attempt to build a Ukrainian state on lands occupied by Germany after its invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, when triumphal arches with these slogans were erected in numerous Ukrainian cities. Many ordinary Ukrainians abandoned the customary Christian greeting "Glory to Jesus Christ" (Slava Isusu Khrystu) in favour of a new national greeting. For this reason, many religious leaders, including Greek-Catholic Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytskyi, criticised the OUN for the new greeting.

After the creation in the second half of 1942, the the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) took over the salute from the OUN-B, but dropped the fascist-like raising of the right arm above the head. In mid-1943, just before the mass massacres of the Polish population in the Lviv region by the UPA, the Polish Home Army noticed that many Ukrainians had begun to use the greeting "Death to the Poles" (Smert' liakham) while answering "Glory to Ukraine".

Soviet era and late 20th century

The greeting was widespread among Ukrainian diaspora groups and refugee communities in the West during the Cold War. In the Soviet Union, the slogan "Slava Ukraini!" was forbidden and discredited via a decades-long propaganda campaign alongside the diaspora Ukrainian nationalists who used it. They were dubbed "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists", "Banderites", and "Nazi henchmen" by Soviet authorities.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the slogan began to be heard at rallies and demonstrations. After Ukraine declared independence in 1991, the phrase "Glory to Ukraine" became a common patriotic slogan. In 1995, President of the United States Bill Clinton used the phrase in a speech in Kyiv (together with "God bless America").

Russo-Ukrainian War

A debit card from Ukrainian PrivatBank with the phrase and "Glory to the heroes" response

The phrase has undergone a resurgence in recent times, becoming a popular and prominent refrain during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, and a symbol of democracy and of resistance against Putin's Russia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Canadian historian Serhy Yekelchyk writes that "the nationalist greeting from the 1940s [...] acquired new meaning on the Maidan", and that "when used by protestors, [the slogan] referred to a hoped-for democratic and pro-Western Ukraine and regarded as heroes those who had fallen in service to their cause." According to political scientist Vyacheslav Likhachev, even variations that had far-right connotations lost that meaning during Euromaidan, for example, nearly every public speech, as well as public greetings began/ended with "Glory to Ukraine – glory to the heroes!" He noted that by the Equality March in 2021, the annual LGBTQ+ event in Kyiv, other variations like "Glory to the nation – death to the enemies!" were chanted by participants spontaneously. They had long become ubiquitous enough to lose any aggressive meaning.

On 9 August 2018, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that "Glory to Ukraine" would be the official greeting of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, replacing "Hello comrades" (Ukrainian: Вітаю товариші, romanized: Vitayu tovaryshi). The greeting was used during the Kyiv Independence Day Parade on 24 August 2018. The Ukrainian parliament approved the President's bill on this (in its first reading) on 6 September and on 4 October 2018. Parliament also made Glory to Ukraine the official greeting of the National Police of Ukraine.

The popularization of the phrase was sometimes controversial abroad. After Croatia's 2018 FIFA World Cup victory, Croatia's assistant coach was fined by the football governing body FIFA after posting a video in which he used the slogan. In response, on 10 July 2018, Ukrainian supporters flooded FIFA's Facebook page with over 158,000 comments, most saying "Glory to Ukraine". Russia alleged that the chant has ultra-nationalist connotations. The Football Federation of Ukraine said in a statement that "'Glory to Ukraine' is a commonly used greeting in Ukraine," and that it "should not be interpreted as an act of aggression or provocation".

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

"Slava Ukraini" sign at an anti-war protest in Washington, D.C., 27 February 2022

This phrase became very popular among Ukrainian soldiers and their supporters to boost morale following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The slogan has seen worldwide use by protesters in solidarity with Ukraine all over the world, accompanying various demands towards the Russian embassies and the relevant national governments such as excluding Russia from SWIFT and closing airspace over Ukraine.

It has been used in speeches by numerous Ukrainian politicians including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It has also been used by foreign leaders including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the UK's Permanent Representative Barbara Woodward in a speech to the UN. It has been used by commentators and media such as The Times.

On the other hand, the President of Croatia, Zoran Milanović, has criticized the use of the slogan, stating that: "This is the chant of the most radical chauvinists from Western Ukraine who collaborated with Nazis, who killed hundreds of thousands of Poles, Jews, and anyone else they got their hands on".

Impact

Music

The Norwegian Armed Forces' official composer Marcus Paus composed the song "Slava Ukraini!," loosely inspired by Ukraine's national anthem. Paus released the work on Facebook on 27 February 2022 and described it as a song of resistance; it was recorded two days later by Lithuanian-Norwegian viola player Povilas Syrrist-Gelgota of the Oslo Philharmonic, and was broadcast shortly afterwards by the Norwegian government broadcaster, NRK. Paus said that "the work seems to strike a chord with many people, including those who are in the middle of the battle zone. There is no nobler task for music than to unite and comfort people."

Beyond Europe, the song "Glory to Hong Kong" drew inspiration from the slogan for use in the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. The Chinese edition of Deutsche Welle named "Glory to Hong Kong" the "anthem" of the Hong Kong protests. Describing the song, Chinese Television System News in Taiwan noted that the song had "peaceful vocals coupled with scenes of bloody conflicts between Hong Kong Police and the people" and that by creating "Glory to Hong Kong", Hongkongers recorded their "history of struggling for democracy and freedom". The connection between Ukraine and Hong Kong was received extremely negatively in mainland China, with Chinese commentators alleging American instigation of the Revolution of Dignity and Ukrainian Neo-Nazis meddling in Hong Kong affairs, going uncensored by the Great Firewall.

Commemorative currency

The 2 euro commemorative coin issued by the Bank of Estonia in 2022 features the words "Slava Ukraini" (Glory to Ukraine), which was designed by Daria Titova, a Ukrainian refugee studying at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Bibliography

• Rossoliński-Liebe, Grzegorz (2014). Stepan Bandera: The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist: Fascism, Genocide, and Cult. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-3838266848.
• Lipovetsky, Sviatoslav (2010). Організація українських націоналістів (бандерівці): фрагменти діяльності та боротьби [The Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (Banderites): A Collage of Deeds and Struggles] (in Ukrainian).