The state that fights, plunging into internal problems, somehow cuts off the territory that the aggressor captures from Ukraine at the subconscious level. There is no need to say about cities and towns that were occupied ten years ago and after a full -scale invasion. The wall of mutual silence is strengthened, and the information vacuum replaces those who stayed there, from our field of vision and sensation.

How do we experience the war and what lessons we learn? What can unite the country and different fates? What role do culture and society play in this? How to reach both themselves and to those who remained on the occupied lands for a different reason, but with a soul with Ukraine?

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The emergence of the cultural musical project “Total: profit” in partnership with the “rush of support” of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is one of the attempts to answer these difficult questions and reach. Famous Ukrainian artists devote their concerts to residents of the occupied territories, holding out their hand from Ukraine and giving out part of the soul.

Taras Companchenko - Kobzar, Lirnik, Bandurry, and now also a soldier. He and his group “Khorey Kozatskka” supported the “Rukh support” and the project “Total: profit”. We managed to talk with the artist before recording the concert about the war, changes in society and the mission of culture.

About the new joy, the first day of the war and the audience that can hear.

- Taras, you are now to a full -scale invasion - this is the same person or another?

- The general, of course, is the same, but perhaps I have not fully comprehended how much I changed. The adoption of urgent and urgent decisions, meetings with death, of course, leave an imprint. A few days ago, I called me the twin from the Poltava, with whom we served from the first days of the war, and said: " I was shocked. This is a special condition, because we are now in the process, when you do not know what and when, and where will it come from. That is, it is a moment when such a rhetorical or poetic figure comes out: they asked me in 2022, whether I see changes in myself. Once I replied: how to meet the brothers in arms alive, I cry with joy. This emotion of joy in a past life was natural, and now it is something completely different.

- Your first day of the war. What would be the first proposal of your book with the conditional name \?

- We woke up in the boyar from explosions and sirens when Moscow beat along Vasilkov. And the first day of the war was a dialogue with my loved ones, especially with girls - wife and daughters. We succeeded, as in the " This is a hybrid war, and, starting with the Maidan of 2014, there were different stages: political, economic, war in the cultural and church spheres. The enemy involved many factors to destroy Ukrainian identity, dissolve it and make it something like a Belarusian. So that it was a satellite country without a special national person and consciousness. A lot of money was buried to Ukraine.

On the first day I called my friends because I wanted to sign up for the army. Given that I am a white vehicle, I had problems with this. Therefore, personal acquaintances were used. Sicked Andrei Kovalev. He said: “Father, do what you are doing. We do not score nails with an iPhone " Then I called Dmitry Korchinsky, hoping for his adventurous component. And he said: “Taras, I will call you when you need it. We do not score nails with a microscope " So my book can be called: "

I will improvise this, of course, I didn't think about it at all. But immediately in the wake of these first emotions, poems began to be composed, like: “A friend of Army at the svіtі yd ib Grizno Girka, that was sorely strugged. Or “For a column-colon, the Moscow was shaved on us, the same smiled to itch. .

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And then there were thoughts about loved ones, because my mother, already deceased aunt and relatives - in Sumy, other relatives - in the Kherson region. It somehow happened that the children just arrived from Kyiv to the boyar, and we all united there. But immediately the question arose of how to untie his hands, protecting their loved ones - women and girls. Because I knew: it is women who invaders can cause the most terrible. I was offered to evacuate to Bavaria, France, Poland. But finally, the girls left for Podillia. Sons - with me. The eldest has been serving for a year and a half, was near Volchan. The younger works in the right field.

I also thought where to put all the artifacts that I have collected. And these are paintings, painting, graphics, sculpture, huge collection of Bandur. This is a little that I could somehow evacuate. But in the end, I could not shove it all into the bus that our friends arrived.

-They say that each listener perceives the work of the master in his own way. And hears his own. But what are you talking about now when working on your works?

- It could be said that this is an appeal to a certain egregor, the national spirit. I don't know. Just, on the one hand, you cannot help but write. All creators - both high poets and graphomaniacs - cannot but write, because this is a need. And on the other hand, I am a niche performer, and I am appealing to those who can hear. Of course, I expose my works in the media, on social networks or some YouTube. But I have not million views. They even reproach me that I write too difficult, that I use such a vocabulary that no one understands, and such a thing needs such a thing. Say, you need to use simple words, matyuki, relatively speaking. And I use the ancient Ukrainian language, because I can't otherwise.

