While the song has a separate refrain, the verses repeat the claim that "The Red Army is stronger than all", which came to be the song's conventional title.[citation needed]
The first verse of the song reads as follows:
Белая армия, чёрный барон
Снова готовят нам царский трон,
Но от тайги до британских морей
Красная Армия всех сильней.
"Black Baron" was a nickname of Wrangel's, from his alleged penchant for wearing (and dressing some of his elite units in) black uniforms.
Wrangel's offensive was indeed halted by the Red Army, and Wrangel and his troops were forced to retreat to Crimea in November 1920, pursued by both Red and Black Army cavalry and infantry. Wrangel and the remains of his army were evacuated from Crimea to Constantinople on 14 November 1920.
The song became popular in the early days of the Soviet Union. It was sung in 1923 at the rally in Leningrad against the Curzon Line, the "British seas" acquiring new significance in view of Lord Curzon's ultimatum. In a letter to a school for blind students in the Vologda region, Nadezhda Krupskaya—wife of Vladimir Lenin—named it as one of her favorite songs alongside "The Internationale". The phrase "from the taiga to the British Seas" became something of an idiomatic expression used by other authors, such as by V. A. Lugovsky in his 1926 poem "Pesni o vetre" ('Song About the Wind').[citation needed]
In its early oral transmission from 1920 to 1925, the song underwent some variations.
Gorinshtein later recalled that his original lyrics had four or five verses, and that his original refrain was slightly different.[citation needed]
The march was first printed in 1925, and subsequently published under the titles of «От тайги до британских морей» ('For from the Taiga to the British Seas'), «Красная армия» and «Красноармейская» ('Red Army'). It was not until 1937 that the conventional title had settled on «Красная Армия всех сильней» ('The Red Army Is the Strongest to Be!'). Between the 1920s and the 1940s, the song was reproduced without indication of its authors. It was only in the 1950s that musicologist A. Shilov established the authorship of Gorinshtein and Pokrass.[citation needed]
In Red Vienna, the tune was used for the song „Die Arbeiter von Wien“ ('The Workers of Vienna'), highlighting those fighting for a bright future of the proletariat.
I
The White Army and the Black Baron
Are trying to restore the Tsar's throne,
But from the taiga to the British seas
The Red Army is the strongest of all!
Refrain: Let the Red Army Masterfully grip Its bayonet with its toil-hardened hand, And we must all Irrepressibly Go into a last deadly fight!
II
Red Army, march, march forward!
The Revolutionary Military Council calls us into battle.
For from the taiga to the British seas
The Red Army is the strongest of all!
Refrain
III
We are fanning the flames of a world-wide fire,
We will raze churches and prisons to the ground.
For from the taiga to the British seas
The Red Army is the strongest of all!
I
La blanka armeo, la nigra baron',
Ree por ni pretas la caran tron'
Sed de la tajgo ĝis la britaj mar'
Haltigos neniu la ruĝular'!
Refreno:
𝄆 Kaj tiel ni, ruĝaj,
Estu venkantaj
Kun bajoneto enmane
Kaj ĉiuj ni
Sen oscili
Iru batalen ĝismorte! 𝄇
II
Ruĝa armeo, antaŭen ni ir'!
Neniu el ni timas 'sti martir'!
Ĉar de la tajgo ĝis la britaj mar'
Haltigos neniu la ruĝular'!
Refreno
III
Ni tute detruos la mondon malnov',
Fari ion ajn libere ni pov'
Ĉar de la tajgo ĝis la britaj mar'
Haltigos neniu la ruĝular'!
Refreno
Other variations
The tune was also used for communist songs in other languages, including in German in the Weimar Republic by German communists in the 1920s. An early German version with the incipit „Weißes Gesindel und adlige Brut“ ('White Riffraff and Noble Scum') was a free translation of the original lyrics:[4]
Weißes Gesindel und adlige Brut
baun am zaristischen Throne gar gut.
Doch von Sibirien zum Baltischen Meer;
die Rote Armee ist das stärkere Heer.
White riff-raff and noble scum
are busily rebuildin' the tsarist throne.
but from Siberia to the Baltic Sea;
the Red Army is the strongest to be.
Wir sind das Bauvolk der kommenden Welt,
Wir sind der Sämann, die Saat und das Feld.
Wir sind die Schnitter der kommenden Mahd,
Wir sind die Zukunft und wir sind die Tat.
We are the builders of the coming world,
We are the sower, the seed and the field,
We are the reapers of the coming mowing,
We are the future and we are the deed.
The German version was further adapted into Turkish, as "Avusturya İşçi Marşı" ('Austrian Workers' March'). The first verse of Turkish version reads:
Hayat denilen kavgaya girdik, çelik adımlarla yürüyoruz
Biz bu karanlık yolun sonunda doğacak güneşi görüyoruz
Dağları aşıyor, bak yakınlaşıyor, Kızılyıldız'a hep koşun
Bu bir rüya değil, bu bir hülya değil, yıldızıdır kurtuluşun
We walked into a fight called "life", we step with feet of steel
We see the sun that'll rise at this dark way's end
It's climbing over mountains, look, it's comin' closer, march towards the Red Star
This ain't a dream, this ain't a reverie, this is the star of liberation
^"Красная армия всех сильней". A-PESNI песенник анархиста-подпольщика (An Underground Anarchist's Songbook). Archived from the original on 15 November 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2024. Мелодия, возможно, создана под влиянием фольклора восточноевропейских евреев. Похожий мотив слышится в песне на идиш "Dus Zekele mit Koilen" ("Маленький мешочек с углем"), или просто "Koilen", впервые записанной на пластинку в 1919 году в США выходцем из России Мишкой Цыгановым. В этой же песне используется мотив, похожий на "Bella ciao".
A. V. Shilov, Из истории первых советских песен 1917–24 ["On the History of the First Soviet Songs, 1917–24"], Moscow, 1963.
A. Sokhor, Как начиналась советская музыка ["How Soviet Music began"], "МЖ" no. 2, 1967.
N. Kryukov, M. Shvedov, Русские советские песни (1917–1977) ["Russian Soviet Songs 1917–1977], "Худож. лит.", 1977.
Yu. E. Biryukov, История создания песни «Красная Армия всех сильнее» ["History of the Creation of the Song “The Red Army is the Strongest of All”] (muzruk.info, 2009)
