כדי לשחזר את השיר בשפה המקורית אם אינו מופיע לאחר לחיצה על שם השיר המסומן כאן בקוו תחתון או כדי למצוא גירסות נוספות העתיקו/הדביקו את שם השיר בשפת המקור מדף זה לאתר YOUTUBE
To restore the song in the original language if it does not appear after clicking on the name of the song marked here with a bottom line or to find additional versions Copy/Paste the song name in the original language from this page to the YOUTUBE website
התרגומים לאנגלית נעשו באמצעות המנוע "מתרגם גוגל" והתרגום הועתק לאתר בצורתו המקורית ללא עריכה נוספת
The English translations were done using the "Google Translate" engine and the translations were copied to the site in their original form without further editing.
Eli ST: The Russian-Soviet song "Song of Peace" was written in 1951, during the "Korean War" (1950-53) and probably mentions the same war in which North Korea (supported by China and the Soviet Union) tried to take over South Korea (supported by the United States). And the UN). The song calls for volunteers to join the same struggle, which is outside the borders of the USSR: "The song of peace that has no borders" (first line Second stanza) against the United States and its metamorphoses, which are: "war-mongers" (third line Third stanza).
Nikita Braginsky, Do Russians Want War? Soviet "songs in the struggle for peace": nationality as an anachronism. Do the Russians want war? At least since 1960, they definitely do not want to. There is nothing to be done: the Criminal Code, the article "Propaganda for War", from three to eight years in prison. Instead of war, the Russians, like all the other peoples of the Soviet Union, want peace: “Peace, peace, peace, peace-this is our motto in battle!”. Towards the end of World War II, from which the United States and the USSR emerge as superpowers, claiming influence throughout the world, the meaning of the category "nationality" is undergoing drastic changes. It was important for the winners to distinguish themselves from the defeated ideology of Nazism, which proclaimed racial superiority and aggressive colonization of the territories of the lower races. In addition, with the advent of weapons of mass destruction-the atomic bomb-the need for large national armies and the patriotic discourse that sustained their morale has practically disappeared. If it is possible to destroy a million-strong city by pressing a button, then there is no need to carry out the laborious process of rallying disparate social groups into a single national front. At first glance, it seems that nationality is no longer needed in the post-war political space. This is the political background against which that specific Soviet genre of "songs in the struggle for world peace", which will be discussed in this article, existed for four decades. Muradeli. 1950s march. Today's musicologist, when bumping into the name of the Soviet composer Vano Muradeli, first of all usually recalls his opera Great Friendship, which in 1948 served as a pretext for starting the struggle against the so-called “formalism” in music. This campaign began with the publication in Pravda of the Central Committee's decree, which, slightly scolding the "inexpressiveness" of Muradeli's music, quickly passes to those against whom the campaign against formalism was actually directed-Shostakovich and Prokofiev, and their "anti-popular perversions". The situation for Shostakovich was extremely dangerous, and now, reading about his biography, one often comes across references to Muradeli and the events connected with his opera. It turns out that today Muradeli has become, as it were, an episode in Shostakovich's biography. However, 50-60 years ago, the balance of forces had a different character: Shostakovich, of course, After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and after the first successful test of the atomic bomb in the Soviet Union, relations between the United States and the USSR entered the next, nuclear, phase. The rapidly outdated rhetoric of alliance that prevailed during the joint struggle against Nazi Germany was replaced by a different historical context: the Cold War. The new situation required a new direction in state propaganda. Naturally, Muradeli could not miss such an important political moment in his songwriting, and thus, his extensive list of topical topics was replenished with several songs dedicated to the struggle for a "nuclear" world. In 1951, at the height of the war between North and South Korea, which was essentially a struggle between the Soviet and American empires for influence on the strategically important peninsula, Muradeli wrote The Song of Peace Fighters. The Soviet Union was not doing very well in Korea; the war was going on with varying degrees of success. Many victims. Accordingly, the character of the song is restrained. In general, this is a funeral march, equipped with an energetic, combative text: In the struggle, we found unity For a lasting peace, for our happiness. Get up, people of the whole earth, Let us dispel bad weather! The melody of the song is monolithic. Unity is a key element, which is expressed, among other things, in a strictly limited number of motives, of which, like a constructor, music is composed. The same rhythmic structure is repeated five times, evoking associations with another specific Soviet song genre-songs about the civil war. These slowly marching minor chords will still meet us thirty years later in the “peaceful” songs of Alexandra Pakhmutova. But even more important than the creation of a musical tradition of songs in the struggle for peace was the beginning of the formation of a discursive cloud, from which all Soviet songs of this genre would subsequently be born. One of the features of Soviet "songs in the struggle for peace" is the emphasized absence of a discourse about the national. The