SZEWCZENKO, SŁOWACKI CZY…?

Abstract

There is a widespread hypothesis that the author of the popular Polish-Ukrainian song "Hey, Sokoły!" is Tomas Padura, a graduate of Kremenets Lyceum, a well-known educational institution in the history of Poland and Ukraine. Institutions of this type were created in the Russian Empire (Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, Nezhinsky Lyceum, Richelieu Lyceum) for training civil servants in various fields and regions. In Ukrainian Kremenets ethnic Pole Tomash Padura was inspired by the ideas of Ukraine’s romantic past and became the author of a large number of literary poetic works telling about the victories and defeats of the Ukrainian Cossacks. The most famous creation of this kind was the song “Hey, Sokoły!” However, despite the fact that almost all the popularizers of this song considered Padura to be the author, there is not a single factual evidence of his authorship to this day.