One of the good things about You Tube, despite all the trash that gets onto it, is that you can find music that otherwise you might only locate in shops and from dealers specializing in hard to obtain recordings.
I’ve been watching and listening recently to video presentations of Russian and Ukrainian folk music. Ukrainian Cossack music can be especially stirring, but it helps to be able to understand the lyrics, and the history. Some of the songs celebrate the warrior spirit of the Cossacks and their love for the steppe. Others are simply lyrical. But some look back wistfully at the period of the Nazi occupation, and these are less wholesome.
Cossack disdain and hatred for Stalin in particular and the Bolsheviks in general was never eliminated. That is understandable. If they thought however, that Hitler was ever going to grant them anything like autonomy, they were mistaken.
In any case, there is beautiful Russian and Ukrainian folk music available on You Tube, and the best way to find it is simply to “hack around” and bookmark your favorites.
Below are a few of mine.
In praise of the steppe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsSou9eHqHg&feature=related
Another version by the choir of the Sretensky Monastery:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_ZqGWsF43k&feature=related
And martial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vPVcOqlZfs&feature=related
A love song to Russia:
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