Mykhailo Kravchenko: A Kobzar from Velyki Sorochyntsi Who Sang Dumas About the Past and His Own Times
Mykhailo Stepanovych Kravchenko (1858–1917) was a Ukrainian kobzar and one of the most renowned representatives of the Poltava kobzar tradition during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A blind singer from Velyki Sorochyntsi in the Myrhorod region, he performed classic dumas (epic ballads) concerning the Cossack past and Turkish captivity, as well as psalms and satirical songs; he also composed his own dumas about the tragic events of 1905 in his native village. His singing was documented by artists, writers, and folklorists, and the phonograph recordings of his dumas made in the early 20th century became a vital part of the scholarly study of the Ukrainian folk epic.
Kravchenko belongs to the generation of kobzars that witnessed the transition from a purely oral, itinerant tradition to its scholarly analysis. While in the mid-19th century knowledge of kobzars came primarily from written transcripts, by the turn of the century, researchers were able to capture the live sound of the voice and instrument using the phonograph. It is thanks to this that the melodies of the dumas performed by Mykhailo Kravchenko have been preserved for future generations.
Origins and Early Years
Mykhailo Kravchenko was born on December 27, 1858, in the town of Velyki Sorochyntsi, in the Myrhorod uyezd (district) of the Poltava Governorate (now a village in the Myrhorod Raion of the Poltava Oblast). He came from a peasant family. His father taught him the trade that supported the family: rope-making.
At the age of fifteen, the boy fell seriously ill and lost his sight. For a peasant youth, blindness meant he could no longer perform the usual agricultural labor; thus, like many of his blind peers, he chose the path of a wandering minstrel. This was a traditional way in the Ukraine of that era to acquire a profession and a livelihood: blind apprentices would live for years with experienced masters, mastering the repertoire, playing techniques, and the unwritten rules of the kobzar guild.
Learning the Art of the Kobzar
Around the age of seventeen or eighteen, Mykhailo Kravchenko began his training under the Myrhorod kobzar Samiilo Yashnyi. Initially, he mastered the singing of psalms—spiritual songs that typically marked the beginning of a kobzar's education—and later moved on to playing the kobza and performing dumy (epic ballads). The kobzar Fedir Hrytsenko-Kholodnyi is also cited as one of his mentors.
In the second half of the 19th century, the Myrhorod region was a major center of the kobzar tradition within the Poltava region, and it was here that Kravchenko mastered the performance style characteristic of the local school. Having mastered the craft, he began traveling independently to villages and fairs, performing dumy, psalms, and songs.
A Life of Hardship
Despite his artistic mastery, Kravchenko lived in constant poverty. He supported not only his own family but also that of his ailing brother. Earnings from playing the kobza were insufficient, so the singer continued to weave ropes. This arduous labor took a toll on his hands and hindered his playing; he is on record saying that after a month of rope-weaving, the skin would peel off his fingers, making it impossible to play.
Contemporaries described Kravchenko as a man of medium height and sturdy build, with a kind and welcoming expression.
Opanas Slastion and the Path to Recognition
A turning point in the kobzar’s life was his meeting with the artist and ethnographer Opanas Slastion, who lived and worked in Myrhorod. Slastion had long been gathering information about Ukrainian kobzars and lirnyks, sketching their portraits, and recording their repertoires. In 1900, he published an article about Mykhailo Kravchenko that brought the singer to the attention of the general public.
Slastion recorded dumy (epic ballads) from Kravchenko—most notably "The Escape of the Three Brothers from Azov" and "Marusia Bohuslavka"—and created a portrait of him. It was Slastion who preserved the kobzar’s final instrument, which he later donated to the Myrhorod Local History Museum.
Performances at Academic Congresses and Exhibitions
Following the publication of Slastion’s article, Kravchenko’s name became known beyond the Poltava region. In 1902, the kobzar performed in Kharkiv during the 12th Archaeological Congress. This congress was a significant event in the history of the study of the Ukrainian kobzar tradition; it featured performances by several kobzars and lirnyks, and their art was examined by scholars from various regions of the Russian Empire.
That same year, Kravchenko performed in St. Petersburg at the All-Russian Exhibition of Handicrafts. Later, he also sang in other cities—notably Katerynoslav, Kremenchuk, Kyiv, and Moscow. For a blind peasant from the Poltava region, such trips were extraordinary events, and his performances introduced urban audiences to the living sound of the Ukrainian epic tradition.
By 1902, Kravchenko’s repertoire comprised four dumas, nineteen psalms, and twelve satirical songs. Later, the number of dumas in his repertoire increased.
