Russian Revolutionary Song

Author(s): Lev Nikolaevich Lebedinsky

Source: Notes, Second Series, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Dec., 1946), pp. 20-35
Published by: Music Library Association
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 RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONARY SONG
By LEV NIKOLAEVICH LEBEDINSKY
Translatedand edited by William Lichtenwanger
"The LiberationMovement in Russia," wrote Lenin,2 "passed through
three principal stages, correspondingto the three chief classes of Russian
society which left their imprint on the Movement: (1) the Aristocratic
Period, roughly from 1825 to 1861; (2) the Middle-class, or Bourgeois-
Democratic,Period, extending approximatelyfrom 1861 to 1895; (3) the
ProletarianPeriod, from 1895 to the present."
The three chief classes of Russian society "left their imprint" on the
Movement, and also, as a natural consequence,upon that body of revolu-
tionarysong which is so intimatelybound up with the Movement.
(1) THE ARISTOCRATIC PERIOD
One link between the singing of the Decembrists3 and that of the
present time is The Marseillaise, which is known definitely to have been
sung by those early revolutionaries. It should be borne in mind that, from
the Decembrists on, The Marseillaise never ceased to ring out from the
ranks of the Liberation Movement in Russia, and that, as we shall demon-
strate later on, it thus exerted tremendous influence upon revolutionary
song. Since the close of the nineteenth century, the tune of The Marseillaise,
albeit considerably revamped, has served for a variety of Russian texts, the
so-called "workers' Marseillaises."
4 and
Apart from this, it is also known that the Decembrists-Ryleev
5
Bestuzhev in particular-composed, for purposes of agitation, a number
of poems "in the folk style," i.e., a style approaching that of the peasant
songs. There is some evidence to show that these poems were sung to the
music of popular peasant cantilenas. In this practice one cannot fail to
perceive a trend, though a trend which was still quite unconscious and un-
productive of any great practical results with relation to a widespread,
popular movement. From that time, also, dates the tradition of turning to
1 Under the title Staraya revolyutsionaya pesnya (Old revolutionary song), the following
article originally appeared in the May 1941 issue of Sovetskaya muzyka-the last regular issue
of that journal received at the Library of Congress. Of many articles on a wide variety of
subjects, this particular one was chosen for reproduction in NOTESfor three reasons. First
of all, it deals with a branch of song literature little known in America and poorly represented
in American libraries. Secondly, it is of interest from an esthetic standpoint because, while it
preaches the familiar concept of music as an implement of politico-social activity, rather than
as a mere art, it nevertheless makes unusually plain the fact that music acquires its utilitarian
virtues through extra-musical associations, not through any capacity inherent in music. Finally,
the article is interesting as a sample of Soviet writing about music of a kind rarely met with
by non-Russian-reading Americans: an old-line Soviet writer discusses a peculiarly Soviet sub-
ject in a uniquely Soviet manner. (TRANSLATOR'S NOTE)
2 Lenin, Sobranie sochinenii (Collected works), Vol. XVII, p.341.
3 The name later given the palace revolutionaries who, upon the death of Tsar Alexander I
on December 1 (old style), 1825, attempted forcibly to oppose the accession of his son, Nicholas,
to the throne. The uprising failed and Nicholas became Nicholas I; five of the revolutionaries
were hanged and others were banished to Siberia. (T.N.)
4 Kondraty Feodorovich Ryleev (1795-1826), revolutionary poet, hanged as a ringleader of
the Decembrist uprising. (T. N.)
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Bestuzhev (1797-1837), who wrote under the pseudonym of
"Marlinsky." (T. N.)
20

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the tunes of town and countrysidefor the songs of the Russian Liberation
Movement.
Between the post-Decembrist, Aristocratic Period of the Liberation
Movement and our own epoch there developed a whole literatureof song
which has enjoyed a tremendouspopularitythroughoutthe course of a cen-
tury. The popularityof these songs in the post-DecembristPeriod was due
primarily to the well-defined pattern of their poetic concepts. Consider,
for example, that highly popular song, Unheardare the sounds of the city
(Ne slyshno shumu gorodskogo) by F. Glinka.6 The central idea of the
song concernsa captivewho dreamsof freedomwhile languishingin prison;
in sharp contrast,the two final strophesmake it understoodthat all hope of
imperial mercy is in vain, that the Tsar is heartless, deaf to all entreaties.
Noteworthy, also, is the opening quatrain of the song, which paints a
brief but vivid picture of Nikolaian Petersburg,the city-fortress,the city-
prison. No doubt a great many such song-paintingswere inspired by the
Decembristspirit in wide circles of Russiansociety; this particularsong ap-
peared at a moment which predestinedthat it should become folklore and
should live on the lips of men even until our day.
Certainly there was nothing accidental about the enormous popularity
of Merzlyakov'sWithin the smooth valley (Sredi doliny rovnye-1811)7 -a
popularitywhich has endured until the present time. The essential idea of
the song is one of loneliness, of sorrowing for a friend, of awarenessof
one's own futility. Along with this, the lonely, tortured human being,
bursting with vigor and vitality, longs for action. Within the smooth
valley came to be associatedin the broad democraticcircles of that era with
more generalized social concepts and ideas, conceptswholly independentof
those with which the poet himself endowedhis creation.
Far more complex than is generally supposed is the process by which
Lermontov's8 poem, On blue ocean waves (Po sinim volnam okeana),
achievedits great popularityand its status as folklore. One must not forget
that the avant-gardeof that period was keenly awareof the ideologicalbond
uniting the DecembristMovementwith the FrenchRevolution. The whole
of Lermontov'spoem is permeatedwith adorationfor la belle France,with a
sense of deference toward the great French general9 and with compassion
for his tragic destiny. By virtue of that Liberal-Oppositionconcept of la
belle Franceand of Napoleon (who was in a sense antitheticalto Alexander
and Nikolai) the song won its way into the circle of best-lovedpoems of the
post-Decembristera.
A similar factor quite obviously was at least partly responsiblefor the
6 Fedor Nikolaevich Glinka (1786-1880). (T. N.)
7 Aleksei Fedorovich Merzlyakov (1778-1830). Both text and music of this and other of the
songs subsequently referred to in this article will be found in 50 Russian Folk Songs for Voice
and Pianoforte, edited by E. L. Swerkoff and published by Wilhelm Zimmermann of Leipzig
in 1937. The reader should be warned, however, that the "English versions" furnished in that
edition are but loosely related to the original texts. (T. N.)
8 Mikhail Yurevich Lermontov (1814-1841). (T. N.)
9 Napoleon remained a symbol of liberalism, so far as the Liberal-Opposition element in
Russia was concerned, in spite of the imperialism of his later career. (T.N.)
21

