Revolutionary songs from the collection of Boris Fedorovich Lebedev

Abstract

In the following paper a handwritten collection of revolutionary songs is published for the first time. It belonged to the famous public figure Boris Fedorovich Lebedev (1877-1948), a graduate of the faculty of law (Moscow State University), a student revolutionary and later a prominent revolutionary in his own right, a journalist, a translator and also a son-in-law and associate of Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin. In addition to the original versions of famous revolutionary songs and revolutionary lyrics that Lebedev had composed himself, the notebook contains a draft of a resolution from a student meeting (1902, February 9), as well as some evidence of the revolutionary biography of the owner. The collection presents an interesting case of revolutionary songs being recorded by a revolutionary intellectual. The choice of song texts, their themes and poetic topics reflect the political views ofB. F. Lebedev as well as the agenda of the student revolutionary movement of the late 19th - early 20th century. The collection includes four paraphrases of “Dubinushka”, which became a song symbol of student political protest in Russia. Of greatest interest are the lyrics (probably authored by Boris Lebedev himself) of the “Student Dubinushka” that begin with “Mnogo pesen slyhal ya v Butyrskoy tyur’me” (‘I have heard many songs in the Butyrka prison’) and share the characteristics of chronicle songs, traditional student songs and revolutionary poetry.