“Soldiers of the Center group” (other names: “Song of German soldiers” , “The soldier is always healthy ...” ) is a song by Vladimir Vysotsky dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War . It was written on April 27, 1965 for the performance of the Taganka Theater “Fallen and Alive”. The first song by Vysotsky, written specifically for the play - commissioned by the theater.
| Soldiers of the Center group | ||||
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| Album | Moscow - Odessa (At the concerts of Vladimir Vysotsky; No. 3 ) | |||
| Date of issue | 1988 | |||
| Date Recorded | 1967 | |||
| Genre | Author song | |||
| Song language | Russian | |||
| Label | Melody | |||
| Author | Vladimir Vysotsky | |||
| Track list of the album "Moscow - Odessa (At the concerts of Vladimir Vysotsky; No. 3 ) " | ||||
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 External video files | |
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| Vladimir Vysotsky Soldiers of the "Center" group . Kiev. 1971 Rare entry [1] |
In the author’s homeland, the record recording of the song was first released posthumously in 1988, and the text was published in the Student Meridian magazine in 1989. .
Contents
The song was written on behalf of German soldiers marching along the “scorched” territory of Soviet Ukraine. The sketch of events and moods in the German army at the beginning of the war is presented - before the soldiers going on the offensive, “everything is in bloom”, behind them - “everything is on fire”, marching faces “shine” and “sparkle their boots”; soldiers are counting on an early victory and a return to their "blonde" brides. Each soldier is healthy, and “ready for anything”, reflections are not supposed - decisions for all are made by the Fuhrer .
Creation History
According to auto-recognition, the military theme attracted Vysotsky by the extreme nature of the circumstances that create space for the disclosure of man [2] [3] [4] .
According to the scriptwriter Vladimir Akimov , the song was written by Vysotsky on April 27, 1965 in the apartment of the actor and director Levon Kocharian :
We sat, chatting about something, and Volodya ... took the guitar, went into another room and did not appear for some time. Then he comes and asks me: “Which of the groups of German armies fought in Ukraine?” <...> And I answered him that basically the group of German armies “ South ” operated there, but the “ Center ” group participated, which was moving across Belarus, capturing while the northern regions of Ukraine. Volodya listened, nodded, and left again, and we, completely ignoring this, continued the conversation. Then he returned and sang this song on the move [5] [4] .
The song was written by Vysotsky for the performance of the Fallen and the Living Theater on the Taganka Theater , dedicated to poets and writers who participated in the Great Patriotic War and was conceived by the theater for the 20th anniversary of the Victory . According to the certificate of authorship, this is the first song written by him specifically for the play - commissioned by director Yu. P. Lyubimov [K 1] . The contract of the theater with the author was concluded on April 2, 1965 [3] .
The performance represented a poetic composition and consisted of separate short stories, the actors performed several roles. The song “Soldiers of the Center Group” served as a musical illustration for the novel “The Dictator-Conqueror”, where Vysotsky played the roles of Hitler [K 2] and Chaplin. The song in the play did not belong to the hero whom Vysotsky played, but to the characters - four German soldiers, “brave and arrogant”, descending along the side roads during the Führer’s monologue: “Forget the words“ humanism, “right,” “culture” ” [8 ] [9] [4] .
On the scorched plain -
Behind the meter meter -
Go to Ukraine
Soldiers of the "Center" group.
<...>
And before us everything blooms -
Everything burns behind us.
No need to think! - the one with us
Who will decide everything for us.
According to the poet’s biographer N. A. Andreev, the lines of Vysotsky ’s song “Do not think! - with us, the one who decides everything for us ” was regarded by the commission for the reception of the performance as an allusion , which was one of the reasons for the ban on“ Fallen and Alive ” [2] . Another biographer of Vysotsky, V. V. Bakin, points out that equating the personality cult to fascism was called the "main drawback" of the play. At the request of the commission, numerous alterations of the performance were undertaken, however, the team “managed to defend the song“ Soldiers of the Center group ” [2] [11] [4] .
The performance was allowed by the end of the anniversary year. The repeatedly postponed premiere took place at the Taganka Theater on November 4, 1965 [2] [4] .
Artistic Features
Literary scholars and critics note the high degree of complexity of the task of creating a psychologically accurate, non-caricature song on behalf of a military adversary. According to N. Andreev, Vysotsky coped with it “with splendor” - the rhythm found by the author contains “threat, pressure and at the same time doom” [2] .
