Sharovarshchyna

In particular, red trousers, which historically Ukrainians did not wear, are shown as stereotypical folk costumes; shirts made of synthetic fabric, glossy satin skirts, plastic wreaths,[6] wooden beads; decorating clothes with stylized flowers in overly bright colors and uncharacteristic patterns.

[5] Regarding the primitive ethnography common in Naddniprianshchyna in the pre-revolutionary Russian Empire, Mykola Khvylovyi coined the term "prosvityanshchyna" (from prosvitnytstvo, which refers to enlightenment societies).

The ideas he expressed in his book "Zaporizhzhia in the Remains of Antiquity and Traditions of the People" (1888), published with the financial support of Ukrainian philanthropist and collector Vasyl Tarnovsky, became the basis for the romanticized image of the Cossack.

This was also facilitated by an erroneous translation of the book by the French engineer and military cartographer Guillaume Levasseur de Beauplan "Description d'Ukranie..." (1660), which mentions "sharovary", but narrow linen pants were specified in the original instead.

The most prominent examples of sharovarshchyna in the Soviet period are the film-performance "In the Steppes of Ukraine" (1952, directed by Yura Hnat), which describes the story of two collective farm chairmen, Halushka and Chasnyk, against the background of a fake, idyllic image of Ukrainian nature, where the main characters in pseudo-folk vyshyvankas convey not so much the character of the "advanced" people of the Soviet Union, but the "Little Russian" image of Ukrainians.

[7] The protagonists of the film-performance "Pharaohs" (1964) (directed by Isaak Shmaruk) wear the same pseudo-folk embroideries, which confirms the assertion of many researchers about the "provincialism" of the image of Ukrainian culture within the USSR.

With the development of commercial activity in independent Ukraine, sharovarshchyna has spread to advertising, ethnic restaurants, souvenirs, soap operas, etc., which in one way or another use "nationally colored" elements.

Although the legacy of Nikolai Gogol has cemented the connection of the Cossacks with mysticism and fantasy, the historical context of the emergence of the Ukrainian nation is important.

[6] A related phenomenon is "bayraktarshchyna" (from song "Bayraktar"), a similar one-sided comic coverage of the Russian-Ukrainian war in Ukrainian mass culture.

[20][21][22] Historian, political scientist, and public figure Mykola Tomenko wrote in 1996 that Ukrainians need their own government to raise their own national culture.

[4] Historian Daryna Mishchenko writes that sharovarshchyna appeared largely because of the desire of Ukrainians after Ukraine's independence to have a distinct popular image of their own culture.

[6] Music critic Katria Honcharuk describes the place of sharovarshchyna as follows: it "succeeds with its task 100 % – it serves as a simple means of distinguishing one's own from foreign for representatives of a particular ethnic group.

[8] Music producer Yurko Zeleny commented on the phenomenon of sharovarshchyna as a mutual replacement of different layers of culture: "the level of low cabaret was elevated to the rank of high art.