Amur partisans

 
     
 

Po dolinam i po vzgoryam
shla diviziya fpyeryot,
shtobý z boyem vzyat' primorye,
Byeloi Armiyi aplot –
shtobý z boyem vzyat' primorye,
Byeloi Armiyi aplot.

Through the valleys, over the mountains
our division went forward,
to conquer by storm the coastal area,
the bulwark of the White Army –
to conquer by storm the coastal area,
the bulwark of the White Army.

 
 

Nalivalisya znamyona,
kumatsh tshom paslednikh ran,
shli likhiye eskadroný
priamurskikh partizan –
shli likhiye eskadroný
priamurskikh partizan.

The flags were soaked,
reddened by last wounds,
so went the bold squadrons
of the partisans of Amur –
so went the bold squadrons
of the partisans of Amur.

 
 

Etikh lyet nye smolknit slava,
nye pamerknit nikagda:
Partizanskiye otryadi
zanimali garada –
partizanskiye otryadi
zanimali garada.

The glory of these years won't grow silent
and never lose its splendour:
The troops of the partisans
took the towns –
the troops of the partisans
took the towns.

 
 

I ostanutsya kak f skaskakh,
kak manyashtshiye agni:
Shturmovýe notshi f Spaskakh,
Volotshayevskiye dnyi –
shturmovýe notshi f Spaskakh,
Volotshayevskiye dnyi.

And this will remain, like in the legends,
like alluring fires:
The stormy nights near Spassk
and the days of Volotshayevka –
the stormy nights near Spassk
and the days of Volotshayevka.

 
 

Razgromili atamanov,
razognali voyevod,
i na Tikhom Okeanye
svoi zakontshili pakhot –
i na Tikhom Okeanye
svoi zakontshili pakhot.

We have smashed the Atamans,
we have scattered the Voivods,
and at the Pacific Ocean
we have finished our campaign –
and at the Pacific Ocean
we have finished our campaign.

 
     
 

Words and music from the Russian civil war, 1918-1922
Pronunciation:
       a as in "bar", e as in "bed", i as in "bid", o as in "bore", u as in "blue"
       y = as in "yellow" / ý = dull i, as in "bill"
       s = always voiceless, as in "son" / z = voiced, as in "zone"
       sh = voiceless, as in "mesh" / zh = voiced, like the s in "measure"
       kh = mostly rough, like the ch in Scotch "loch", but smooth when "e" or "i" follows
       a, e, i, o, u, y = the underlined vowel signifies the stressed syllable of a word.
Transcription and analogous translation: Kai Kracht
Comment:
       One of the first official acts of the new soviet government in 1917 was the "Decree about Peace": Russia withdraw from World War I, proclaimed a general armistice at all its fronts, and sent its soldiers home. A few weeks after that fourteen foreign countries, among them Great Britain, France, Germany, USA and Japan, began to invade the Russian territory from all sides with their armies. They formed alliances with the "white" armies of some anti-soviet generals who had resisted the general demobilization, and until summer 1918 they had occupied already three fourths of the huge Russian empire.
       But the occupants could not really gain a foothold. Many Russians set great hopes on the new soviet government, they were no longer willing to do compulsory labour for Russian Princes or Polish Voivodes or Ukrainian Atamans, nor did they want to live under the military dictatorship which general Koltshak, supported by the USA, installed in the Ural area, nor did they want to be oppressed by a Japanese colonial government in East Siberia. The occupants were boycotted by the population, in many places partisans rose to combat them, and so the "red" army which was formed by the soviet government all in a hurry could expel the invaders and defeat their "white" collaborators within hardly two years.
       Only at the Amur river, in the far east of Siberia, the fights went on for another two years. But also here the partisans finally defeated the rest of the "white" armies, and liberated the towns of Volotshayevka, Spassk, and Vladivostok from Japanese occupation in 1922. So the tough struggle of the people against the foreign invaders and the last remainders of the tsar's regime came to a concluding end – and, as a symbol of this struggle, the song of the "Amur Partisans" soon became a very popular song.
© Kai Kracht 2002