Cool fact: This was one of Stalin's favorite songs This song was very famous for being sung by Leonid Utesov very popular Soviet singer, Soviet art generals were extremely dissatisfied with the "heroization of bandits and criminals." Platon Kerzhentsev, head of the repertoire committee of the Art Affairs Committee, warned: "Utyosov, if you sing 'From Odessa Kichman' one more time, it will be your last song." But not everyone "at the top" shared Kerzhentsev's opinion. In 1935, after the epic with the icebreaker Chelyuskin, which got stuck in the Arctic ice and was rescued by our pilots, Stalin held a reception in honor of the polar explorers in the Georgievsky Hall of the Kremlin. Utyosov's orchestra was also invited. At the beginning of the show, Utyosov performed the song "Autumn Pond". The success was average. Suddenly, during a break, a duty officer in uniform with three diamonds on his lapel came up to him and said: “Comrade Utesov, please,” Sing kichman from Odessa. ”Utesov, apologizing, replied that he no longer performs this music. to the artist and repeated his request. This time, Utyosov not only refused to perform the song, but also explained that the head of the repertoire committee, Comrade Kerzhentsev himself, forbade him to sing this song. After some time, the same officer on duty quietly whispered to Leonid Osipovich: "Comrade Utyosov, please, "From Odessa kichman." Comrade Stalin orders." A few days later, Utyosov spoke to Kerzhentsev and reported ironically: For days I performed at the concert "From Odessa Kichman with the audience asking for an encore 3 times" Enraged, Kerzhentsev shouted that from that moment Utesov could consider himself unemployed. And then Utyosov added that he sang "Kichman" at Stalin's request. Kerzhentsev, who was speechless, immediately disappeared from sight.

My right ear enjoyed it very much

Somewhat reminds me of там шли два брата

Art for my Yiddish ears

There are a few mistranslations: Кичман - prison Малина - hideout/safehouse Страждались (and not сражались) - suffered (for) Малахольный - melancholic (in the context of this song)

@deucedwayne

3 ай бұрын

I know that kichman is a prison, but I wanted to use a prison slang in the translation too, so I used the word "joint". About malina, thank you, I couldn't figure out what is that (never heard its usage beyond the berry context). I knew something's off there! But it was too hard to hear it. For malakholnyy I only found the term "mad/cranky". Despite me being a Russian ans Ukrainian bilingual this word waa a novelty to me. Thank you for the mistakes! Will be sure to include it in the description.

Proud to be Odessit☝️💪💪💪