Kuban Cossacks' songs as historical sources

Abstract

The present article aims to examine the Black Sea / Kuban Cossacks' songs as one of the most important historical sources, which allows us to understand the important aspects of the of the North Caucasus Ukrainian people'. This is primarily due to the new challenges needed to study the evolution of their identity, certain features of the mentality, and survival strategies characteristic for the Ukrainian population in the region. New questions put by historians require expansion of sources where song tradition, folklore, etc., can become invaluable material for comprehension and interpretation of the new understanding of the process. The authors have based on the fact that in recent times there have been a fundamental change of attitude towards scientific issues and accordingly to sources, which scientists were based on. Strict approaches and requirements to sources which historians relied on during the period of positivism have become much more flexible and spread to the analysis of art, culture and folklore of certain social groups and historical periods. It has become possible to find new approaches to solving problems of scientific research and expand the range of issues which can already be answered. One of the unexplored phenomena, yet barely covered in the domestic science is the of Ukrainian communities of the North Caucasus (Kuban) area. The authors propose to consider the peculiarities of mentality of this community through the prism of song tradition of the Black Sea / Kuban Cossacks that played a crucial role in all spheres of life. Besides, the features of song traditions of Ukrainian Cossacks (worth noting the important role of folk choreographic culture - Cossack dance) which react very quickly to current events of certain historical periods allows us to consider it as a very important indicator of community' response to new circumstances (social, economic, ideological) in which the community was. The approach enables us to view features of history of mentalities of the Ukrainian community in the region much more than focusing on official documents and political declarations.