The author of the Russian song "Varyag" was the German poet Greutz.
(Nelly MIZ, ethnographer, Oleg STRATIEVSKY, employee of the Pacific Fleet Museum, especially for "V")
The news of the feat of the crews of the cruiser "Varyag" and the gunboat "Koreets", who took an unequal battle with 14 warships of the Japanese squadron near the port of Chemulpo on February 9, 1904, and, not wanting to surrender to the enemy, who had sunk their ships, quickly flew around the world. In Russia, this caused a wave of patriotic enthusiasm and enthusiasm.
Soon several songs appeared: “Varyag” is going to accomplish his glorious feat ”by the outstanding Russian composer Ts. Cui, the march“ Varyag ”by A. Reiderman and“ Heroic Feat ”by A. Taskin.
But two other songs received truly popular recognition. The date of the appearance of the first of them, apparently, should be considered February 17, 1904, when the Petersburg newspaper “Rus” published the poem “Varyag” (“Cold waves are splashing ...”) by J. Repninsky. A few days later, reprinted by Rizhsky Vestnik, this poem caught the eye of a student at Yuryevsky (Tartu) University, amateur musician F. Bogorodsky. Excited by the events of February 9, 1904, the musician decided to choose a melody on the guitar for these verses. After a while, the favorite song spread throughout the country. This first song about “Varyag” (“Cold waves are splashing ...”) is performed today more often in the choral arrangement by A. Sveshnikov and A. Alexandrov.
The song about “Varyag”, the second in time of its appearance, received the greatest popularity. The history of its creation is as follows.
On February 25, 1904, the German magazine Jugend published the poem In Memory of the Varyag by the famous German poet and playwright Rudolf Greitz. In Russia, the poem was reprinted by the magazine "Sea and Life". Great success came to the song after the appearance in the “New Journal of Foreign Literature, Art and Science” No. 4 for 1904, a Russian translation made by Elena Mikhailovna Studenskaya. In a slightly modified form, it became a song. She was called “Varyag” or “Death of“ Varyag ”. It is this song that begins with the words: “Upward, about comrades, all to their places! The last parade is coming ... ”.
There is an assumption that the authorship of the melody of the song belongs to the musician of the 12th Astrakhan Grenadier Regiment A. Turishchev, who took part in the solemn meeting of the heroes of "Varyag" and "Koreyets" in St. Petersburg in April 1904.
One of the first publications of the song “Varyag” appeared in N. Krasovsky's collection “Varyag”. Military Combat Songs of the Russo-Japanese War ”, published in Moscow in 1906.
"VARANGIAN"
Upstairs you, comrades,
all in their places!
The last parade is coming ...
Our proud "Varyag" does not surrender to the enemy,
Nobody wants mercy.
All the pennants curl and the chains clatter
Anchors are raised to the top,
Get ready for battle, guns in a row
They shine ominously in the sun.
And from the faithful pier
we will go into battle,
Towards our coming death.
We will die for our homeland in the open sea,
Where the yellow-faced devils are waiting.
Whistles and thunders
and rumbles around
The thunder of the guns, the hiss of shells.
And our fearless "Varyag"
Like a pitch hell.
In death throes
bodies tremble,
The thunder of the guns, the smoke and the wailing
And the ship is engulfed in a sea of fire
The moment of farewell has come.
Goodbye, comrades, with God, hurray!
The boiling sea below us.
We didn’t think yesterday,
That today we will die under the waves.
Neither stone nor cross will say,
where did you go
For the glory of the Russian fleet.
Only the waves of the sea
glorified forever
Heroic death of "Varyag".
The popularity of this song exceeded all expectations. Over time, numerous variants of it appeared (about 50 in number). On the rebellious Potemkin, the song about Varyag sounded with a new direction and meaning. She found her second birth during the Great Patriotic War. In the Baltic Fleet, the version of the songwriter V.I.Lebedev-Kumach enjoyed fame:
... Baltic people, forward to the sworn enemies!
Go ahead, fighting guys,
Let's show what the blow of the sailors means.
Let's show that we are from Kronstadt ...
There was a text on the same mu
