Composed by Pavel Gorinshtejn and Samuel Pokrass in 1920, in the midst of the Russian Civil War between the so-called “Red” (Bolshevik) and “White” (pro-Tsarist) Russian factions, “White Army, Black Baron” was intended as a combat ballad for Vladimir Lenin’s Red Army.
Lyrics
White is the Army and Black the Baron
That want to restore the old Tsar’s throne
But from the taiga to British seas
The people’s Red Army’s at the peak of strength!
Let the Red Army
Take in its journey
A bayonet with its hardened hand,
And now we must all
Unstopped by walls
Go into one last deadly stand!
Oh people’s Red Army, let’s march on our way!
The Rev-Mil-Council calls us into the fray.
For from the taiga to British seas
The people’s Red Army’s at the peak of strength!
Flames and fires worldwide we seek to ignite,
Razing down churches and prisons in tide.
For from the taiga to British seas
The people’s Red Army’s at the peak of strength!