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tremendouspopularityenjoyed by Ryleev's poem, Ermak. Though cast in
stern, heroic tones, intrinsicallythe poem contains nothing at all suggestive
of political opposition to the autocraticconcept. Yet the very nature of the
song made it possible to find in it revolutionaryleanings, especially after
the Decembristuprising and the heroic death of Ryleev. Even its opening
lines came to be associatedwith the gathering thundercloudsof revolt and
revolution:
The tempesthowled, the rain poured down,
Fierce lightning pierced the night;
Without surceasethe thundercrashed
And gale with gale did fight.

A similar interpretation,symbolicof the fate which overtookthe Decem-

brists, was accordedthe following stanza:
"O drink,friends, drink!"-the hero cried-
"To the thunder'sawesomeboom.
At daybreakit will call me forth
To glory or to doom."

To be sure, succeeding generations accepted Ermak unmindful of its

associationswith the political convictions and fate of its author. Yet the
romantically austere and-for those days-heroic character of the song
paved the way for its popularityin democraticcircles,particularlyamong the
revolutionaries. It is not surprisingthat the song again reacheda peak of
popularity during the Revolution of 1905 (with the revolutionarytext,
"Fire, soldier, at him who commands") and also in the early days of the
Civil War, among the men of the Red Army (with the original text). Once
again, in our time, following the motion picture Chapaev,the song has won
new fame.
Of course, so far as the "folklorization"of these songs is concerned
great significancelies in the fact that all of them were romanticin nature
and that this romanticismdeveloped in answer to the demands of the era.
But it also should be realizedthat after retributionhad fallen on the Decem-
brists, in the period of rampantNikolaian reaction,the poetic concepts of
many songs underwent a re-interpretation;they became vehicles for the
expressionof sympathytowardthe DecembristMovementon the part of the
progressivearistocracyand the growing bourgeois intelligentsia.
The musical incarnationsassumedby these poetic concepts were for the
most part urban10 romanticsongs of the day which harmonizedwell with
the romanticcharacterof the poems. The most strikingexample of this type
of melody is Within the smooth valley. This song has remainedin the liv-
ing repertoireuntil moderntimes, and has fathereda whole family of revolu-
10To fully understand the author's use of the term "urban" it must be remembered that in
the Russia of that day a wide gap separated the indigenous peasant culture of the countryside
from the aristocratic culture of the large towns, with their veneer of Western European
sophistication. (T. N.)
22

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tionarysongs-a fact which impels us to pause a moment and considercare-
fully its musical aspect.
As B. V. Asafyev1 has already pointed out, it was customaryin the
musical circles of that time to group together on a single program many
highly diverse musical elements. The favored place on these programswas
given to tunes from GermanSingspiele and to harmoniousbits of Ukrainian
song, the latter strangelyalteredin eighteenthcenturydrawing rooms by the
imposition of Western Europeanharmonies and Western Europeandance
rhythms. In particular,these songs were characterizedby waltz-rhythms,
tonic-dominantharmonies,melodies with transparentharmonicschemes,and
modulationsinto the parallel major and back into the minor by means of
simple chromaticalteration.
In tracing the influence of the romantic song upon urban song, it is
interestingto consider the famous Russian songs (dating from the close of
the eighteenth century) of the composer Kozlovsky.12 A White Russian
emigrantwith thirtyyearsin Poland before coming (c. 1786) to Russia,long
in the serviceof Potemkin18 (who was renownedas an admirerof Ukrainian
song), Kozlovsky was a composerin whose works merged, as it were, the
variousmusical currentsthen flowing into Russiancities. The authorof an
interesting account14 of Kozlovsky is quite correct when he relates Koz-
lovsky's creative style to the tendency then prevalent in Russian society to
imitate Western European "modernism"and Western music, adapting the
latter to the peculiaritiesof Russianmusical life and to the forms of music-
making found in eighteenth centuryRussiancities. This fact is clearly ap-
parentupon comparisonof the opening phrasesof one of Kozlovsky'ssongs
(which was highly popular for more than three decades in the early nine-
teenth century) with the equally popular Within the smooth valley:

