Ukrainian opera singer.
Biography
From an early age, he showed vocal and acting abilities. He sang in the church choir, in the choir chapel, where he and his future wife, Kateryna Borisova, were selected for the opera troupe by representatives of the Dnipropetrovsk Opera Theater. The owner of a bright and strong dramatic baritone and acting talent.
After the collapse of the Russian Empire, he participated in military conflicts. He fell ill with typhus and had heart complications. He came to the theater as a mature person.
1926-1941 — soloist of the opera troupe of the Dnipropetrovsk Opera Theater. S. D. Kazban embodied a number of leading roles in the classical, Ukrainian and ideological opera repertoire on stage. (By the way, he also acted as a dramatic actor). The most favorite and most successful role was the role of Ivan Karas in "Zaporozhka by the Danube" by S.S. Gulak-Artemovsky. The role helped to maximally show the role of a characteristic actor, which was fixed on him from the very beginning.
The singer had a cheerful disposition, easy sociability and an innate sense of humor that helped in the most difficult moments. This made him the soul of any company. Right there, in the theater, Sergey found his wife - "Odarka" - Kateryna Viktorivna Borysova, born in 1910, a soloist of the opera choir, with whom he sang together in the Sumy choir chapel "Surma".
Holodomor
The Holodomor, which was carried out by the occupation authorities, found the Kazban family in Dnipropetrovsk. At the same time, on February 22, 1933, the couple had a son, Viktor. To feed the baby, the mother resorted to the services of an occupation speculative office - Torgsin. They took all their valuables there (table silver, their jewelry), and the Stalinists valued them in one small bag of semolina. This "ration", bought from the occupiers, saved the child from starvation.
From the time of the genocide of the Ukrainian people in 1932-1933, Serhiy Danylovych remembered the long queues for bread rations that he and his young wife endured. They grabbed for any part-time job. Singing in the church choir was a salvation then. Son Victor grew up in the atmosphere of the theater and from the age of seven he sang in the boys' choir, which participated in theater performances.
"German" Dnipropetrovsk
After the end of the union between the USSR and Nazi Germany, Dnipropetrovsk was quickly liberated from the Stalinists. They tried to deport the city's population to the inner regions of the USSR, including theater employees. But due to the bombardment and general panic, the Kazbans remained in the city.
Serhiy faced a new task: to ensure the existence of the family in the conditions of the new, German government. Together with the actors who did not go with Stalin's troops, Serhii Kazban and Kateryna Borisova worked in the opera theater, the activity of which was resumed by the decision of the apparatus of the Reich Commissariat of Ukraine. However, salaries in the theater were meager, so the couple also sang in cafes, restaurants, and in the church choir.
Serhiy Kazban's civic stance during the German regime was consistent with his friend, opera singer Boris Hmyre, who did not stop performing at the Opera Theater of Kyiv during the "nomadic movement" of the red-brown fronts. Despite the Stalinists' unconditional condemnation of all forms of civilian life on the territory of Ukraine occupied by German troops, Ukrainians cared about preserving the culture and dignity of local communities. Kazban's family—quite visible in "German" Dnipropetrovsk—performed just such a function.
In evacuation
In 1943, Stalinist units approached Dnipropetrovsk. Unlike the USSR, the German administration well organized the evacuation of the civilian population. The Kazbans joined the ranks of the Ostarbeiters, lived in the camp town of Königswusterhausen near Teltov. Like all mobilized Germany, they did not "get fat". They worked on beets. From the menu, I remembered lean borscht, as well as boiled sweet beets - "solodushki".
Kazbans and other actors were singled out by the Germans from the general mass of refugees - call them "schauchspiller".
Stalinist concentration camps
After the capture of the camp by Stalinist troops, the family was labeled "traitors" and accused of "collaboration". Serhii Kazban, despite his heart disease, was forcibly conscripted into the death squad - the so-called "penal battalion". The wife, Kateryna, was released to Sumy together with her 12-year-old son. They lived with Kateryna's mother, Daria Pavlivna, and Zoya's sister. Kateryna got a job in a kindergarten. She began to look for Serhiy Danylovych. But the news from him came only a year later.
After the end of the Second World War, Serhiy Kazban was sent by the NKVD of the USSR to a concentration camp in the Urals, to the city of Solikamsk, Perm region. The authorities of the "zone" organized a theater from the prisoners, the director of which was appointed the "convict" Kazban. He also organized choral and theater groups in the camp, which consisted mainly of political prisoners, in particular the families of UPA soldiers (the so-called "Banderivtsi").
The camp authorities included Kazban in the list of prisoners who received the right to visit the civilian part of the city. The talented actor and teacher became the regent of the choir and the director of the theater group at the House of Culture Somedicinal potash plant.
In 1946, Kazban's relatives, his wife and son, came from Ukraine to the Urals, in voluntary exile. Ms. Kateryna was hired to work right away — she was an accompanist, a choirmaster, and a theater co-director. All three lived in unsuitable premises - just behind the stage of the House of Culture. Like all concentration camp prisoners, they suffered and starved. They survived thanks to the work of their teenage son, who, according to Stalin's rule, was taken to work at the potash plant from the age of 14. At the same time, the son studied playing the trumpet at a music school, played in a brass band as a hobby, was fond of photography, football, and dancing.
Creativity in captivity
In the role of Karaulov. 1949
Led by S. D. Kazban, the groups of Gulag victims took high places at amateur art contests held in the Stalinist penitentiary system. Ukrainian songs were also heard from the amateur stage, and there were dramatic and even opera performances. Including "Zaporozhets za Danube" and "Natalka Poltavka", where prisoners of all nationalities who were thrown into prison by Stalin played.
Release
In 1953, war criminal Stalin died. In 1956, S. D. Kazban was released, removing the brand of "enemy guides". According to the memories of Kateryna Viktorivna Borisova, Serhiy Danylovych was invited to the Perm Opera and Ballet Theater:
His colleagues who managed to leave Dnipropetrovsk at the beginning of the war worked there. However, the job was offered only to Serhiy himself. And although there was no mention of his wife and family at all, his family was ready to understand him, knowing how much he loves the theater. But he refused, they say, he is not old enough to wander around dormitories and rented apartments. By the way, the five of us lived in Solikamsk, and then the four of us, in one room of the "communal house" together with two other families and a lonely neighbor. Everyone has a common kitchen, toilet and storage room. And they got the second room when the youngest grandson started to grow up
Serhii Kazban has been looking for an opportunity to return to Ukraine since the end of the 1950s. He regularly visits his native Sumy, but does not receive a settlement permit. Forced to work in Galicia.
He died in the city of Sumy.
