"Po dikim stepyam Zabaikalya" ( rus, По диким степям Забайкалья, t=By the wild Steppes of the Transbaikalia) is a Russian folk song, also known as "Brodyaga" ( rus, Бродяга, t=tramp, vagabond). It was published and recorded at the beginning of the 20th century and has since become part of the repertoire of various Russian and foreign artists.

History

According to popular belief, the song was composed by convicts in

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

towards the end of the 19th century. The revolutionary Ivan Belokonsky insisted, though, that it was known in Siberia in the 1880s, but there was no indication of the author of the lyrics. According to Ivan Nazarov (and Alexander Smolik), Ivan Kondratyev was the author of the lyrics, although the poem is not included in the latter's last published volume of poems, ''Under the noise of the Oak Groves''. In 1906, Swedish composer Wilhelm Harteveld also collected the song during his trip to

and published it in 1908. In the early 20th century, several recordings of the song were made in Russia: * Brodyaga (From the songs of convicts) performed by

Nadezhda Plevitskaya Nadezhda Vasilievna Plevitskaya (russian: Надежда Васильевна Плевицкая; born ''Vinnikova'', russian: Винникова; 17 January 18841 October 1940) was a popular female Russian singer and a Soviet agent. Ea ...

and released by

Pathé Records Pathé Records was an international record company and label and producer of phonographs, based in France, and active from the 1890s through the 1930s. Early years The Pathé record business was founded by brothers Charles and Émile Pathé, ...

in Moscow, 1908. * Brodyaga (From the songs of convicts) also performed by Nadezhda Plevitskaya;

Beka Records Beka Records was a record label based in Germany, active from about 1903 in music, 1903 to 1925 in music, 1925. Before World War I, Beka also made gramophone records for the United Kingdom market under the Beka-Grand Records label. The company ...

, Moscow, 1909. * Brodyaga (From the songs of convicts), performed by Nina Dulkevich (russian: Нина Викторовна Дулькевич), Pathé Records, 1912. 21, исп. Нина Дулькевич. All these releases credit Ivan Kondratyev as the author of the lyrics.

Lyrics

There are several versions, which differ slightly in words or expressions. Most musicians omit some verses. The following is the most common version. (The verses in italics are those most often omitted):

Recent performances

The song remains in the repertoire of various Russian artists. The best known performances include those by: * Pyatnitsky Choir (numerous versions) * The Siberian Russian Folk Choir (russian: Сибирский русский народный хор) conducted by V. Molchalov, soloist Yelena Ponomaryova. * Voronezh Russian Folk Choir * Aleksandr Mikhaylov * Yuri Sorokin (1980s) *

Zhanna Bichevskaya Zhanna Vladimirovna Bichevskaya ( en, Jeanne Bichevskaya; russian: Жанна Владимировна Бичевская; born June 17, 1944) is a prominent Russian singer and folk musician. She was born in Moscow. In 1971 she graduated from th ...

Andrey Makarevich Andrey Vadimovich Makarevich PAR (russian: link=no, Андре́й Вади́мович Макаре́вич; born 11 December 1953 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union) is a Soviet and Russian rock musician and the founder of Russia's oldest ...

(1996) * Mongol Shuudan (2004) *

Chaif Chaif (Чайф) is a Russian rock band formed in 1984 in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), Russia, by Vladimir Shakhrin and Vladimir Begunov. Their name is derived from the word ''chai'', meaning tea, and ''kaif'' (slang word), meaning pleasure. ...

(2009)

Performance abroad

The first recording outside the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

was by

Electrecord Electrecord is a Romanian record label which was founded in 1932. It was subsequently transformed into the national recording company following the socialist doctrine of centralization and was the only record label in Communist Romania. History ...

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

in 1945 and released as "Brodyaga". It was performed by

Pyotr Leshchenko Pyotr Konstantinovich Leshchenko (russian: Пётр Константинович Лещенко; 2 June 189816 July 1954), a singer in the Russian Empire, and later Romania, is universally considered "the King of Russian Tango" and specifically kno ...

, a Russian singer who had emigrated to

. The song has also been performed by foreign artists, including: *

Czesław Niemen Czesław Niemen (; February 16, 1939 – January 17, 2004), born Czesław Juliusz Wydrzycki, and often credited as just Niemen, was one of the most important and original Polish singer-songwriters and rock balladeers of the 20th century, singing ...

(Poland) * Bernard Ładysz (Poland) * Jaroslaw Jaromi Drazewski (Poland) *

Artur Gadowski Artur Gadowski (born 1 June 1967) is a Polish musician, vocalist of a rock band IRA. Biography Gadowski comes from a musical family. His father played the saxophone whereas his mother was a vocal instructor. His life's turning point happened i ...

(Poland) * Piotr Celiński (Poland) * Baltie Lāči group (Latvia) *

Zivan Saramandic Zione ( fa, زيوان, also Romanized as Zīvān) is a village in , Fashapuyeh District, Ray County, Tehran Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western ...

(Serbia) * Zura Pirveli (Georgia)

Films

The song was featured in the Russian movie

Ballad of Siberia ''The Ballad of Siberia'' (in ), also known as ''Symphony of Life'', produced by Mosfilm and released in 1948, was the Soviet Union's second color film (after ''The Stone Flower''). It was directed by Ivan Pyryev and starred Vladimir Druzhnikov an ...

(russian: Сказание о земле Сибирской), performed by actor

Vladimir Druzhnikov Vladimir Vasilievich Druzhnikov (russian: Влади́мир Васи́льевич Дру́жников; 30 May 1922 – 20 February 1994) was a Soviet actor. He appeared in more than 40 films between 1945 and 1992. He was a People's Artis ...

, being a secondary theme song.

Spinoffs

A parody of the song called ''"On the wild steppes of Arizona" (russian: По диким степям Аризоны)'', with lyrics by Viktor Baranov performed by Artur Gladyshev. The song was released in 1997 in the album ''"Red America" (russian: Квасная Америка)'' .
Неуловимый Арчи (Артур Гладышев) - Квасная Америка (1997)

References

{{reflist

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20150519020640/http://www.oldchita.org/songs/216-2011-04-22-15-26-55.html Russian folk songs