..CpeAw OSA/MnhI^tofA iW ;ti;n WteaSooth VaUl.(

ISor
tSlI f= -i=-
tloslovsk~'s song
_
g irXrc P J^'t7.
This comparisonserves both to demonstratethat a romanticsong from
the pages of a collection intended for a relativelysmall coterie of musicians
found its way into the widest of democraticcircles, and also-if necessary-

1 Igor Glebov (pseudonym of B. V. Asafyev), Russkaya Muzyka (Russian music), Moscow

and Leningrad, Academia, 1930, p.59, 107. (T. N.)
12losif Antonovich Kozlovsky (1757-1831) composed songs to French and Italian as well as
to Russian texts, and wrote much music for the Church and theater. (T.N.)
Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin (1739-1791), a favorite general and courtier
?
of Catherine II, for a time governor-general of the Ukraine. (T. N.)
14Muzyka i muzykal,yi byt staroi Rossii (Music and musical life in old Russia), Academia,
Leningrad, 1927, p.171.
23

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to show that the practiceof adaptingWestern and Ukrainianmusic for per-
formance was followed in the folk art of great democraticgroups at the
same time and to the same extent that it was followed in Russian profes-
sional musical circles.
In time, the singing of urban romanticsong-tunes in conjunctionwith
the specific post-Decembristtextual motifs mentioned above establishedthe
significanceof these tunes as formalized musical symbols-symbols for an
entire ideological complex, embodying concepts of Bondage, Oppression,
Exile, and, ultimately,Perishing in Bondage, Perishing in Exile. It is be-
cause of the significancethus acquired that these melodies have endured
until our own times, accompaniedboth by their original words and also by
a whole series of more modern texts which complement the meaning ac-
quired by the music. Occasionallythese tunes have undergone substantial
modifications.

(2) THE BOURGEOIS-DEMOCRATIC

PERIOD
In the ensuing "middle-class"or Bourgeois-DemocraticPeriod of the
LiberationMovementtwo developmentsoccur: the conceptsof Bondage and
Perishing in Bondage, on the one hand, permeatethe political atmosphere
and take on more concrete form (surprisingly concrete, for those days);
that same concept of Bondage, on the other hand, at last begins to find its
converse in the more positive concepts of Liberty and Freedom. In spite
of this, however, the concept of Liberty (like the concept of Bondage in the
preceding post-Decembristperiod) still does not possess a clearly defined
political meaning; it has, rather,the characterof an abstractidea. This idea
of Freedomis embodiedmost often in symbolicconceptsof Nature: a broad
and spacious river (usually the Volga), open fields, the free, unfettered
wind, mighty crags of untold age, etc. Yet in general it must be admitted
that an underlying atmosphereof longing and solitude colors most of the
songs of that era with an overpoweringemotional hue.
"The impotencyof the Movement" (in the words of Lenin) was due to
the wide gulf which separatedthe revolutionariesfrom the masses and from
the sombrereality which encompassedthem, from the prisons and the exile
and the gallows-from all the things which invested the songs of that epoch
with overtonesof tragedyand sacrifice. It was during this period that most
of the songs of revolution, of death, of prison and servitude came into
being, songs laden with the pathos of self-sacrificeand "love of homeland,
15
yearning, Sehnsucht . . "
Quite characteristicin this respect are such songs as The execution
(Kazn), Dark night (Noch temna), and the subsequentcycle of songs based
on the tune of Within the smooth valley. In The execution primaryem-
phasis is placed on the sacrificesof the revolutionariesthrough the an-
1 Lenin's designation for the "love of homeland" which characterized the revolutionary
democrats of that era (Lenin, Sobranie sochinenii, Vol. XVIII, p.81). Apropos of that period,
Lenin wrote of "the impotence of the Movement, notwithstanding the heroism of individuals,"
and of "sublime heroism." (Ibid., Vol. XVI, p. 575-576.)
24

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tithesis of ideas: on the one hand are bugle, scaffold,coffin,priest, block, the
executioner, the stroke of the axe; in sharp contrastwith all this are the
open fields, the broad steppes,the youthfulnessand pride of the condemned.
The music imparts to these images the most vivid emotional hues and
quickens them with the warm breath of life, transforming the simple
eighteen-measuresong into a masterpieceof revolutionaryfolk art:
(Coio) ..Soo C'Corus , (Xop

@''XCT J IJ ItJJJI
J J IJj 1 W lr.
rp,emA py.-g6W no. a. IH./I.#-,ero/ .napi a no."e f renmHpo. ot -1
AS^v rssic, a
i4. w \ya V*-;
tt t%t f*6\b so wi;, <m-1 w o o4