Performance Style
Contemporaries noted that the greatest strength of Kravchenko’s art lay in his performance of dumy. The writer, musician, and researcher of the kobzar tradition Hnat Khotkevych highly praised his vocal mastery, highlighting his distinctly Ukrainian singing style and subtle melismas—intricate melodic ornaments with which the kobzar enriched the melody. Such melismas are a hallmark of traditional duma performance, and they were particularly pronounced in Kravchenko’s singing.
As a genre, the duma combines recitative-style declamation with melodic singing, requiring the performer to possess not only musical talent but also the ability to convey a lengthy epic text to the audience. Kravchenko had mastered this art to a high degree, a fact that drew the interest of scholars.
Recordings by Filaret Kolessa
A pivotal moment in Kravchenko’s creative career—and a milestone in the history of musical folklore studies—was the series of recordings made in 1908 by the prominent Ukrainian musicologist and folklorist Filaret Kolessa. That year, Kolessa conducted an expedition in the Poltava region using a phonograph to record duma melodies; the project was organized and funded by Lesia Ukrainka and her husband, the folklorist Klyment Kvitka. The expedition’s goal was to document the musical aspect of the dumy—an element that had previously been largely overlooked by collectors. Kolessa recorded six dumas (epic songs) from Mykhailo Kravchenko:
"The Lament of the Galley Slaves";
"The Lament of a Captive in Turkish Bondage";
"The Escape of the Three Brothers from Azov";
"Marusia Bohuslavka";
"The Three Brothers from Samara";
"The Widow and Her Three Sons."
These recordings were included in Kolessa’s seminal work, Melodies of Ukrainian Folk Dumas, which laid the foundation for the scholarly musicological study of the Ukrainian epic tradition. The versions performed by Kravchenko remain vital sources for researchers studying the melodic structures and performance practices of kobzars (traditional Ukrainian bards).
The Sorochyntsi Events of 1905
In December 1905, peasant unrest broke out in Velyki Sorochyntsi and was brutally suppressed by government troops. These events—known as the Sorochyntsi Tragedy—gained widespread attention; notably, the Russian writer Volodymyr Korolenko, who was living in Poltava at the time, wrote about them.
Mykhailo Kravchenko witnessed these events. He responded to them by composing his own dumas: "The Sorochyntsi Events of 1905" and "Black Sunday in Sorochyntsi." In these songs, the kobzar recounted the uprising of his fellow villagers and its bloody suppression. Korolenko, who was acquainted with Kravchenko, recorded the duma about these events from him.
The creation of new dumas based on contemporary themes was a rarity in the kobzar tradition of the early 20th century, a time when most performers adhered to an established classical repertoire. Kravchenko’s original dumy demonstrate that the duma genre retained the capacity to respond to significant events in the life of the people.
Students
Mykhailo Kravchenko passed on his art to the next generation. Among his students were the kobzars Petro Huz and Fedir Kushneryk. Kushneryk later became a renowned performer of dumy and carried on the Poltava kobzar tradition into the 20th century.
Final Years and Death
Harsh living conditions, poverty, and constant traveling took a toll on the kobzar’s health. Mykhailo Kravchenko died on April 22, 1917 (April 9, Old Style), in Velyki Sorochyntsi at the age of 58.
Legacy
Mykhailo Kravchenko’s last instrument, preserved by Opanas Slastion, is housed in the Myrhorod Local History Museum. In 1972, a monument created by sculptor L. Tverdianska was erected in the kobzar’s birthplace.
The figure of the singer from Velyki Sorochyntsi continued to attract the attention of Ukrainian artists in the 20th century; the poet Maksym Rylskyi dedicated a poem to Mykhailo Kravchenko.
Significance
Mykhailo Kravchenko holds a prominent place in the history of the Ukrainian kobzar tradition as a leading exponent of the Poltava school of duma performance at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. His art became a subject of scholarly study thanks to the articles and notes of Opanas Slastion, his performances at the Kharkiv Archaeological Congress and in other cities, and—above all—the phonograph recordings made by Filaret Kolessa. The duma melodies performed by Kravchenko rank among the most valuable documentary records of the sound of the Ukrainian epic tradition.
At the same time, Kravchenko also made history as a creator of new dumy. His works concerning the Sorochyntsi tragedy of 1905 demonstrated that the kobzar tradition remained vibrant in the early 20th century, capable of reflecting not only the heroic past but also contemporary events. The kobzar’s life—marked by hardship and toil—and his art, which earned the acclaim of both scholars and audiences, remain a vivid chapter in the history of Ukrainian musical culture.
