Soviet Music - White Army, Black Baron (english subtitles)

"White Army, Black Baron" is generally recognized as one of the first songs of the Red Army and the most famous battle-song of the Russian Civil War. It is about the nature of the White Army and the call to defend the revolution against the troops of the so-called "Black Baron" Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel in 1920. The music has been composed by Samuil Pokrass, the lyrics are by P. Grigoriev. The original lyrics featured a mentioning of Leon Trotsky ("Tovarisch Trotsky"). However, with the development of stalinism this was not acceptable anymore, and thus the reference to Trotsky was removed. Trotskyists today, especially Russian trotskyists, sing this song in their own circles with the original lyrics, mostly as a protest against stalinism and to make a statement that trotskyism is the rightfull heir of the Russian Revolution and of the Bolshevism-Leninism. During the 1920s, it was used by German communists with the words of an unknown author "Weißes Gesindel und adlige Brut" ("White riffraff, noble scum"), but the most famous adaptation of this song is certainly the version that was written in 1934 by Fritz Brügel during the February uprising against the Dollfuß regime in Austria: "Wir sind die Arbeiter von Wien" ("We are the workers of Vienna"), also known as "Wir sind das Bauvolk der kommenden Welt" ("We are the building people of the world to come"). Singer: Ivan Baranov. Lyrics in English and Russian, respectively: The White Army and the Black Baron[1] (Belaia Armiia, Chiornyj Baron) Are preparing Czar's throne for us again, (Snova gotoviat nam tsarskij tron,) But from the taiga to the british seas[2] (No ot tajgi do britanskikh morej) The Red Army is the strongest. (Krasnaia Armiia vsekh silnej.) Refrain: So let the Reds (Tak pust zhe Krasnaia) Grip with power (Szhimaet vlastno) Their bayonets with their callous hand, (Svoj shtyk mozolistoj rukoj,) And all of us have (I vse dolzhny my) Irrepressibly (Neuderzhimo) to go into the last mortal battle! (Idti v poslednij smertnyj boj!) Red Army, march, march forward! (Krasnaia Armiia, marsh, marsh vperiod!) RevVoenSovet calls us into the battle.[3] (RevVoenSovet nas v boj zoviot.) For from the taiga to the british seas (Ved ot tajgi do britanskikh morej) The Red Army is the strongest! (Krasnaia Armiia vsekh silnej!) Refrain: So let the Reds (Tak pust zhe Krasnaia) Grip with power (Szhimaet vlastno) Their bayonets with their callous hand, (Svoj shtyk mozolistoj rukoj,) And all of us have (I vse dolzhny my) Irrepressibly (Neuderzhimo) to go into the last mortal battle! (Idti v poslednij smertnyj boj!) We are fomenting world fire, (My razduvaem pozhar mirovoj,) We going to raze to the ground churches and prisons. (Tserkvi i tiurmy sravniaem s zemlioj.) For from the taiga to the british seas (Ved ot tajgi do britanskikh morej) The Red Army is the strongest! (Krasnaia Armiia vsekh silnej!) Refrain: So let the Reds (Tak pust zhe Krasnaia) Grip with power (Szhimaet vlastno) Their bayonets with their callous hand, (Svoj shtyk mozolistoj rukoj,) And all of us have (I vse dolzhny my) Irrepressibly (Neuderzhimo) to go into the last mortal battle! (Idti v poslednij smertnyj boj!) Remarks: [1] "White Army" were counter-revolutionary pro-czarist forces financed by the international capitalism to overthrow the young Workers' Soviet Republic, to restore the monarchy in Russia and put Czar back on the throne. "Black Baron", as it was above-mentioned, was the nickname of Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, commanding general of the White Army in Southern Russia in the later stages of the Civil War. Wrangel had the habit of dressed a black cossack cherkesska and some of your elite White regiments also dressed black uniforms. [2] "The British Seas" means "seas nearly Britain". The "taiga" is the dense evergreen forest of Eastern Siberia and Russian Far East. [3] "RevVoenSovet" is the abbreviation of the term "Revolutionary Military Council", sometimes it was called very shortly "RVS".