The Cry of a Nation, the Origin of the Carol of the Bells

'The tragic story behind this Christmas carol is a stark reminder of what happened in Ukraine.' The composer was murdered by a Red Chekist.

From The European Conservative

By Álvaro Peñas

The tragic story behind this Christmas carol is a stark reminder of what happened in Ukraine.

Christmas has just come to an end—a time of love, faith, and, of course, carols. Among the many classic Christmas songs, there is a very popular one: the “Carol of the Bells,” whose origin lies in a Ukrainian folk song called “Shchédryk.” The Russian invasion has given this carol a meaning that goes beyond the Christmas festivities and takes us back through its more than 100-year history, to its origins in the course of another war.

Its author was the composer Mykola Leontovych, who collected various folk songs to compose it in 1916. The fall of the Russian Empire in 1917, after the disastrous role of the Tsar’s armies in World War I and the subsequent revolutions that shook Moscow, provided Leontovych and other artists committed to the Ukrainian nationalist cause with the opportunity to write music manuals, form choirs, and open schools—things that had been forbidden by the Tsarist authorities, who had considered any Ukrainian cultural manifestation to be a ‘separatist’ act. “Shchédryk” (Abundant Night) tells the story of a swallow that flies over a house and sings of the riches that spring will bring. It was first performed in December 1916 by students at Kyiv University.

Two years later, Ukraine was engaged in a war of independence at the same time that the Russian civil war was raging between the Tsarist Whites and the Bolshevik Reds. The Western powers supported the Whites in the face of the communist threat, but they did not support the Ukrainians, who were considered separatists by the Whites. The leader of the new Ukrainian state, Symon Petlyura, was aware of the importance of culture as a means of defending the Ukrainian position and making his country known to the world, so he decided to send the Choir of the Ukrainian Republic (later the Ukrainian National Choir) as an ambassador to Paris, where the victorious powers were to delimit the new borders arising from the Great War. Conducted by Alexander Koshetz, the choir left Kyiv on February 4, 1919, the day before the Red Army entered the Ukrainian capital. The journey was not exactly easy in the midst of the war; on several occasions, the musicians were forced to make part of the journey on foot, and they were nearly arrested by the Czechs, who considered them ‘separatists.’ When they finally arrived in Prague, their performance was very well received by the Czech public. Vienna and Baden followed, as did several Swiss cities: Lausanne, Zürich, Geneva, Basel, and Bern. The performances, which the Swiss press described as the “cry of a nation,” were a success, especially the performance of “Shchédryk.”

On November 3, 1919, nine months after its departure from the wartime capital and after suffering countless obstacles to entering French territory, the choir arrived in Paris. War-torn and chaotic Ukraine did not figure prominently in the plans of the victorious powers, but the choir continued to tour Europe, performing in 45 cities across ten countries, ensuring that the European press would discuss Ukraine and its culture. In May 1920, Polish and Ukrainian forces recaptured Kyiv, but eventually, the Soviets reoccupied the city, and in the following year, the Ukrainian People’s Republic was completely wiped out. The loss of state support for the choir was replaced by private capital, and in 1922, the choir arrived in New York under the direction of Max Rabinoff, a Russian-born Jewish businessman who had seen the choir perform in five countries. On October 5, the choir performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall, receiving cheers and flowers from an enthusiastic audience. In the United States alone, they visited 36 states and 115 cities.

It is believed that one of those present at Carnegie Hall was Peter J. Wilhousky, a classically trained choral conductor and music administrator in the New York public schools. His parents were emigrants from northern Slovakia—from the Presov region, close to the border with Ukraine—who had taught their children Eastern European songs and dances. Peter himself had been a member of the Boys Choir of the Russian Cathedral in New York and even sang at the White House before President Woodrow Wilson. Using the music of “Shchédryk,” Wilhousky created a carol with new lyrics and a new title. “Carol of the Bells” was born and then recorded in 1936 by Carl Fischer Music in New York. The new version was a huge success—a success enjoyed by most of the choir members, who decided to rebuild their lives in the United States since they were unable to return to Ukraine. Sadly, this was not so for its author, Mykola Leontovych, who had been murdered many years earlier, on January 23, 1921, by Afanasy Grishchenko—a man described as a “Chekist agent” in a Soviet document. Grishchenko had asked Leontovych for shelter for the night before shooting him and leaving him to bleed to death.

The tragic story of death and exile behind the “Carol of the Bells” is a stark reminder of what happened in Ukraine around the time of its composition. It is a story that is repeating itself today, although we are far removed from the days of the Paris Peace Conference and everyone knows why the Ukrainians are fighting. It is high time that—as depicted in the original lyrics of Leontovych’s “Shchédryk”—the swallow announces the arrival of spring in Ukraine.