![melissa-askew-1fBUD5Dcmys-unsplash.jpg](https://images.hive.blog/DQmYwzQA7ToQtFkmJnVtCdeizhMhDNzn2dFugg6GNwXL8oN/melissa-askew-1fBUD5Dcmys-unsplash.jpg) ### _{Look at all that yellow and blue. Wait a minute … Europe and USSR’s breadbasket … Ah, *now* I see!} ###### _{Photo by [Melissa Askew](https://unsplash.com/@melissaaskew?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/1fBUD5Dcmys?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)} # Ukraine's national anthem begins with the words "Ukraine has not yet perished."^[1] *Yet*! YET! Now, you might be tempted to end the search right there and declare Ukraine the winner of the ironic "The World's Most Optimistic National Anthem" title. Except... There's a close—in more ways that one—contender to that title: the bordering country of Poland. Poland's national anthem begins like so: "Poland has not yet perished."^[2] That's not just a close contender, it's the closest _possible_ close contender: one word short of singing another country's national anthem. Digging into the archives—you history sleuth, you!—you discover that the Polish anthem predated, and inspired, the Ukrainian one.^[3] Because who can fail to be inspired by such level-headed language, right? Pride and Prejudice, meet Sober and Sensible: they’ll be writing the anthems from now on. In fact the lyrics were written between today and three days from now, 226 years ago, 65 years before the Ukrainian.^[4] Now, you _might_ be tempted to declare the issue settled right then and there, and hand the title over to Poland for reasons of seniority. Except... # ## And the (post's?) title goes to... # Ukraine, because being unironically optimistic in the face of an invasion by the world's largest country, whose declared intention is to end you as a nation, is a _way_ bigger achievement than being optimistic in times of peace. *Alexander Alexis* 16 Jul 2023 ##### References 1. ^{Serhii Plokhy, _The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History_, New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2023, _The Myth of Origins_.} 2. ^{Serhii Plokhy, _The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History_, New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2023, _The Ascent of a Nation_.} 3. ^{Serhii Plokhy, _The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine_. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2021, _The Books of the Genesis_.} ^{Serhii Plokhy, _The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History_, New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2023, _The Ascent of a Nation_.} 4. ^{Wikipedia contributors. _Poland Is Not Yet Lost_. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. June 26, 2023, 03:07 UTC. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Poland_Is_Not_Yet_Lost&oldid=1161957395. Accessed July 16, 2023.} ^{Wikipedia contributors. _National anthem of Ukraine_. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. July 15, 2023, 02:57 UTC. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_anthem_of_Ukraine&oldid=1165423591. Accessed July 16, 2023.}