The two initial phrases-peculiarly chant-like-produce a restless, harmoni-

cally unresolved effect, inspiring an anxious anticipationof the resolution.
Then the song flows on, calmly, serenely, expansively,tenderly and melodi-
ously, full of feeling and of life. The melody, though plaintive and not
without its tears, is neverthelessclear and serene; it is a melody bound up
with concepts of Nature and the People. As a whole, the song wears a
deeply tragic air, concentratingin esthetic form that sense of pathos in self-
sacrificewhich was characteristicof the better element among the Narod-
ovoltsev.1T
This method, typified in The execution, of creating esthetic contrastby
following an agitated series of triplets on one note with a broadly and
freely melodic phrase, is utilized in a whole series of songs which sprang
up during that period, including On the dusty road (Po pylnoi doroge),
O treacherousact! (Kak delo izmeny), and The Captive (Uznik). These
featurescharacterize,moreover,not only songs of the second period of the
Movement, but those of the third period as well, culminating at the time
of the Civil War in the song Bolder, comrades (Smelee, tovarishchi)-not
to be confused with Boldly, comrades(Smelo, tovarishchi) [see next page].
By a comparisonof these songs one can readilysee how Within the smooth
valley underwenta temperingprocesswhich enabled it to endure for a cen-
tury and to serve as the basis for a whole family of songs of great popu-
larity. The same comparisonalso makes perfectlyclear the processby which
the 6/8 metre of the melody (actuallytwo groups of three) was converted
into ordinary duple metre, suitable for marching and processions. This
alterationfirst occurredin the song No drum went before (Ne bil baraban),
based on a poem by I. I. Kozlov 18which the authorhimself entitled On the
burial of a chieftain (Na pogrebenievozhdya)-the story of Wolfe, trans-
lated from the English 19by Kurochkin. But the tendencytoward transfor-
mation of the song into a march,towardgiving it an instrumentalcharacter,
was carriedtoo far; it did not prove capableof a prolonged existence. Yet
16 The illustration is reproduced exactly and in its entirety. (T. N.)
17"Members of the Party of the People's Will." (T. N.)
18Ivan Ivanovich Kozlov (1779-1840). (T. N.)
19Perhaps Tom Paine's famous The death of General Wolfe, first printed in The Pennsyl-
vania Magazine for March 1775. (T. N.)
25

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 there is one song common to the whole revolutionarymovement which
obviously had its origin in this tendency toward instrumentalizationand
which has continuedto hold its place as a funeral marchingsong: Crushed

W At sMooth Va\te (W Atte I AI

66-A^l.^ AF-ulrwe 1830)

!i ' i., ,
I t
On b,lu oe^a, waves (T<K 84o0-tu\.sh,d 179)

rn wIcCt btfor(TtxT 1U- 1t.lshd t ' i

NoHid
')
p-lw;- J _w tM Vp 2

| !i " ". < v " y.

.n.4IIt1rY,
: . -

FnU"r;l "Yo, fell vict;im = i ll4S X$ F3

Cruh b stvy'stv
\oaA *84))
bods (T,t *

Low'owrbach ere lowQi 0896 -kAUrinoslav incc<nt) ' . '.

- ii
0
f! WW
ji^
|jITO O! 4! ij .J

0w tS AustA toa l8t4)

(Ttext IS70fr^n'

I
i:' *,T .
it i i

0 hI r '* e
g

f I '
I
^ ; :^r i ' .r :

f e ,.s.9 en.
p .. o . ry.prf , . w ''p
wt ai. or , SJpVAn
S,Jcay : . . pe -t.t .

by slavery'sbonds (Zamuchentyazheloi nevolei). Here, however, there is

a returnto the vocal melodic line: it is broad and folkish, with nicely dis-
tributed upper voices and bass as well as a resounding chorus. Low our
26

