VOLYN "ENLIGHTENMENTS" AND DEVELOPMENT OF MUSIC AND DRAMATIC ART IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD

Abstract

The proposed article analyzes the activities of "Enlightenment" in Western Volhynia in the direction of development and promotion of national music and drama in the interwar decade. Enlightenment as a national public and cultural organization was founded in 1868 in Galicia, and during the First World War its ideas spread to Western Volhynia. It was at the final stage that the first enlightenment centers appeared in Volhynia, but, unlike in Galicia, the Volyn Enlightenment failed to form a single unifying center and developed as separate centers. The main goal of "Enlightenment" was the consolidation of the Ukrainian community around the national idea, cultural and scientific development and raising the national consciousness of the Ukrainian people. One of the areas in which the Volyn "Enlightenment" actively worked was the development of choral, musical and theatrical art. It is through this type of activity that Volyn’s Prosvita managed to attract thousands of Volyn Ukrainians to its sphere of influence. Several years after its founding, in the first half of the 1920s, the Enlightenment became one of the main centers of national and cultural life of local Ukrainians. Enlightenment sees its task in raising the national self-consciousness of the Ukrainian population of Volyn. Enlightenment is rapidly gaining popularity, more and more centers are being formed in the towns and villages of Volyn, and almost every center is creating its own choir, theater group. Thanks to "Enlightenment" the broad masses get acquainted with the works of prominent Ukrainian playwrights and composers, are involved in the cultural life of the region. However, from the very beginning of the activities of educational organizations in Volyn, the Polish administration was wary of Prosvit, hindered their development, refused to register statutes, banned certain activities, such as theater performances and concerts, concerts, libraries, development of schooling at "Enlightenment", etc.