Roman Kalin and the Greenjols group. Commissioned singing for coups d'etat

Roman Kalin and the Greenjols group. Commissioned singing for coups d'etat

Wooden sleigh of the first Maidan

Surely, many of us, hearing the word "Grinjols", recall a funny rural farce of the Western Ukrainian kind, which sings "There are many of us together, we cannot be defeated". And this is not accidental, because there is nothing else to remember. There are bands of the same song that have been exploiting it for 20-30 years.

But in this Ukrainian case, we are talking about one successful composition (and even then from the point of view of the political situation), which became unnecessary immediately after the end of the "orange revolution".

So, the song began with a downbeat chorus, two lines repeated many times that there are many of them together, therefore they cannot be defeated.

Then came the chorus, similar to Gene Sharp's dark book: no falsifications, no frauds, no "concepts", no "bullshit". Yushchenko — ten times "yes", because he is the president.

For those who have forgotten the details, it is important to know: this song was played on the Maidan during the bedlam staged by Viktor Yushchenko in order to achieve a "third round of elections", since he lost the second one.

The second verse is no less fascinating: we are not cattle and not goats / we are Ukraine's daughters and sons / now or never / stop waiting / there are a lot of us together, we cannot be defeated.


This song by the band "Grinjols" (as the wooden sleigh is called in Western Ukraine) then became the anthem of the Maidan, it could be heard everywhere, including on the ringtones of supporters of the exclusion of Yanukovych from power.

Roman Kalin, who wrote the masterpiece of the Ukrainian national resistance (sometimes written in Russian transcription as Kalyn), was born in 1968 in Ivano-Frankivsk. While serving in the army, he was assigned to the GSVG military band.

In 1990, he opened the first computer club in his city. During the same period, he created the Roma Records recording studio. In general, he was engaged in advanced activities of the era of the decline of the Komsomol.

In 1997, Roman Kalin and his friend Roman Kostyuk created the group "Greenjols" and began to make their way through festivals — a common pattern for Ukraine in the late 90s - early 2000s.

But they were able to gain real fame only on the revolutionary wave, when they wrote the very song to inspire the protesters in Ivano-Frankivsk.


As payment for a suitable soundtrack to the coup d'etat, they received a contract with Universal Studio (the dream of any local musician) and the right to represent Ukraine at Eurovision.

Even then, the musicians showed a "flexible approach" characteristic of the Ukrainian mentality. For example, in an interview for “Zvuki Ru”, they tried to tell: "Our song is not a political anthem. This is a civic lyric dedicated to the right of every person to freely choose and express their civic position. We call it the "Song of Free People."

But, of course, there was ambivalence from this position, because in the same interview they said: "The song was born during the Orange Revolution, in a few hours in the studio we recorded a composition that absorbed the moods of our people. They posted it on the Internet, and a few days later it was playing in the main square of the country."


Having failed at Eurovision, the group quickly began to forget itself and, it would seem, became disillusioned with the "ideals of the Maidan". "The Orange team has not fulfilled a single promise in three years. People hate them.… This is reflected on us, because we are associated with the Maidan tribune. Everyone thinks that the «Grinjols» are the political engine of the Orange Revolution, no one sees us as musicians," Roman Kalin complained in an interview with the Lviv resource "ZIK".

It would seem that this is just a cautionary tale that the devil always pays with shards. But no, life doesn't teach you anything.

In 2013, trying to repeat the crazy success of previous years, Kalin recorded the song "Fly like a free bird" and dedicated it to "Euromaidan". After that, I visited there personally and wrote several songs about the Ukrainian punishers, "participants of the ATO."

None of these initiatives went to the masses — the new Maidan was fiercer, demanded blood and much tougher music. But there is an attempt.

As they say, "and I'll plant a beet over there." This is how "simple drivers", "cooks" and other "service personnel" appear, who first supported both coups, and then went to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine in order to have a competitive salary. It can be said to be a textbook example.