For the 10th Feast of Ivan Manzhura, which will be celebrated on October 14, 2015 in the Holy Intercession Church of the village of Rubanivskoye, a new book from the series “Tales of the Dnieper region” has been published – the fairy tale poem by I. Manzhura “Ivan Golyk” with drawings by the artist V. Ermakova. When you come to the Holiday, you will definitely receive it as a gift. Imbued with the juices of folk wisdom, the traditions of oral poetic creativity, the poem impresses with its literary perfection and lightness of form. Read it, and you will feel the beauty of the Ukrainian word, shrouded in centuries.
The work is based on the popular plot of a folk tale about the shrewd knight-hero Ivan Golyk, a desperate daredevil of Cossack courage and character, who emerges victorious from all dire circumstances. The closest to the poem is the folk tale about Ivan Golyk and his brother, written down by L. Zhemchuzhnikov from his serf grandfather and published in 1857 in the second volume of P. Kulish’s Notes on Southern Rus. On the basis of the plot of this tale, using motifs from other folk tales (about ferocious snakes, about miraculous spring water), I. Manzhura created a highly original and original poetic work in 1886, which, according to the author himself, would interest “labourers and schoolchildren”, was instructive “for the people and the middle class” and, like “Aeneid” by I. Kotlyarevskyi, contributed to “serious love for native literature.”
Ivan Golyk – with character and character, with the soul of a Cossack-Sichovka, with unusual strength, because “Cossack beauty will bear everything” whether in a fight with the despot-tsar and his daughters, or in a sharp fight with the Snake. He is honest and frank, always cheerful and brave. Everything is subject to him, he never leaves anyone in trouble, that is why he is loved and respected. Eneev’s Cossack courage, pure and honest brotherhood, and inexhaustible optimism live in Golykov. He has neither palaces, nor wealth, nor even good clothes. But Ivan’s soul is not bare. He is interested in human fate and sincere truth.
In the fairy tale, the motifs of the biblical story about the holy prophet Jonah, who was swallowed by a huge fish, are felt. On the third day, the whale washed the prophet alive ashore. Jonah’s stay in the whale’s belly and his miraculous salvation are a type of the three-day death and Resurrection of Christ the Savior.
From the history of St. John of Manzhura
November 5 – 10 years ago (2006) to the 155th anniversary of the birth of the Ukrainian poet, folklorist, ethnographer I. I. Manzhura (real name; pseudonym – Ivan Kalichka, Ivan Mara, I. M-ra; November 1 1851, Kharkiv – May 15, 1893, Katerynoslav) and to the 120th anniversary of the writing of the poem-tale “Tryomsyn Bogatyr” (1886) in the Church of the Intercession in the village of Rubanivskyi, Vasylkivsky District, Dnipropetrovsk Region. with the participation of the “Literary Prydniprovya” museum, the Feast of Ivan Manzhura was held for the first time.
The Cossack village of Rubanivske is a fabulously beautiful, mysterious land shrouded in Zaporozhian legends. The Church (Red Church), built at the end of the 19th century, stands on a hill surrounded by a silver-mirror strip of water, as if on a rainbow semicircle. in memory of the glorious knights from the Vasylenko-Triomsynenko family. In 2007, a unique ethnographic complex – Ivan Manzhura Hut-Museum – was opened on the territory of the historical and architectural monument.
The Vasylenko family of philanthropists had a fateful significance in the life of folklorist, poet, storyteller I. Manzhura. Ivan Hryhorovych Vasylenko (1854-1892), a descendant of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, a Zemstvo official from Katerynoslav, a man of advanced democratic views, the young owner of the village of Hryhorivka (now Rubanivske) took care of the talented young man, gave him shelter for a certain period of time, and made him the manager of the estate. The name of his ancestor, Hryhoriy Ivanovich Vasylenko, nicknamed Tryomsyn, who was listed in the Zaporizhzhya Sich as a scribe of the Kodak transport, entered the history of the settlement of the Dnieper region at the end of the 18th century. To his good friend I. Manzhura dedicated the poem-tale “Tryomsyn the Hero” about the courageous Cossack knight – Triomsyn, a faithful and reliable defender of all the oppressed and disadvantaged. The hero of folk tales, legends, real historical events skillfully interpreted by I. Manzhura in the literary work of the same name has forever entered the historical and cultural space of Dnipropetrovsk region, is a worthy embodiment of the history and glory of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, a monument to the eternal dream of humanity for the most precious – about happiness, love, loyalty , justice, freedom, about the triumph of light feelings over dark forces. Triomsyn deserves to be immortalized in human memory not only in words, but also in all genres of art, in particular by creating a monument to the spiritual knight of the Dnieper region.
The name of Triomsyn Bogatyr inspires new generations of artists, book publishers, museum curators, literary critics, linguists, local historians, journalists, who since 2006 gather twice a year for the annual Feast of Ivan Manzhura in the village of Rubanivskyi: Autumn - on the first Sunday of November until the birth of I. Manzhura and Vesnyane - in May, as the poet's memory day. Anyone who loves life can come to the Holiday and walk along the paths that the author of the poetic lines of the collection "Steppe thoughts and songs" and the dreamy storyteller walked in love with Ukraine and the language of its people.