national turns into a figure of silence, as it were. The Peace Fighters Song does not mention Koreans or anyone else. In this "post-war" conflict, the border between the warring parties does not run along ethnic lines: the Koreans are nominally at war with the Koreans. And even Americans or Chinese, participating in the conflict from one side or the other, act there not as representatives of any nationality, but as representatives of different political and ideological systems. Unlike, for example, the song "Get up, Russian people", which in 1938 in the film "Alexander Nevsky" called for unity and struggle against the enemy precisely on ethnic grounds, "The Song of Fighters for Peace" is emphatically not national. This tradition will continue almost until the very end of the existence of the Soviet Union and, accordingly, the genre of the Soviet anti-war song. Even where at first glance it seems that the rule prohibiting national discourse has been violated, in fact, a subtle game will usually take place, this rule is just confirming. So in 1961, the song "Do the Russians Want War" was created and successfully performed. Despite the abundance of “birches and poplars” in the song's lyrics, the key irony is the use of the word “Russians” itself. A popular legend, designed to clarify the meaning of the song, talks about how Yevtushenko writes its lyrics in response to numerous questions from Western citizens trying to find out from the poet whether the "Russians" are preparing a war. An unenlightened inhabitant of a capitalist state cannot yet imagine that the Soviet person does not identify himself primarily on the basis of nationality, and naively continues to insist on the use of the national concept-"Russians". This is doubly absurd, given that the USSR is a multinational state, and if Western citizens really want to know if the USSR is preparing a war, it would be logical for them to also ask if the Ukrainians, Belarusians, Kazakhs, and so on, want war. Thus, the word "Russians" in this song is only an ironic quote and a reverse translation of the word "Russians" from the backward capitalist discourse. If Western citizens really want to know if the USSR is preparing a war, it would be logical for them to ask whether the Ukrainians, Belarusians, Kazakhs, and so on, want war. Thus, the word "Russians" in this song is only an ironic quote and a reverse translation of the word "Russians" from the backward capitalist discourse. If Western citizens really want to know if the USSR is preparing a war, it would be logical for them to ask whether the Ukrainians, Belarusians, Kazakhs, and so on, want war. Thus, the word "Russians" in this song is only an ironic quote and a reverse translation of the word "Russians" from the backward capitalist discourse. Six years after “The Song of Peace Fighters”, Muradeli writes a song about peace “Friendship is the most precious thing”. During this time, some changes took place on the political scene, which were also reflected in the Soviet anti-war discourse. In 1953, with a lag of only two years, the first test of a hydrogen bomb was carried out in the USSR, and in 1957, the year the song was written, the Sixth World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Moscow under the slogan "For Peace and Friendship"...As you might expect, both keywords of the festival-peace and friendship-became the basis for the text: Friendship is the most precious thing, Friendship is the banner of youth. We all became friends at the Moscow Peace Festival. The youth of the whole globe We call today for us. Arise, my comrade, Into our united formation, Let us meet the stormy wind with our breasts! Peace, peace, peace, peace-This is our battle motto! The word "friendship", for example, is brought to the fore here not only by the fact that it is at the beginning of the text, but also by its threefold repetition: the word is used in the first, second and third verses. "Peace" is used in only one line, but it is repeated four times in a row at once. The text links friendship at the level of interpersonal relations and the so-called "friendship between peoples", that kind of ideological construct of the Cold War times, the exact meaning of which has yet to be developed 1930s referred to the relationship between the peoples of the USSR). Consciously mixing these two concepts, the text infects the deepest inner feelings of a person with an ideological and political message: the desire to be accepted in a social group, the fear of being rejected. The first lines are sung on behalf of the collective “we”, which has not only unanimously adopted the political program of the Moscow festival, but also calls for all the people of the world who are younger than some (what?) Age: "The youth of the whole globe / We are calling for us today." Thus, the social group into which a young person who identifies himself with a given political program automatically falls has the maximum coverage. At the same time, the fate of outsiders who do not want to join the global youth movement is becoming extremely unenviable. And again, the global character of the youth movement constructed in the song leaves no room for identification based on nationality: “People, nations, countries / Let them merge in a peaceful ocean”. At the same time, it is noteworthy how the text of the first part of the song breaks up into two, at first glance, contradicting each other, parts: the first six lines are written in a relatively relaxed spirit and focus primarily on friendship. The lines following them, however, sharply change the tone to a more fighting one: "one formation", "we will meet with the breast." As a result, both discursive branches-peaceful and militant-are combined into a formula that is absolutely incredible in its paradox: “Peace is our motto in