On the lessons of war, artificial division into "

- Each country can be compared with a person who grows, mistaken, reflects, assimilates lessons or not. What lesson now, in your opinion, Ukraine is assimilated? What we must understand by experiencing Russian aggression?

- We are very free, individualistic, voluntarist people. Not fatalistic, namely voluntarist. We build our future and do not hope only for the Higher Forces, and first of all - on ourselves. Of course, we have a piece of fatalism, like all nations, but still prevails the desire for action. Unfortunately, Ukrainians could always fight the external enemy very beautifully, not noticing how the enemy inner enemy wins us. There is a rebellion and some degree of freedom, which is very important for us and is the essence itself. The component of anarchism in us is a sort of derivative faction of great freedom, internal and national. But when freedom shimmers over the edge, then the flood is obtained, anarchy.

And this usually played a bad joke with us in the past. For example, we won under Konotop (in the Battle of Konotop 1659. - Yu. ), but could not take advantage of the victory, because Ivan Vygovsky was shifted. And there are many such examples. So the conclusion, which, in my opinion, we still made back in 2014 during the revolution of dignity and during this period, is that the Ukrainians learned to remain within a certain framework of common sense. Even criticizing power and indicating problematic issues in the modern warfare, information leak, etc..

- Give examples.

- When the opposition say that there can be no elections now, it is common sense. That is, in this case, we are not conducted by ambition, but common sense. This is what Ukrainians learned to. Exiting infantilism, growing up - this is when the money that the enemy invests in the creation of large public faults, actually goes into the abyss. Because we already have some restraining factors. And it's nice to watch this.

I also see that many are ready to become a firefighter who extinguishes bonfires of discord and some exclusively personal antipathies. That is, in the foreground for many are a state position and freedom. And even if we talk about the presence of some restrictions, Ukrainians still turn to the very sovereign, which consists in the fact that civil and personal freedom, as well as their combination, is our national freedom.

Therefore, it seems to me that there is growing up and colossal progress. At least in the circle with whom I communicate, people say: whose goby is no - our calf. That is, unlike the past, leaders inherent in posttotalitarian societies of Eastern Europe disappears.

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At the same time, our people were able to build a pantheon of the glory of the past, where they credit all. From a historical point of view, there are many disagreements between the heroes of the pantheon, and they could not get along with each other in the past. But Ukrainians learned to look at their past from the position: what was the good one of those people then? And in science, and in politics, and in writing, and in the economy. We also learn to look at the modern space from the state position. Therefore, we are building a modern pantheon of sympathy precisely on the fact that this person carries good, and can also do and do.

- Now in the Armed Forces of Ukraine you are faced with part of Ukraine, which did not have such roots as you. People from the east can talk in Russian, not feel this land like you. But they die for her, and right now their children grow into this land roots. How can we unite? How to build a country that can create a strong state?

- In the Shakespearean “Othello” there was a yago who was whispering Othello, as if his wife betrayed him. At one rehabilitation event in the west of Ukraine, I recently said: my dear friends, do not listen to those yago. Do not listen to the Feesbash Heads, allegedly mobilized all of your villages and towns, and the " Go to Kharkov, see how many flags splashing in the cemetery. See how many flags splashing in Chernigov, Sumy, Poltava, Priluki, in the villages and towns of Poltava, Sumshchina, Chernihiv region, and, of course, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk region, Cherkasyshchina and others.

When I see what sacrifice they pay both the “SCIDIKA” and “ZAHIDYAKI”, the Black Sea from the south, Polishchuki from the north, I say that this is about national unity. And there is no difference where a person lives and how dedicated to the bowels of Ukrainian culture. The degree of initiation could be very minimal, but it could have been so on Western Volhynia, for example. Not all people there were so rooted in Ukrainian subsoil. Because we live in modern space, where, so to speak, only melodies are hiding. Recently, the whole country was still listening to the Radio " For example, in 2014, when I was traveling from Volyn to Kyiv in a minibus and asked to turn off this horror, they also snapped on me. And I can say that there was a lot of such “good” throughout Ukraine.

- You are sure that now?

- I'm sure that now we are moving in the right direction. We live in conditions when the national narrative and myth are a matter of survival. After all, they are closely related to historical science. Unfortunately, the latter, like the history of Ukrainian literature or music, often remains in its bubble. Historical music performers and authors of books about the past exist in the locked space of their eras. The task of the national narrative is to break through this isolation and become a living intra -national communications. Identity should be widespread throughout society, and key meanings are common to all.

