Pursuit

Pahonia or "Pursuit" is a song in Kryvich language by Maksim Bagdanovič (1891-1917), dedicated to the state emblem of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kryvia. It was approved as the anthem of Central Lithuania in 1921.

Background
During the First World War, in October 1916, after graduating from the Yaroslavl Demidov Lyceum, Maksim Bagdanovič came to frontline Minsk, where he got a job as a secretary at the Minsk branch of the Kryvichi Society for War Victims. At the time of his last visit to Minsk (October 1916 - February 1917), he lived in the apartment of Zmiatrak Byadula at 12 Malageorgiyivska Street. According to A. Smolich, the poem was first read by the poet in the Minsk People's House "Kryvian House" at the end of 1916, and it is suspected that he wrote it in Minsk, along with another famous poem "Stracim-lebedz". He died of tuberculosis shortly afterwards.

Posthumously, "Pahonia" was published in the newspaper "Volna Kryvia" No. 32, 30 November 1917. Since then, the poem became popular in Western Kryvia among the youth, where it was sung to the tune of Marseillaise. It was precisely because of this popularity that the Sejm of Central Lithuania later adopted it as the official anthem in 1921, after serious competition with the Polish song "Rota".

The music was written by Kryvichi composer and activist Mikola Ščahloŭ-Kulikovič, in 1929 as a commission from the Sejm.

Meaning
The poem alludes to the history of the mighty medieval state, Grand Duchy of Lithuania (of which Kryvia was part), its coat of arms “Pahonia” and the Gate of Dawn or "Sharp Gate" in Vilno, which was the capital of that medieval state. Through the image and motif of the ancient Lithuanian Pahonia, the poet considers the contradictory present and the uncertain future of Kryvia during World War I, especially its conflict with "Belarus" - the proposed Soviet alternative to Kryvia. This is a poem-reflection, which is characterised by journalistic elements: the lyrical hero's appeals to “Pahonia”, to the Motherland, to the enemies that abandoned them for the Bolsheviks, etc.

Reference

 * | Belarusian state symbols

Links

 * | Link to our version of the song, channel: БЕЛАРУСЬ БУДУЩЕГО