"Den' Pobedy" (Russian: День Победы, English: Victory Day) ranks among the most popular in the large corpus of Russian songs dedicated to World War II. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The song differs from most of these by its cheerful intonations of a marching song and by the fact that it was composed some thirty years after the war. A march, as a Musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a Military In the words of Vladimir Shainsky, a veteran composer, "the song seemed to have turned back the time. Vladimir Yakovlevich Shainsky (Владимир Яковлевич Шаинский (born on December 12 1925) is a Russian and Ukrainian Although written three decades after the war, it now seems that it was this song that helped us to gain the victory".
History
In order to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Soviet victory in the WWII, the Soviet government announced a competition for the best song about the war. For the song see Den Pobedy In the Russian Federation and some Former USSR countries Victory Day marks the capitulation The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 In March 1975, poet Vladimir Kharitonov, who had taken part in the war, approached his traditional co-author, the young composer David Tukhmanov with a proposal to write a new song for the occasion. Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. This effort was to differ strikingly from their previous collaborations, which had been disco-influenced chartbusters. Several days before the deadline, Kharitonov brought his lyrics to Tukhmanov and the latter composed a song just in time to be recorded by his wife and to be submitted to the jury.
However, the jury, composed primarily of elderly songwriters whose tastes had been formed during Stalin's era, was exceedingly displeased with the result. Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party The lyrics appeared to them lightsome and frivolous, while the melody was alleged to abuse the "rhythms of tango and foxtrot", two "bourgeois" dances which had been banned in the Soviet Union. Tango is a style of music that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay. FoxTrot is an American Comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Amend.
Although the performance of the song was strongly discouraged, Lev Leshchenko, one of the most popular Soviet singers, dared to premiere it during his concert in Alma-Ata in late April. Almaty ( Алматы; formerly known as Alma-Ata ( Алма-Ата) also Verniy, (Верный is the largest city in Kazakhstan Then the song was performed in the Little Blue Light TV show on 9 May by another singer, but his interpretation was rather lackluster and failed to attract attention. The Little Blue Light (Голубой огонёк Goluboy Ogonyok) was a musical TV show in the Soviet Union which was aired beginning in Events 1457 BC - Battle of Megiddo (15th century BC between Thutmose III and a large Canaanite coalition under the King of Thereupon the song was not performed until 10 November when Leshchenko revived it for a grand concert in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses on the Militsiya Day. Events 1444 - Battle of Varna: The crusading forces of King Vladislaus III of Varna (aka Ulaszlo I of Hungary and Wladyslaw The State Kremlin Palace (Государственный Кремлёвский Дворец formerly and unofficially still better known as the Kremlin Palace of Congresses Militia (мили́ция mʲi'lʲitsɨja мiлiцiя мiлíцыя милиция milicja miliţia milica milicija/милиција милиција was used as a short His performance astounded the censors but proved to be a runaway success with the audience, who clamored for an encore.
Since then, the song has been invariably performed during every Victory Day celebrations in the Soviet Union and Russia, often concluding a program of festivities, with the last stanza drowned in sounds of fireworks over the Red Square. Red Square ( Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad) is the most famous City square in Moscow, and arguably one of the most According to Komsomolskaya Pravda, the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev liked this song greatly, especially when performed by Joseph Kobzon, and predicted to Kharitonov that "folks would sing this tune for many years after you and I are gone". Note "Komsomolskaya Pravda" should not be confused with Pravda. Iosif (Joseph Davydovich Kobzon (Иосиф Давыдович Кобзон born September 11, 1937) is an iconic Soviet Crooner, who
Brezhnev's expectation did not fail to materialize, in part because, as the American researcher David MacFadyen explains, "this powerful song draws not upon the bravery of youthful soldiers but the private memories of ageing, greying veterans. Its poignant combination of joy at a stunning victory and sadness at great loss sounds just as relevant today, when the war itself is something about which many young Russians neither know nor care". [1]
Lyrics
Russian lyrics
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Romanization
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Translation
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Notes
- ^ David MacFadyen. Red Stars: Personality and the Soviet Popular Song, 1955–1991. McGill-Queens Univ Press, 2001. ISBN 0-7735-2106-2. Page 180.
- ^ Actually versts, not leagues. A verst (Russian versta, верста is an obsolete Russian Unit of length. The verst is a defunct Russian unit of length and equals 1. 067 km.
Online references
- (Russian) Download the song, performed by Leshchenko.
- (Russian) Article in the Komsomolskaya Pravda
- (Russian) Article in the Nezavisimaya Gazeta
- (Russian) History of the song on Tukhmanov's website
- Lev Leshchenko singing 'Den Pobedy' in russian TV
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