The Bryansk Forest Sternly Stirred
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| Lyrics | A. V. Sofronov, 1942 |
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| Music | S. A. Katz |
| Adopted | November 5, 1998 |
| Audio sample | |
The Bryansk Forest Sternly Stirred | |
«The Bryansk forest rustled harshly…» is a Soviet song from the Great Patriotic War. Lyrics by A. V. Sofronova, music by S. A. Katz.
The Bryansk forest rustled sternly…
—The Bryansk forest rustled sternly,
Blue fogs descended,
And the pines heard all around,
How they marched against the Germans[P 1] partisans.
A secret path between the birches
They hurried through the dense thickets,
And each carried on his shoulders
A rifle with cast bullets.
And on a terrible night,
They attacked the fascist headquarters,
And the bullets whistled loudly between the tree trunks
In the Bryansk oak groves.
There is no salvation for the enemies in the forests:
Soviet grenades are flying,
And the commander shouts after them:
"Destroy the invaders, guys!"
...The Bryansk forest rustled sternly,
Blue fogs descended,
And the pines heard around,
How the partisans were marching with victory.
1942
According to the law of Bryansk Oblast No. 47-Z "On the symbols of the Bryansk Oblast" dated 20.11.98, adopted by the Bryansk Regional Duma November 5, 1998, the song "The Bryansk forest rustled harshly" was declared the anthem of the Bryansk Oblast.[1]
History of creation
[edit]The song was written during the Great Patriotic War, in the autumn of 1942, while moving to the partisans, deep behind enemy lines.[2] The basis was the 19th century folk song "The Burrowing Storm" about the death of Ermak, which was the favorite song of the first detachment commander, D. E. Kravtsov.[3]
On the night of November 6–7, 1942, Anatoly Sofronov performed it for the first time among the partisans. The author's recollections:
I sang it once, they asked me to sing it again, then a third time. They hugged me. And suddenly someone remembered that they had their own accordion player, and that they had to find him by morning and bring him here, and that he had a good ear and would definitely remember it... The next morning, a blind accordion player turned up in the same house. I don't remember his first or last name. I sat with him for about an hour, slowly humming the melody of the song to him, and somewhere by the end of that hour he was singing the song with me, and around us in that wooden house in the middle of the burnt village people gathered and also sang the song “The Bryansk forest rustled harshly” together with us…[4]
Notes
[edit]Footnotes
[edit]- ^ The lyrics are given in accordance with the 1942 version; after the war, the beginning of the line was modified to read "how they marched to battle" or "how they marched along the path."
Sources
[edit]- ^ "pravo.gov.ru // LAW OF THE BRYANSK REGION ON THE SYMBOLS OF THE BRYANSK REGION. Adopted by the Bryansk Regional Duma on November 5, 1998". Archived from the original on 6 June 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ N. K. Karlin (1985). "I remember everything without a trace". Wreath of Glory. Vol. 8. War behind enemy lines. Moscow: Sovremennik. p. 581.
- ^ "Commander, who earned recognition…". dvestnik.ru (in Russian). 14 December 2021. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
- ^ "Folklore songs of Bryansk partisans". Official website of the Bryansk Region Administration. Archived from the original on 29 November 2007. Retrieved 27 September 2007.