Mykola Petrovych Bakay (2 March 193128 July 1998) was a Ukrainian singer, composer, poet, author and Soviet

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...

Biography

Bakay was born in the village of , in the

Pokuttia Pokuttia, also known as Pokuttya or Pokutia, (; ; ) is an historical area of East-Central Europe, situated between the Dniester and Cheremosh rivers and Carpathian Mountains, in the southwestern part of modern Ukraine. Although the historic hear ...

region, which was at that time under

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

rule. Due to the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he was only able to finish seventh class. In 1947, Bakay together with his family was

deported Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people by a state from its Sovereignty, sovereign territory. The actual definition changes depending on the place and context, and it also changes over time. A person who has been deported or ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

. He attempted to escape twice, but was not able to succeed. As punishment he was forcefully settled to work at the logging sites and factories near

Omsk Omsk (; , ) is the administrative center and largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia and has a population of over one million. Omsk is the third List of cities and tow ...

. There he studied at the local music school of

Vissarion Shebalin Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin (; 29 May 1963) was a USSR, Soviet composer, music pedagogue. Rector of the Moscow Conservatory (1942-1948). People's Artist of the RSFSR (1947). Biography Shebalin was born in Omsk, where his parents were school t ...

and later worked as an actor at the Omsk Theater of Operetta. Bakay returned from the forced settlement in 1960. He moved to

Chernivtsi Chernivtsi (, ; , ;, , see also #Names, other names) is a city in southwestern Ukraine on the upper course of the Prut River. Formerly the capital of the historic region of Bukovina, which is now divided between Romania and Ukraine, Chernivt ...

, where he began singing in the

Bukovina Bukovina or ; ; ; ; , ; see also other languages. is a historical region at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe. It is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains, today divided betwe ...

ensemble of song and dance. He worked together with many of the performers from the ensemble, but especially with the singer and composer Pavlo Dvorsky. They wrote many songs together, Bakay writing the lyrics and Dvorsky writing the music. Mykola Bakay was buried in his native village of .

Legacy

The house of culture in Vynohrad has a theme exhibition that is dedicated to the poet-singer Mykola Bakay. Not far from the building and near the

Taras Shevchenko Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (; ; 9 March 1814 – 10 March 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, folklorist, and ethnographer. He was a fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts and a member of the Brotherhood o ...

monument the first local festival of the Ukrainian song ''Smerykova khata'' took place in 2009 on the day of Illia (Sunday). It was dedicated to the memory of Bakay and his works. The festival opened under the sound of

trembita The trembita (from the Proto-Germanic language, old Germanic ''trumba'', "to trumpet", in Ukrainian language, Ukrainian ''трембíта'') is a type of an alpine horn made of wood. It is common among Ukrainian highlanders Hutsuls who live in ...

s and a dance performed by the National amateur ensemble of song and dance "Prykarpattia" from the village of Otynia."Фестин пам’яті Миколи Бакаяy"

Notes

References

External links

The festival in the memory of Mykola Bakay

1931 births People from Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Ukrainian male poets Ukrainian dissidents 1998 deaths Ukrainian exiles Soviet dissidents 20th-century Ukrainian poets 20th-century Ukrainian male singers {{Ukraine-singer-stub