battle”. A typical example of rethinking concepts and giving them new meaning within the framework of the official Soviet discourse is the second line of the song: "Friendship is the banner of youth." This is an example of poetic economy: two words out of four are the key words of a discourse about the struggle for peace, built around the repetition of the simple formula "friendship-peace - struggle-youth." Both the word "friendship" and the word "youth" here have additional connotations that go back to the specific foreign policy context of those years. Friendship, for example, does not mean that everyone should be friends. The capitalists and imperialists are by no means potential friends of the Soviet state. On the contrary, friendship should rally one group against another. And only when the "harmful" group is destroyed, the peace that is spoken of in the song comes. It is this, specific in nature, friendship that is the "banner of youth." Youth is, in turn, not just youth either. It is naturally divided into socialist and Western. At the same time, Western youth is that special social group that will grow out of the post-war generation of the so-called baby boomers., which appeared as a result of the rise in the birth rate after the difficult war years. These are the ones who will cry and scream at the Beatles' concerts, but also those who will protest the Vietnam War, participate in the leftist student movements of 1968. At the same time, this is the generation on whose behalf the collective song subject speaks so confidently, persistently using the word "we", creating a sense of unity and identification with the text: "we all became friends," "we call," "our united system"...So that the listener does not get confused in the complex balancing act of ideological constructions, the song organizes its utterances around simple, well-remembered binary oppositions. 1. A single force-an amorphous threat : "Arise, my comrade, / Into our united formation, / Let us meet the stormy wind with our chest!" 2. Peaceful masses-the ghost of war: "The sea, the human sea / He stubbornly argues with the ghost of war." 3. The Sun-atomic clouds : “So that the clouds of atomic ash / the Sun are not covered over the Earth”. Pakhmutova. Flight of the 1970s-1980s. Alexandra Pakhmutova is one generation younger than Muradeli. That's noticeable. Marches are being replaced by more lyrical forms. The rapid flight of melody, the flapping of melodic wings become a reflection of a new era that has replaced Stalinism, constrained in all respects. Marsh is used, but already as a quote, as one of several stages in the kaleidoscope of moods that are characteristic of her songs. Such is the use of the march in one of the earliest songs in the struggle for peace, written by Pakhmutova, the children's song "Street of the World". This song was written by Pakhmutova in 1975, at the pinnacle of the so-called "detente in international relations" that took place between the Soviet and American empires. That year, relations were defused so much that even a joint Soviet-American space flight Soyuz-Apollo became possible. It seemed that "friendship" and "peace" were just around the corner, and the "struggle" finally faded into the background. But the discourse about "youth" has become even more important than before. We can say that its importance grew in proportion to the age of the Soviet system and its rulers. Against the background of other songs in the struggle for peace, "Mira Street" is distinguished by its optimism and cheerful mood. Judging by its text, in 1975 the struggle for peace had already been won, and the masses had only to cheerfully celebrate the victory: There are cheerful people on the street of Peace. Above Mira Street-the firmament of a hundred Suns. We will build a house on Mira Street, And we ourselves and our friends will live in it. The music fully corresponds to the character of the text: a merrily jumping bass, a melody vigorously climbing up. The positiveness of this musical picture is such that the Stalinist anthem of pioneer optimism involuntarily comes to mind: Oh, it's good to live in the Soviet Country! Eh, it's good to be a loved country! Eh, it's good to be useful to the country,
Red tie with pride to wear, yes, to wear! In the performance of the Big Children's Choir "Street of the World", it is included in the New Year broadcast of the TV program "Song-75". The word "Bolshoi" in the name of the choir is not just a formality: there are so many children that some have to stand to the side of the stage. Some are dressed in mysterious red and white suits of a clearly ethnic character, which are in perfect harmony with the pioneer set of white shirt and red tie for the main team. These are the so-called “children of the Chilean patriots”. In 1975, the dictator General Pinochet, a supporter of the "free market" and a great friend of "private enterprise", came to power in Chile through a putsch against the socialist government. Another point in favor of America in the global competition of two empires. Another small victory in this kind of "struggle for peace". “Children of the Chilean patriots” on the stage of the Soviet “Song-75” point to the ongoing struggle between the two systems, despite the failure in Chile. A struggle, the boundaries of which, again, run not along national lines, but along class and ideological lines. So why are the "children of Chilean patriots" dressed in national costumes, and not, say, in "international" pioneer ties? It seems to me that this seemingly insignificant detail archetypally reveals the deep contradictions between the not yet completely discarded national discourse and the not yet fully accepted discourse about the international unity of the working masses in the struggle against the oppressors and imperialists. It