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backs were bowed (Nizko my spinu sgibali)-a song about the Ekaterino-
slav 20 incident of 1898-shows once more a tendencytoward tersenessand
toward transitionsof greater rhythmicvitality.
It is interestingthat the developmentof all these song-familiesfollowed
a single course. Many of them share not only the same melodic outline
(thus betrayingtheir common derivationfrom Within the smooth valley),
but also commonrefrains,which themselvesshow some similarityto the chief
melody of the song (cf. On the dusty road and Low sinks the sun upon the
steppe-Spuskaetsya solntse za stepi). Most important,it should be noted
that the song No drum went before, which is thought of as an old armysong
save for its musical kinship with Within the smooth valley (and thereby
with folk song in general), has much in common with all post-Decembrist
romantic poetry and especially with Ryleev's Ermak and Lermontov'sOn
blue ocean waves.
In such manner, then, did the historical development of revolutionary
song proceed, pursuing a gradual transformationfrom the lyrical romance
to the universallypopularmarch with its adaptabilityto the needs of social
organization. From a phenomenonconfined to the realm of emotion, song
became, in addition, a vital factor in the social and political life of the
masses. It might be pointed out that this metamorphosis-that is, the altera-
tion of tunes for political purposes, their adaptationto march style-natu-
rally took place in intellectual circles familiar with the classical music to
which they had becomethoroughlyconditioned. Thereforeit is not difficult
to detect instancesof outright borrowing,as for instance, from Beethoven;
the new musical material added to the melody of No drum went before,
which is based upon the tune You fell victim (Vy zhertvoyupali), is identi-
cal with one of the themes of Beethoven'sFourth Piano Concerto.21
Returningonce more to the songs of the Middle-ClassPeriod, it must be
pointed out that the musical idealizationsof Freedom,Liberty,Breadth,and
Spaciousnesswere regardedin that era as the embodimentof ideologicalcon-
cepts common to the far-flung,powerful people's movement, which, in ac-
cordancewith the ideology of the epoch, took the form of a peasantmove-
ment. Hence the predominancein song texts of peasantmotifs and the com-
mon appeal of those texts to the peasantmind. Hence, also, the elevation
of certain poetry-that of Nekrasov in particular,and also that of Koltsov
and Nikitin 22-to the level of folklore.
In addition,the conceptof Freedomto some extent evolved throughutter-
ance of one of the favoriteslogans of the revolutionarydemocratsduring the
'fifties and 'sixties. The word "freedom" (volya) itself was closely bound
up with that slogan. Here we meet with a new cycle of songs of the period,
20In May 1898 an uprising of workers at the Bryansk factory in Ekaterinoslav (now
Dnepropetrovsk) was ruthlessly quelled by the forces of the Tsar. (T. N.)
21It might be noted that Bezymensky's The young guards ("Forward, into the dawn!") also
is based upon a Beethoven theme, in this instance one from the Rondo of the First Piano
Concerto (a theme which itself originated in a folk melody).
22Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov (1821-1877); Aleksei Vasilevich Koltsov (1809-1842); Ivan
Savvich Nikitin (1824-1861). (T. N.)
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songs in which-through one device or another-"the Volga" was sure to
find a place (hence, "the Volga Cycle"). To "the Volga" there had long
since become attached a well-defined series of popular poetic associations:
Volga-Volya ("freedom") and, later, Volga-Heartland of the Peasant-
Bourgeois Movement, Citadel of Peasant Freedom. With the advent to
popularity of Down Mother Volga (Vniz po matushke po volge) this cycle
entered a new phase in its development, a phase centering around that song's
outstanding musical characteristic: a wide, impassioned upsweep of the
melody to the sixth above.23

Grutovskg- 1778

# mn -e ;' Irrno
L icj ,r I;j
w. ..* P.yp..
AO
Dnti no Ia.r9w. re, no n* .A . PC,"re.no * Pas . A b
' - o.- .
Downtht Vol- a, Mo-ltw Vol - ea,:Pow,1%e w4 of fret - - Iom broA

Prach - 1790
g n nn\nr Ir 1ir Li I rl ip _j
1
BHij no a.ryw. Bon. O0.
e, no 0WM e, no . o.n
,o- pa . .n - -
ro.

Kasli. - 1833
@t J tDrr u'lr ir,
if4I9 .
1rQ1r
t. .fre,_
iLX I1
r eJJrf 10no ... _ -
,nI n'o ,H.ty/l. Bon .,".p9.O. ,y ps"OA _'--

VUiloa-1860.

'^rI Irrr
irTrJ
I
ii
r ri 1v
rir
rirfr- rr i
.3~ no 0a . ryw. me- no Boln _ * . r . no W nU0.po. no. y-pajAon . . . o.
Down w Vol - ga, to-tlwr Vol --a,b lownt W of frt-4oW broaJ

This musical device symbolized, as it were, the concepts of Vastness,

Liberty, Freedom, and Might. The effect was likewise heightened by the
fact that in this song the chorus of voices sounded with unusual power,
brilliance, warmth, and intensity. Here we have, in the first place, not
merely a common melodic device of well-established expressiveness but an
abrupt shift from the fifth to the tonic (moving upward a fourth)24 and a
uniquely choral feature, a descant at the third above (the whole producing
an intensified sensation of the 6-4 chord); in the second place, the two
choral voices are suddenly thrust upward into the register above, where they
sound with increased emphasis, power, and intensity.
This "six-four" effect runs through well-nigh all the songs of the Volga
cycle and through many other songs of the period as well, songs giving
voice to the peasant ideology or otherwise appealing to the peasant mind.
Especially fine examples are to be seen in Cliffs rise from the Volga (Est na

23 It is common knowledge that before reaching its present form the tune of Down Mother
Volga underwent a considerable transformation-a fact clearly demonstrated in the comparative
study of Z. V. Evald (see Pesni pinezhya, Vol. II, p.535).
24 The
identity of this shift is not at all clear in the illustration provided. (T. N.)

