The Communist era had quite a strong effect on the Ukrainian culture. In conjunction with the Socialist Classical style of architecture, Socialist realism was the officially approved type of art in the Soviet Union for nearly sixty years. Communist doctrine decreed that all material goods and means of production belonged to the community as a whole. This included means of producing art, which were also seen as powerful propaganda tools. Socialist realism became state policy in 1932 when Soviet leader Joseph Stalin promulgated the decree "On the Reconstruction of Literary and Art Organizations". All existing literary and artistic groups and organizations had to be disbanded and replaced with unified associations of creative professions. This greatly stifled creativity and hindered the freedom of Soviet artists. Socialist Realism demanded that all art must depict some aspect of man's struggle toward socialist progress for a better life. It stressed the need for the creative artist to serve the proletariat by being realistic, optimistic and heroic. The doctrine considered all forms of experimentalism as degenerate and pessimistic. Many artists and authors found their works censored, ignored, or rejected.

Only after the death of Stalin in 1953, and Nikita Khrushchev's Thaw, artists began to feel free to experiment in their work, with considerably less fear of repercussions than during the Stalinist period. By the 1980s, Gorbachev's policies of Perestroika and Glasnost made it virtually impossible for the authorities to place restrictions on artists or their freedom of expression. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, artists no longer had to be employed by the state, and could create work according to their own tastes, as well as the tastes of their private patrons.

Traditional Ukrainian weddings take place in churches (in Ukrainian - Vinchannya). The bride is in white and the groom is in black. In the Ukrainian villages wedding celebrations are known to continue for days or even during the whole week. Wedding parties are accompanied by lively music and dancing, playing games, lots of drinking and eating. Some particular Ukrainian wedding customs include:

• Before the wedding, the groom goes with his friends (Svaty) to the bride's house and bargains with "money' to get a bride from her family. In Ukrainian it's called "Svatannya".
  
  
• In the bride's house Svatý should not sit down, drink or eat (if they sit down - children of the couple will start walking late, if they drink - children will be alcoholics, if they eat - children will suffer from gluttony).
  
  
• When leaving the church, the bride and relatives carry baskets of candies, sweets and coins to throw to children and guests.
  
  
• The groom carries the bride down any stairs.
  
  
• During the wedding party the bride throws her wedding bouquet (she has to be with her back to the girls lined up to catch it) and the girl who catches it first will likely be the next one to marry.
  
  
• You can not have your wedding on Wednesdays, or Fridays, as these are fasting days, nor in May, because you'll not be happy all your life!
  
  
• Rushnyk (embroidered towel) at the wedding is a symbol of unity and happiness of inseparable marriage. The bride had to embroider this towel during long lonely evenings before her marriage.
  
  
• By tradition, parents of newlywed meet them with a loaf of bread (called korovai) on rushnyk (a towel). The bride and the groom must bite off a piece of this bread without touching it with hands. It is believed that the one who's bitten off the bigger piece, will be the head of the family.
  
  
• During the wedding parties guests shout "Hirko!" (bitter). That means the couple should kiss each other. This custom has a long history. Previously the bride had to come to each guest with the tray and the guest had to put money on it, then had to take a glass, drink out of it and say: "Bitter!", confirming that the drink was vodka, not water. Then he kissed the bride. Those who just drank, saying "bitter" but not giving the money, didn't have the right to kiss and have been just watching others' kissing. Gradually, this custom has changed, so the guests are shouting "hirko" - "bitter" asking the newlyweds to kiss.
  
  

Many of its ethnic groups living within Ukraine have their own unique musical traditions. The most striking general characteristic of authentic ethnic Ukrainian folk music is the wide use of minor modes. Ritual songs of Ukraine are frequently in recitative style, essentially monodic. For example, Shchedrivka "Shchedryk" known in the West as "Carol of the Bells". The bulk of Ukrainian folk songs melodies are based on scales identical to mеdieval modes, but differ in melodic structure.

Ukrainian vocal music exhibits a wide variety of forms – monodic, heterophonic, homophonic, harmonic and polyphonic. Ukrainian folk song singing style can be divided into a number of broad aesthetic categories:

• Solo singing - primarily ritual songs including holosinnya (sung at wakes).
• Solo singing with instrumental accompaniment of the bandura, kobza, or lira by professional singers known as kobzari, or lirnyky. The highest form of development of this style of singing can be seen in the lyric historical folk epics known as dumy.
• Archaic type of modal "a cappella" vocal style in which a phrase sung by a soloist is answered by a choral phrase in two, or three, voice harmony.

Traditional Ukrainian instruments are:

kobza (lute), bandura, violin, basolya (3-string cello), lira (hurdy-gurdy), tsymbaly, sopilka (duct flute), trembita (alpenhorn), fife, volynka (bagpipes), buben (frame drum), tulumbas (kettledrum), resheto (tambourine) and drymba / varhan (Jaw harp).

Troyisti muzyky are traditional instrumental ensembles of Ukraine. Literally it means "three musicians" who typically make up the ensemble, for example, violin, sopilka and buben.