The successful rhythm includes the rhythm of the song and philologist Vl. Novikov :
“... Vysotsky was given an interesting creative task: to write a song on behalf of German soldiers. And not caricatured, but psychologically convincing, so that the confidence of brutal force that does not know doubt sounded in it. And he found a rhythm for this - both musical and verbal ” [3] .
VV Bakin characterized the song as "dashing and tough" [9] .
The historical outline of the song is not strictly documented - the “ Center ” group was not the main active force of the Nazi offensive in the mentioned territory, but this name was chosen by Vysotsky for phonetic reasons [12] [3] .
V.V. Akimov recalled:
Later, I asked Volodya why ... did you take “Center” after all to the song? After all, the group “ South ” was still going on? And he replies: “You understand,“ Center ”- the word is much better. It snaps like a shutter! ” [12] .
Historical Context
Literary scholars and critics agree on the definition of the allusive meaning of the text. The song was written by Vysotsky during the years of turning back from the platform of the XX and XXII congresses of the CPSU , which debunked the personality cult of Stalin [13] . “According to the laws of Tagan shooting, you must be able to fall into two goals at once ...”, the researcher of Vysotsky Vl. Novikov . - We also had “the one who decides everything” ... ” [3]
Forced to note that at least formally Vl. Novikov is wrong. According to the laws of the USSR, during the Stalin personality cult [13] "From 1923 to 1941, Stalin did not hold any government posts. As leader of the party and people, he led the country through party structures." [14] So, formally, he was not the one who decides everything.
Noting the re-actualization of the military theme during the crisis of Soviet ideology after the end of the thaw and the coming to power of L.I. Brezhnev , the literary critic I.V. Kukulin shares the description of the experience of World War II in Russian literature of the post-war decades into two types - emotionally and existentially uncomfortable experience. Pointing out that the first type was welcomed and the second rejected by “ideological instances,” the critic characterizes the consequence of this approach as “turning over” the problems: using the military theme allowed by censorship to create a metaphor “of any extreme experience, any risk situation, any hopeless, tragic experiences” [ 15] .
Considering Vysotsky’s “military” songs in the context of using the topic as “material for constructing a total metaphor for existential experience”, Kukulin cites the song “Soldiers of the Center group” as an example of censored legitimization of not historical, but contemporary, author of existentially uncomfortable experience: [15]
The need to describe the states of doom and absurd excitement, their possible otherworldliness with respect to everyday morality led to the appearance in the work of Vysotsky of a song written on behalf of a Nazi soldier - detached, but psychologically analyzing ... [15]
Famous copyrighted performances
- 1965 - Record by L. Kocharyan
- December 10, 1966 - Concert at the Hydroproject
- November 1967 - Concert in the recreation center "Mir"
- January 26, 1968 - Concert at the Scientific and Research Film and Photo Institute
- 1973 - Record by C. Mustafidi
- January 23, 1976 - Lecture concert in Ivanteevka
- February 10, 1976 - Lecture concert in Dubna
- June 12, 1976 - Lecture concert in Kolomna
- 1966, 1973, 1976 - Concerts in the club-store "Eureka" [16]
Editions
During the life of Vysotsky, cassette tape recordings and lyrics were released by the Parisian publishing house YMCA-Press as part of the collection Songs of Russian Bards (1977) entitled "The soldier is always healthy, the soldier is ready for anything ..." [17] [18] . The posthumous text of the song was published in 1981 in New York as part of the author's collection of "Songs and Poems" [19] .
In the author’s homeland, the record was first released in 1988 by Melody in the series of records “At the concerts of Vladimir Vysotsky” (as part of the third record, “Moscow-Odessa”; code M60 48257 006, M60 48258; record 1967) [20] . The lyrics were published in 1989 in No. 4 of the Student Meridian magazine. Since then, is included in the collected works of Vysotsky and individual collections of his poems. In the four-volume collected works, the text is published as part of the 1st volume in the section of “main” songs [K 3] , which includes “songs sounded in theatrical performances ... but in the societal and aesthetic consciousness of the 1960s and 1970s, primarily related to individual creativity Vysotsky ” [22] [10] .
Comments
- ↑ Vysotsky offered 4 more of his songs, which were not included in the play for censorship reasons - “How many fallen soldiers died along the roads ...”, “Stars”, “Heights” and “ Mass graves ” [6] .
- ↑ According to V.V.Bakin: “He played strongly, grotesquely. If Gubenko in this role laughed at the possessed Fuhrer, then Vysotsky hated it, his laugh is angry, he warns: “This is dangerous!” ” [7] .