28

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Volge utes), From behind the island (Iz-za ostrova), Alas, my lot, unhappy
lot! (Ekh ty dolya, moya dolya), and others. Even in the more recent song,
The sun rises and sets (Solntse vskhodit i zakhodit), this device is met with
at the entranceof the chorus-obviously suggested by the related concepts
of Bondage and Freedomimplicit in the text of the song.
Melodic leaps to the sixth are found in a great many revolutionarysongs
of that period. Frequently,however, they lose their original characteristic,
the wide leap (correspondinglylosing their original harmonic function),
and merely suggest in a superficialway the "six-four" style of the true
choral-typesong. Here may often be seen the influence of the romance-
melodrama,clearly evident in such songs as Freedom came too late (Ne
dozhdatsya,vidno, svobody), Sorrowful,brother,is our lot (Tyazhko,bratsy,
nam zhivetsya), and In full swing goes the harvest (V polnom razgarestrada
derebenskaya).
Among the songs of that era, an important role also was played by
student songs, the number of which increasedmany fold during the years
from 1860 to 1880. Musically,these student songs were highly diverse in
nature. Often their settings were snatches of the operatic and symphonic
music then popular in the cities, these fragments eventually assuming the
guise of folk tunes (e.g., Tell me of such a haven-Nazovi mne takuyu
obitel-which was sung to the melody of an aria in LucreziaBorgia25). An-
other source was the drinking songs which originated among the liberal-
minded aristocracybut were transformedinto folk songs by the middle-class
studentry. A good example of this type is From a far distant country (Iz
strany,stranydalekoi), the text of which underwentminute-though funda-
mental-alterations in the course of its metamorphosisinto folklore.
So far as the melody of this song is concerned,it must be noted that
its prototypewas one of the drinking songs of Alyabyev.28 True, that song
is not to be found in the complete edition of Alyabyev'ssongs published in
1898 by P. Jurgenson. But in the journalGalateafor 1839, under the head-
ing "New Books," appearsa statementthat "there will soon be placed on
sale the recentlyprintedcollectionof drinkingsongs set to the music of A. A.
Alyabyev;" in addition to seven other songs listed in the report, there is
mention of From a far distant country,with words by Yazykov.27
This song of Alyabyev'sis an offshoot of Germandrinking and hunting
choruses. It is also possible to find in it the influence of Weber, whose
Der Freischiitzwas then extremelypopular. Its vocal style somehow com-
plementedthe spirit of harmony,the feeling of collectivismand camaraderie,
which prevailed in student circles. Hence the demand in those circles for
drinking songs in general (not to mention the demand created by a mode
of living famous for its "drinkingbouts") and for Alyabyev'ssong in par-
6 The coupling of that melody with the folk poem of Nekrasov probably was due to the
presence in the melody of that same "six-four" quality which was associated with songs of the
Volga, and thereby with Freedom and the Peasantry; it is found at the climax of the song and
especially at the words, "Where'er the Russian peasant suffered not."
' Aleksandr Aleksandrovich
7
Alyabyev (1787-1851). (T. N.)
Nikolai Mikailovich Yazykov (1803-1846). (T. N.)
29

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ticular. It is interestingto comparethe tune as Alyabyevcomposed it with
the folk song version. The folk variant quickens the movement of the
melody, impartingto it more of the characterof a gay, comic song.

.
Do
:
HJ ierp
.rPt . hb
::
fi^
crpwEb gaw7t
.pi
-o,i, r
f
t;.?r
:h
:
-taryHnavw ^ @.Y,
-.po9ori.prCln m a^Ao.ro
v.rpy-jys Ps; ft
A <,.4 c*w-tr,.otVV
t iA,tfotv
I - vat^.s Wk of u-W SAt1i9 t1 t
,r -t^

Folk vari;nt
From a far distant countrywas sung in student circles almost until the
time of the revolution. Just as it had developed out of old factory, urban,
and early revolutionarysongs, so it in turn gave rise to a number of new
song forms. Thus, for example, the opening phrasesof At Kazan Cathedral
(U KazanskogoSobora)--originally a student song though later taken over
by the workers-reproduce almost exactly the first phrases of From a far
distant country:

/Ia. JIaH.Coro co. 60 . pi. y Ka. Ja. - c.o. ro co . 6o-p

- so -
U: - h sw-seyd So-bo- r, u Ks - za^- wio-ho bo-r^,

Thus we have surveyedthe variousgroups of songs which constitutedthe

basic song repertoireduring the second period of the LiberationMovement
in Russia.
In the years preceding the Liberation Movement of the Proletariat,
such songs of a practical,mass-appealingnatureas Crushedby slavery'sbonds
and Boldly, friends, do not falter (Smelo, druzya,ne teryaite) were notable

CMce. n, prpy,r. . ,fe tre. pX o1.

rt OA .pOChH
aCepap.,of 6o .
'0U4- 1s, ^' t, " -^Tr! drw) pm e' o* '^ ' o^A.-

the type of
exceptions. Boldly, friends is one of the direct antecedentsof
song developed during the period of the masses and of the proletariat,the
comrades, Hostile tempests (Vikhri vrazhdeb-
type exemplified by Boldly,
et al. Broadly speaking, the song is already in the form of a march
nye),
well suited to the purposeof organizingthe masses, a march created for con-
certed movement and for demonstrations. In reality it is a slightly altered,
more march-like version of the student song The old corporal (Staryi
translated
kapral), which was based on the famous poem by Beranger,28
Pierre Jean de Beranger (1780-1857), French republican poet. (T. N.)
30