And this process is currently taking place, and this discovery applies to both “SCILIKOV” and “ZAHIDYAKOV”. Many went to defend Ukraine, knowing almost nothing about it. And I saw in my twin that many know nothing. Although I serve in such a team where there are many representatives of elites, intellectuals... Someone was a very cool biker, psychologist, dog handler, and still the internal need was to know this. But there were no national sites where these great, modern people, successful in their areas, could cross with culture and share this.

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I always said that the “stars” can be promoted by producers, not be able to speak and escape as soon as possible to Moscow. But in fact, stars are interesting, internally successful people who created themselves, who made unique inventions, built a business, wrote excellent poetry or prose, composed modern music. And these people should know each other, know Ukrainian mathematicians, biologists, athletes. Now we are observing the process of internal national communication, when the division into " Previously, for example, sport was associated with a Russian-speaking space-they say, let the Ukrainian remain in its “niche”: Barwin whesies, Ukrsuclit, Radio Rox, Bandurists or Folklorests. And other sectors are not for you, and your language is supposedly not there.

It has changed. The Ukrainian world has become integral - it penetrated into all spheres. What we have achieved since the late 1980s, which Chernovol said: Ukrainian should be everywhere-in high and everyday. We said that while the prostitute will not speak in Ukrainian, the Ukrainian world will not take place. Only then will society feel the formed. And in this process the person of a warrior is a rod. We must not only motivate them and enlighten them, but also hear requests. When I give lectures on national-patriotic training and people ask me deep questions, I bring them a whole bunch of books: here is the original publication of Grushevsky in 1906, geography, London's translations to show that Ukrainians were never sophisticated. They were wide, they wanted to be equal among equal, free among free. And through the army we form and unite the nation, and the nation looks at the heroes and unites through their ranks and exploits.

- And the dancing and songs of youth under the Russian popes at the height of the war is what for you? Who and with what in this story could not cope? Parents? State? Culture?

- This is beyond. This is the absence of any empathy at all, sympathy. This is a misunderstanding of what is happening, who kills us, what he carries, why he started this war. Because the war is not waged by the territory, the territory is only a means. War is being destroyed, it is an existential war. For them it is to death, so that we are not, but for us - for life, so that we survive and take place.

In my recent interview, I said that at this bloody banquet we must remain sober. There should be those who could stop. Someone who would say: something is wrong here. When I see, for example, how children score their girlfriend and no one stops - for me these are herd things. Also here I see herd things that no one said: “Stop, friends, what is it? What's happening? No one questioned this. This is the worst for me. That is, everyone can make mistakes. But there was no, as Shevchenko said, one Cossack per million pigs....

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Another example. We organized Nikolai-Rogestanian holidays for my brigade. Angelica Rudnitskaya was an assistant to St. Nicholas, Evgeny Wild - Nikolai. Everything was sincere and warm. Angelica asks those present: whether they fed birds and cats, did they listen to grandmother, did they read books? Everyone answers: " She continues: “Well, the“ boys ”definitely did not look! " Near her wounded military. Angelica carefully replies: " And the woman: “And what is it? This is a culture " And here it is important to explain: how Wagner does not play in Israel, because he humiliated the Jews, so we should not be of tolerant of the fact that we depreciate us.

About the sprouts of Ukrainians under "

- You also grew up in a time when the sovereign tried to destroy the Ukrainian one, which the Russians are still trying to do. As you have not broken under this pressure of society and have passed your national identification through the years? After all, children, in my opinion, are even more difficult than adults to experience such repressions.

- I grew up in a family where my grandfather and grandmother were repressed, they had 29 years of camps and special settlements behind them. These are people from Kharkiv region. I learned from my grandfather “Shche did not die”, “Off, Rocky -Divist Kozak in the Non -Solі” I “Gay, Num, Bratski All to Zbro on Hertzuly.”. Parents sang on the first birthday of “Rosicaning Stylets Ziy Rail” or “Oh on the mountain wogh”. And now I sing it, unfortunately, at the funeral....

That is, I have a unique case. But, for example, when I came to the Ukrainian Helsinsky Union in 1988, I saw Sasha Khomenko there. He is a poet and historian, now serves in the Brigade of the National Guard " He was from a simpler environment, not from such as I. But he also knew something and felt something. And for some reason, back in 1988, he chose this side. Although, as he wrote in his short story, he was lured by the " By the end of 2014, Ukrainians seduced this so that we abandoned our national nature.