- ↑ Commentators on the four-volume collected works of Vysotsky also give an early version of the ending of the song:(Further, the text, which in the final version became the 3rd verse.) [21] .
And yet we can.
Cowardice is not with us,
And just do not fade
Soldier bayonets.
Notes
- ↑ Vl. Vysotsky. Soldiers of the "Center" group . YouTube - Kiev. 1971. Rare entry . Date of treatment May 27, 2016.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Andreev N. Vysotsky and the war: it was, it was, it was ... // Homeland: magazine. - M. , 2015 .-- No. 315 (3) . - S. 86-89 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Novikov, 2001 , Ch. "Growing into the Taganka."
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Kuri S.I. History of military songs by Vladimir Vysotsky. Part 1: “Mass graves” (1963), “Penal battalions” (1963), “Soldiers of the Center group” (1965) // Time Z: Journal for the intellectual elite of society. - M .: Publishing House "Time", 2014. - No. 1 .
- ↑ Baku, 2011 , “The Fallen and the Living,” p. 143-144.
- ↑ Baku, 2011 , “The Fallen and the Living,” p. 143.
- ↑ Baku, 2011 , “The Fallen and the Living,” p. 144.
- ↑ Novikov, 2001 , Ch. "Difficult autumn."
- ↑ 1 2 Bakin, 2011 , “Fallen and Alive,” p. 143.
- ↑ 1 2 Vysotsky, 2008 .
- ↑ Baku, 2011 , “The Fallen and the Living.”
- ↑ 1 2 Bakin, 2011 , “Fallen and Alive,” p. 144.
- ↑ 1 2 Bakin, 2011 , “Fallen and Alive,” p. 141.
- ↑ Igor Pykhalov & Igor Denisov. Chapter 5 Stalin was completely intolerant of collectivity in leadership and work; he did not gather congresses and plenums of the Central Committee // USSR without Stalin: The Path to Disaster. - Yauza Press, 2009.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Kukulin, 2005 .
- ↑ Song of Vladimir Vysotsky “Soldiers of the Center group” .
- ↑ Vysotsky V. The soldier is always healthy, the soldier is ready for anything ... // Songs of Russian bards / Vladimir Vysotsky, Julius Kim, Yuri Kukin and others; [comp. B. Alloy; artist L. Nusberg]. - P .: YMCA-Press, 1978. - S. 12. - 156 p. - (Series 1).
- ↑ Tsybulsky M. “Songs of Russian Bards” - the first collected works of Vladimir Vysotsky . Vladimir Vysotsky: Catalogs and Articles (December 12, 2013). Date of treatment September 30, 2017. Archived September 30, 2017.
- ↑ Vysotsky V. Soldiers of the “Center” group // Vysotsky V. Songs and Poems / comp. A. An. Lviv - New York: Literary Abroad, 1981. - T. 1. - S. 102. - 384 p. - ISBN 0-939636-00-X .
- ↑ Vladimir Vysotsky “Moscow - Odessa” 1988 . Information portal of the Chanson genre. - At the concerts of Vladimir Vysotsky - a series of records. Date of treatment May 26, 2016.
- ↑ Novikova O., Novikov Vl., 2008 .
- ↑ Novikova O., Novikov Vl., 2008 .
Literature
- Vysotsky V. Soldiers of the Center Center // Sobr. Op. : in 4 t./stat. and comment. O. and Vl. Novikovs. - M .: Time, 2008. - T. 1: Songs 1961-1970 . - ISBN 978-5-9691-0603-1 .
- Novikova O., Novikov Vl. Comments // Vysotsky V. Sobr. Op. : in 4 volumes. - M .: Time, 2008. - T. 1: Songs 1961-1970 . - ISBN 978-5-9691-0603-1 .
- Novikov Vl. Vysotsky: Chapters from the book // New World: Journal. - M. , 2001. - No. 11 .
- Kukulin I.V. Regulation of pain: (Preliminary notes on the transformation of the traumatic experience of the Great Patriotic War / World War II in Russian literature of the 1940-1970s) // An untouchable reserve: journal. - M. , 2005. - No. 2–3 (40–41) .
- Bakin V.V. Vladimir Vysotsky without myths and legends . - M .: Eksmo; Algorithm, 2011 .-- 688 p. - (Legends of the author's song). - 6000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-699-53512-5 .
Links
- Song by Vladimir Vysotsky "Soldiers of the Center Group." 1965 . Songs of Vladimir Vysotsky. Date of treatment May 26, 2016.