seems that we are dealing here with an intermediate option: Patriots Socialists in the interests of the nation (of the country) are fighting notpatriot Pinochet. That is, the struggle is between the socialist and capitalist systems, but the unity of the masses in this struggle is taking place on a national, patriotic basis. At the same time, the word "struggle" here has the most direct, military, meaning: on the day of the putsch, General Pinochet's planes bomb the presidential palace in which Salvador Allende is located. Based on the achievements of Muradeli, Pakhmutova freely uses in her song the well-known motives of the confrontation between the sun and (nuclear) darkness, as well as friendship as a symbol of unity in the struggle: The house that we will build, Time will not destroy, The sun will not yield to the black haze. Because friendship is a powerful weapon, The main weapon on Earth! Even the pathetic march, which we have already met at Muradeli's, for four lines as a quotation merges into the musical canvas "Streets of the World", introducing a certain variety into it: "There is anxiety about the world on the street of Peace...". A little less than ten years pass. Much has changed during this period. Soyuz and Apollo are long gone. The war in Afghanistan and the Pershing 2 in West Germany were signs of a new era. The number of atomic warheads ready to fall on the heads of the inhabitants of both socialist and capitalist countries defied rational coverage and caused a sense of the end of the world. The idea that an atomic war, instead of a strategic victory proclaimed by the military by one of the parties, will lead to a global catastrophe in which civilization, and possibly the population of the Earth, will perish, has become central in the discourse about the struggle for peace. Towards the end of its existence, at least one topic finally emerged in the Soviet political landscape with which the population could sincerely identify itself. Pakhmutova's song "Before it's too late", written in 1983, is imbued with this sincere concern, bordering in those tense times with a heightened survival instinct. From the first lines, the text speaks of the global scale of a possible atomic disaster: While the planet is still alive, While the sun is dreaming of spring, We will lay claim to life, Until it's too late, until it's too late. Apart from the second line, which serves solely to fill the rhythmic scheme, all three statements of the first verse are deeply dramatic: life on Earth is in danger, our own life is not our birthright. On the contrary, this right still needs to be presented in such a way that it is satisfied, and all this needs to be done as soon as possible, "before it is too late." The global nature of the danger leaves no room for national sentiment: the entire planet is affected, and not some nationally limited territory. Accordingly, the lyrics do not contain the slightest indication of any national differences. The text does even without fields and birches (as well as without palm trees and coconuts). Naturally, there are no recognizable national motives in the music of this song, which otherwise became a complete musical antipode of "Street of the World": the cheerful energetic bass was replaced by gloomy marching minor chords, the melody jumping up the stairs-trying to rise several times, but invariably falling line. Two more years pass. The tension is growing. General secretaries, who come to power by already sick old people, replace each other with an ever-increasing speed, making the crisis of the system more and more obvious. The kaleidoscope of foreign policy events and the silent threat of total destruction hanging over all this vanity make the world look like a figment of a sick imagination. This is the historical situation in which Alexandra Pakhmutova writes one of her last songs in the struggle for peace in the Soviet period-“Brothers in Reason”. Friendship in this context is the only possible intelligent behavior. Any strategic military calculations-including in this era, of course, the use of a nuclear arsenal-is equated with a lack of reason: Nuclear age, laser ghost, Planets troubled hour. Really, brothers in mind, Reason will leave us? Throughout the song, the lyrics play not only with the symbols of mental illness (“ghost”, “insanity is a cheeky speech”), but also with references to extraterrestrial civilization-“brothers in mind”. The last verse, as in "Street of the World", has a particularly pronounced fairy-tale character: As our unnamed distant friend From fairy tales and starry dreams, Appeals to brothers in mind The mind of other worlds. These lines are the pinnacle of rejection of the national discourse. In everyday consciousness, aliens are a symbol of the absolute Other, the most distant type of thinking from a person. However, in the song, even aliens are shown to be more intelligent creatures than those who are ready to plan and unleash atomic wars. At the same time, compared to alien life, all national differences on Earth automatically become ridiculously insignificant. And let the aliens at the same time are shown as peaceful, friendly "brothers in mind" (here, apparently, the Soviet discourse about internationalism and friendship spread to the aliens). Already by their very existence, the aliens rally and unite all the inhabitants of the Earth-not on a national, but on a planetary basis. Stork on the roof. National discourse strikes back In the struggle for peace, as in any other struggle, it does not happen that blows come from only one side. Thus, in 1986, the national discourse struck an unexpected retaliation. The most amazing thing is that he managed to do this without leaving the framework of anti-war discourse. The monolithic international model of the struggle for world