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into Russian by Kurochkin.29 The quest for a tune appropriate to a
revolutionarymarching song such as Boldly, friends led inevitably to The
old corporal. From the standpoint of genre, the latter song is not a
march. Yet marchingis an indispensableelement in its story; the old cor-
poral remains true to himself, even in the face of death, and gives the
cadenceto his former comradeson the firing squad: "one, two, one, two."
Moreover,the song begins directlywith his command,"In step, men. ..
It was these associations,plus the important fact that the heroic, pathos-
laden march was viewed against the familiar backgroundof its tune, that
resulted in its being employed as the basis for a new march to be used in
organizing the student masses. The song nevertheless did not retain its
march characteristicsthroughoutits history. The tune, in a sense, became
too systematized,too lacking in color and vitality. Regularalternationof the
sombre minor of the tonic with the luminous major of the dominant, both
presented in bare, fanfare-liketriads, tended to impoverishthe tune. Fur-
thermore,it is obvious that in the last analysisthese elements did not con-
tribute materiallyto the popularityof the song.
In a sense, it can be said that this song served as a transition to the
forthright revolutionarymarching song, bridging the gap separating one
period of the revolutionarymovement from the other.
PERIOD
(3) THE PROLETARIAN
At the close of the nineteenth century the Liberation Movement in
Russia entered into its ProletarianPeriod. The advent of this period was
directlyrelatedto the tremendousgrowth of the strike movementin Russia.
Lenin3s wrote, "From 1895-1896, from the time of the great strike at St.
Petersburg,dates the participationof the mass of workers in the Social-
DemocraticMovement."
Direct contact with the masses, the problems of their organization,of
their uplift and activation, of instilling in them the militant-revolutionary
will to combat, the task of preparationfor that combat-all this found its
expression in song. No longer do the songs merely suggest, by means of
familiar symbols, a passive antithesis of Freedom and Bondage. Instead,
they presentactive conceptsof action, struggle, and revolt on the part of the
working classes:
Arise, ye prisonersof starvation!
Arise, ye wretchedof the earth!
For justicethunderscondemnation-
A betterworld'sin birth.
-these illustrious words from our Hymn31 brilliantly illustrate the new
2 A. P. Aristov, who first published the song in his Pesni Kazanskikh studentov (Kazan
student songs), noted that "the melody is attributed to the student Peskov."
B Lenin, Sobranie Sochinenii, Vol. XVII, p.343.
m In 1943, The Internationale was abandoned as the official Soviet anthem and in its stead
was adopted Gimn Sovetskogo Soyuza (Hymn of the Soviet Union), words by Sergei Mikhalkov
and El Registan, music by A. V. Aleksandrov; published in this country by the Leeds Music
Corp. of New York, 1945. (T. N.)
31

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ideologicalsubjectmatterof the songs of the ProletarianPeriod. One of the
familiar themes of these songs is the vigorous, independent role played by
the proletariat:
We will win ourrightfulfreedom
Withourownrightarmsalone.
That concept is present in one of the most popularsongs, Boldly, comrades:
We ourselveswill loadthe rifles,
Fix theirbayonetsof steel . . .
Quite naturally,these active concepts demandedmilitarymarchingsongs,
and graduallythis genre came to dominate the field, entirely replacing the
lyric genre which had reignedsupremein the precedingperiod. The primary
driving impulse in these new militarymarchingsongs is the restless, elastic
cadenceof the humanstep. Rhythmically,most of these marchesof the new
period are based on a dotted iambic pattern, often concluding with an
emphatic spondaic cadence:32

J PIJ P iJJ J
The outstandingmelodic element in these songs is a fanfare-likeinvoca-
tion definitely instrumentalin character,a legacy from the French Marseil-
laise. These vocal fanfares are scatteredthroughoutthe songs dating from
that period (or popularized then among the masses): Hostile tempests,
Boldly, comrades,You fell victim, We, the blacksmiths(My kuznetsy), et al:
'eBoU 1Say.u
,Co^'k BapwVaso,wra sywew

PI^^^t& LP'1JljJAlv})J leJi rrI 'II

For the most part, the tunes here involved were adapted as revolutionary
songs from Western instrumentalmarchesof a heroic-patheticcharacter,in-
cluding marchesoriginatingin symphonicand operaticmusic, and-to a con-
siderableextent-from songs and hymns of the French Revolution.
In their poetical and musical concepts, the songs of the revolutionary
proletariatoften showed a close relationship with songs of the preceding
period, especiallythrough the concept of Freedom. In the forthright, mili-
tant songs of the revolutionaries,however, these concepts assumed new
forms. Rhythmicallythe songs were altered to fit the military style, and
ideologically they acquiredthe new concept of the proletariat'sstruggle for
freedom. Thus, for example,the refrainof Boldly, comrades(alreadyasso-
ciated with the ideological complex of Liberty-Freedom)takes on new
a Such is the rhythmic pattern of Boldly, comrades, Hostile tempests, We burn with a uni-
versal flame (My ysemirnogo plamya, "the Communist Marseillaise"), You fell victim (Part II,
the Refrain), and a host of other songs.
32

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meaning as a song of the militant proletariatthrough the active concept
"We will fight our way to Freedom." At that time the tune of Boldly, com-
radeswas nothing more than a rhythmicallyalteredvariantof the melody to
Glorious sea, sacred Baikal (Slavnoe more, cvyashchennyiBaikal). In the
processof adaptationthe romanticlyricismof the melody was destroyedand
it was convertedinto a march, instrumentalratherthan vocal in style:
- J J jJP '
.
Ca:;:ao .FJ t!iJ j2J 1,J.J
6.
o . .y . :
C2aa.En. o. f -. pe, cap. uewH ahtran lB, nw
XOpa6s.. ny Si. oau
Caor -i- ous S&, o s-cel4 B-W, Wlon-Aq-A,%
wsM-S\,i-\w hwrrr n l,

c 4\o J P^ J IJ j sS
ibJ 'g
ir tl
CNe. n, o.o . pH. un. Ho
a . rry'y. o. oon on. penne a 6ope-
t -
Boi\-Iw co-wra<esto - g4t - - :r I Hwrts wen O1"tW iw t

