Old Russian Ballad
"Stenka Razin" has the distinction of being the first Russian dramatic silent film production - a tribute to the determination of its producer, Aleksandr Drankov. When his first seventeen actualities failed to win serious attention in early 1908, he answered the widespread call for Russian-made films with Stenka Razin. This account of the popular brigand leader who dallied with a captured Persian princess was adapted from a traditional ballad "From the Island to the Deep Stream" and Drankov commissioned original music to accompany his film from no less than Ippolitov-lvanov, then head of the Moscow Conservatoire. Energetic promotion ensured the film's commercial success and launched Drankov's career as a producer.
The Ballad of Stenka Razin
From beyond the wooded island
To the river wide and free
Proudly sailed the arrow-breasted
Ships of Cossack yeomanry.
On the first is Stenka Razin
With his princess by his side
Drunken holds in marriage revels
With his beauteous young bride
From behind there comes a murmur
"He has left his sword to woo;
One short night and Stenka Razin
Has become a woman, too."
Stenka Razin hears the murmur
Of his discontented band
And his lovely Persian princess
He has circled with his hand.
His dark brows are drawn together
As the waves of anger rise;
And the blood comes rushing swiftly
To his piercing jet black eyes
"I will give you all you ask for
Head and heart and life and hand."
And his voice rolls out like thunder
Out across the distant land.
Volga, Volga, Mother Volga
Wide and deep beneath the sun,
You have never seen such a present
From the Cossacks of the Don.
So that peace may reign forever
In this band so free and brave
Volga, Volga, Mother Volga
Make this lovely girl a grave.
Now, with one swift mighty motion
He has raised his bride on high
And has cast her where the waters
Of the Volga roll and sigh.
"Dance, you fools, and let's be merry
What is this that's in your eyes?
Let us thunder out a chanty
To the place where beauty lies."
From beyond the wooded island
To the river wide and free
Proudly sailed the arrow-breasted
Ships of Cossack yeomanry.
Stepan (Sten'ka) Timofeyevich Razin (Russian: Степан (Стенька) Тимофеевич Разин, 1630 -- June 16 [O.S. June 6] 1671) was a Cossack leader who led a major uprising against the nobility and Tsar's bureaucracy in South Russia. In 1671 he and his brother Frol Razin were captured at Kaganlyk, his last fortress, and carried to Moscow, where, after tortures, Stepan was quartered alive in the Bolotnaya Square. However, the rebellion did not end with Razin's death. The rebels in Astrakhan held out until November 26, 1671, when Prince Ivan Miloslavsky restored government control.