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- But despite this, sprouts made their way and existed.

- Yes. We know that contrary to all this existed, for example, poetic cinema. So we grew up contrary. Parents slipped something to us. Suddenly, somehow, I found the “Ukrainian-Rusi” by my mother under the bed, Nikolai Arkas. Then, I saw, somewhere Vasily Simonenko lay. Father quoted Lina Kostenko.

Or somehow such a case occurred. We are going with my father on a train to the visitor. It was, it seems, 1970, Moscow train. And the neighbors hear that my father turns to me in Ukrainian. And others begin to talk to him, they say why you cripple your child. They got to the point of asking: do Ukrainians have some poets, such as Bella Akhmadulina, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Evgeny Yevtushenko? That is, modern poets with whom the aesthetic and emotional requests of a modern person correspond.. And their father asked: whether they know Nikolai Vincranovsky, Lina Kostenko, Ivan Drach, Vasily Simonenko? Father began to quote, and the shock immediately occurred with them, everyone began to move off the topic.

I was in Paraguay, and the director of the Historical Museum says: “So Putin is fighting, because who live there in the east and south - Russians”. Blood hit me right in my head. My relatives under the occupation live in the Kherson region, so I have never heard of them from them. And people there with such surnames as Zaporozhets. Therefore, it seems to me that, on the one hand, this is a happy case, and on the other, they still could not roll everything into concrete. They tried very, very hard, but I will quote Taras Shevchenko: “But the Korinnya is quiet, any green firing tall. I V andno; I without Sokiri... Kozak is a non -wrecking fall, roster the throne, a break in porphyry, to distribute your idol, human geshelly. Nannies, uncles of the Fatherland of Alien! Not a saint, I do not become you... " So Shevchenko wrote, and so it happened. We still remained ourselves, and now it is scaled.

- But the war is not homogeneous. Everyone is experiencing their own reality. And she is very different. Like pain. Sometimes it seems that we, losing territory, immediately lose people. And it is, unfortunately, not only about 2014. Mariupol, Berdyansk. We do not know how they live, who remained there, what they feel and what they are experiencing. After all, not everyone accepted Russia. What to do with it?

- It is necessary to maintain these contacts contrary to everything. It is very difficult and dangerous. This is dangerous primarily for those who remained in the occupied territories. I, communicating with my relatives in the occupied Kherson region, write abstractions: “Let God bless,” and they also answer me in writing, for example: “with Easter”, “Merry Christmas”, “with cover”.

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-Something neutral?

- Very neutral. When the sister lived in Kherson and the invaders went there, she said that people hoped for quick liberation. Then she had to go south. Now we correspond, but we write something like “Bow to your mother-bow and you to mom”, “We pray for you, we pray for everyone”. And this is enough, because any of us knows what it means. This, of course, can be interpreted differently, but at the same time you can always have some kind of reliable alibi.

People in the occupied territories should be maintained, created some threads, communications. It is very difficult. Perhaps if there are some windows, for example, on YouTube, the channels that are transmitted to the Moscow region and the territories occupied by it, then we must really try to use these means. And, you know, Alexander Olesya has a long -standing poem that every Ukrainian quoted during the Ukrainian revolution: “Waiting for us”. So, they are waiting for us, and we know it well. They give us all the signs, convey verbally and non -verbally, in any way that they are waiting and they are with us.

- Turning to the concert to people who now live under the Russian oppression, to whom you personally address? Who do you imagine?

- First of all, their relatives. Parents of my friends in Melitopol. My wife's uncle in Mariupol. I recall those who, unfortunately, did not survive: my friend Orestes in Raisins... Oleg Efimenko from my Kuren " He went missing, and then exhumed him - shot. I remember the living. How my parents were chosen from the occupied Stanislav, the already deceased mother of my friend Lyudmila Piech. Those who died under the occupation. Professors, namely Volodya Tsibulko, who was sitting under the occupation, pretending to be a guard. My friend, Colonel Roman, who survived the occupation of Irpen and told what was happening there.

I remember those who did not return, who were killed, raped. Before me is always specific faces of this time and war....

- Taras, thanks for the conversation. I would like to say at the end: whatever the war of Ukrainians shares, our soul is left alone for all, regardless of where we live: in Kyiv, Mariupol, Berdyansk or Lviv. And artists who support the resistance movement help maintain this unity and not to separate us even more.

- We will be together before victory.

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