@ j *J!
2 h f-f etJ ; v !r J J jLj If f
3:, Pap. ry. 7nH, no . a.e . /. r as Ban,. n. I no. noA4y *e. J - r47f. ;O

B LapreT 'cao. o . aob .mo. po . ry rpyFb.O npo. fl.M- e . .. o

On- 1, kiq - 4om
;Sr- of CO-t , uV- w.l wi vs :' W.^.

jr-J

-
I sit btl kh hats Aa *ay jw$s i fA -e^rt&-eo wrtWA so wql- %

rplvcr'ii ro. tj po . z
i .o.. RapI. po..rg Mpo.
., rKn,o Otrio.. wja.

* .or-O WwA-T w fA -
-
'on-r*& ff H;6 fWox4
v;'s
UooA5 1t>l4 -wS. u.

Characteristicallyenough, we meet with the very same musical idea in

The Captive (measurefive of the above example).
The close international contacts maintained by Russian revolutionary
circles at that time facilitated the spread of revolutionarysongs into the
West. The Polish LiberationMovement, in particular,being closely allied
with the RussianLaborMovement, drew heavily on this ever-flowingfoun-
tainheadfor its revolutionarysongs.
8 Using a fish vat as canoe and his hands as paddles, the singer is fleeing across Lake
Baikal from Siberia to liberty. (T. N.)
33

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 The polished, well-roundedstyle of such songs as Hostile tempests,Rage
on, you tyrants (Besnuites, tirany), and Fighters for the Cause (Bortsy
idei), which were directlyinfluencedby the Western instrumentalstyle, had
an obvious effect upon the style of revolutionarytunes which originated on
Russiansoil; these latter, too, assumeda more finished, sophisticatedaspect.
In the early days of the Revolution, a very special place in the musical
life of the masses was occupied by The Internationale-both as the official
revolutionaryhymn and purely as a song. From a political standpointthe
significanceof The Internationalewas tremendous. It played, and continues
to play,34an outstandingrole
(1) as the hymn of the proletariat,the class which has eternallyaspired
to hold in its own hands the might of the world, and which, in 1917, seized
in its hands one-sixth of that might;
(2) as the art form of the masses,one which gave utteranceto the fore-
most watchword of the progressive avant-gardeof the working classes:
Internationalism;
(3) as one of the most powerful means of political agitationand propa-
ganda, throughits popularizationas a watchwordamong the great democratic
masses of Russia.
A splendid tributeto the historicrole played by The Internationaleoccurs
in a leading article in one of the earliest issues of Pravda (1917, No. 5).
This article emphasizesparticularlyhow widely The Internationaleis known.
We read:
"At the front, in the trenches, everywherethat Russian troops came in
contact with the enemy, they were sure to hoist the red flag. ... No less
significantthan the red flag was The Internationale. It was printed in the
very first issue of Pravda. The Europeanworkerssing it, as should also we,
upon every appearanceof the proletariat. The theme of the song is a theme
belonging to the workersof all lands. In many Europeancities the workers
speak countless different tongues. Yet in their May Day celebrations,at
meetings, demonstrations,and on other similar occasions, all the workers
unite in singing that one song, each in his own tongue. The result is one
mighty, harmonious, united chorus.
"Often, in the trenches,the adversarieswere so near to each other that the
songs of each could be clearlyheard on the opposing side of the line. Strike
up a chorusof The Internationale,and many times you would find your voice
borne along on a chorusof Germanor Austrianvoices, voices of proletarians
in soldiers' uniforms. Incidents like this, of course, do not put an end to
war. War must be banishedthrough organization. Yet through such inci-
dents did the German proletarians,whom the Kaiser's government had
stuffed with lies about Russians, sense that the Russian soldiers were their
comrades. Therebynot only was some of the needless crueltyof war abated,
but also the soil was preparedfor the organizationof a lasting peace. The

34Cf. supra, Note 31. (T. N.)

34

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Russian revolutionaryarmies-every company, every squadron, every bat-
tery-were trained to sing The Internationalein chorus."
This glorious hymn of the proletariathas become the first international
folk song, symbolizing the Bolshevist ideal of Lenin and Stalin- Inter-
nationalism. Such a utilization of revolutionarysong never came to pass-
indeed, could never have come to pass-in the preceding periods of the
revolutionarymovement,when the great majorityof songs were merely ex-
pressions of emotion rather than implements of revolutionaryactivity. It
was in the ProletarianPeriod of the LiberationMovementthat revolutionary
song first began to play its proper role in revolutionaryactivity, concentrat-
ing, as it were, in musical form the organizationalenergy of the masses.
With these songs the masses undertookthe Revolutionof 1905; with them
they won the victoryin the OctoberRevolution; and with them, finally,they
battled and triumphedin the Civil War.

35

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