peace, created in the era of Muradeli in the distant 1950s, began to show noticeable cracks by the beginning of perestroika. The diversification process has begun. In addition to the global (universal) scale of the struggle for peace, represented by Pakhmutova's songs, there was a struggle for peace at the local, local level, which immediately returned to its usual central place and category of nationality. One of the hits of 1985 in the USSR is the anti-war song "Stork on the Roof" by composer David Tukhmanov. The very first bars of the playing are brightly colored in national colors: a bourdon of two notes stretches-a typical technique that marks music as folk. Around it spills colorful melodic ornamentation, on top of all this flowering variety, imitating the sound of an ensemble of folk instruments, a simple melody flows unpretentiously, as if played on a homemade folk pipe. So that even the most inexperienced in music listener understands what it is about, the nationally marked performer Sofia Rotaru, representing two peoples at once: Ukrainians and Moldovans, was selected for the song. a simple melody flows unpretentiously, as if played on a homemade folk pipe. So that even the most inexperienced in music listener understands what it is about, the nationally marked performer Sofia Rotaru, representing two peoples at once: Ukrainians and Moldovans, was selected for the song. a simple melody flows unpretentiously, as if played on a homemade folk pipe. So that even the most inexperienced in music listener understands what it is about, the nationally marked performer Sofia Rotaru, representing two peoples at once: Ukrainians and Moldovans, was selected for the song. "Stork on the Roof" paints an idyllic picture of the unity of man and nature: the stork is building a nest on the roof of the house in which the "girl" lives-a character that can be interpreted as a child and as a young girl waiting for love (which, again, in the result should someday lead to the appearance of a child). The stork, itself already a symbol of the birth of a person, in the song also actually becomes a father: a stork appears in the nest. This accumulation of references to childhood is not accidental. Children-potential innocent victims of criminal war fantasies that have taken over the adult world-were one of the central motives of the Soviet world discourse. Here, however, a return to rural childhood also means a return to the traditional way of life, The culmination of the song is an emotional exclamation: "Let the wars perish in the darkness!" But how can this be? Is it really like this - all the wars? Indeed, in the Soviet official discourse, wars were divided into two clearly divided groups: unjust aggressive and just liberation. The first type of wars had to be fought as part of the struggle for world peace. The second type was to be hailed as a step towards bringing justice to the planet. As stated in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia: “Pacifists condemn any war, denying the legitimacy of just wars of liberation”. In his article "Peace or Pacifism?" Timothy Johnson details the fight against pacifism as part of the Soviet peace campaign in the early 1950s [10]. For example, agitators who were supposed to organize a massive collection of signatures "against the war", in their work, constantly faced with rejection of the war as such and hopes for its complete disappearance. Articles in Pravda tried from time to time to explain to citizens lost in the ideological jungle the difference between wrong bourgeois pacifism and a correct popular movement for peace. But these efforts were clearly not enough. The horrors of the recent war that swept across the territory of the USSR and the losses that it brought to almost every family made the Soviet people understand the complex Soviet rhetoric of the struggle for world peace in their own special way. So how could Sofia Rotaru declare that "let the wars perish in the darkness"? What then with just wars, for example, in Afghanistan or (scary to say) the Great Patriotic War? Is it possible that with this truly iconic song, not only national discourse, but also manifestations of pacifism got into the Soviet discourse about the struggle for peace? And this-against the background of the counter-terrorist operation still going beyond the Afghan border, as they would say now? So, what do the Soviet "songs in the struggle for peace" tell us about the position of the category of the national within the official Soviet discourse? As can be seen from the above examples, potentially the discourse of the struggle for peace could function both with and without national component. Historically, however, it so happened that most of the time it existed in isolation from the national theme, even in direct opposition to it. For a long time, the struggle for peace was the pole on which nationality did not and could not exist. She was an example of a deliberate departure from everything national - at least on the surface. All this fit into the ideology of the Soviet multinational state, which presented nationality not as a pretext for enmity or war (and indeed, bloody national conflicts on the territory of the former USSR began only during the period of its collapse), but as a kind of exoticism, a way to diversify the peaceful life of Soviet citizens. At the same time, the "Soviet" nationality was, as it were, a cultural superstructure over the common socialist economic base. A beautiful ideological structure was supported by a weighty argument in the form of the already mentioned article of the Criminal Code "Propaganda of war". So, as it was sung in another anti-war song by Muradeli: “If you want to live on a cheerful native land” (and, I would like to add, not somewhere in Kolyma), please be for world peace.
**