"And Lenin is so young..." - song history
Table of Contents
In the songbook of the star couple Pakhmutova and Dobronravov, there is no song that would not be familiar to Soviet listeners! But neither "Tenderness" nor "The Team of Our Youth" received as much criticism as this song... It should be noted that it sounded from absolutely different sides. Today we will talk about the song about "young Lenin and young October"....
History of Creation
Before we talk about the history of the cult composition, we suggest to remember its creators - spouses Nikolai Dobronravov and Alexandra Pakhmutova.
Nikolai Dobronravov is a famous Soviet and Russian songwriter. He is also the author of many hits by his wife Alexandra Pakhmutova.
Alexandra Pakhmutova is a true legend of Soviet and Russian composer art. Her music was the most popular in the Soviet Union, for which Alexandra was honoured with the title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1984!
Together this couple created timeless hits, which are still loved and re-listened to with awe... The compositions "Hope", "Tenderness", "The Team of Our Youth" and, of course, "And Again the Fight Continues" can be safely attributed to such compositions!
The song was written specially for the closing ceremony of the seventeenth Komsomol Congress (1974). Actually, at this event, the future hit song was first performed... But it is not known exactly who gave it the sound. But on the record released in 1975, the composition was performed by Iosif Kobzon!
Subsequently, Alexandra Pakhmutova recalled that the song was recorded in an emergency mode! Kobzon and the Pesnyary VIA even had to sacrifice sleep... But it was worth it!
However, on television, apparently, Lev Leshchenko was much more favoured! For it was he who performed the song in the final of the festival "Song-75"!
Prohibition!
As mentioned above, the song about "young Lenin and young October" was first heard at the Komsomol Congress, after which... it was banned. Despite the ideological accuracy of the song, the officials rushed to make various claims... And not only about the lyrics, but also about the music! It was a real nonsense in Pakhmutova's career....
Alexandra Pakhmutova: "We just didn't fit the mould: at party congresses it was customary to perform solid, measured works... But we had a Komsomol congress - young, very energetic people! So I decided to compose a fresh, encouraging song! And I was right: the Komsomol members really liked it! But the censors found it too crazy..."
"...I didn't change anything! I never made a tragedy out of the fact that one of my songs was banned! I think that everything should be treated in a more philosophical way: not today, then tomorrow fortune will smile!"
In fact, Alexandra Pakhmutova was absolutely right! The song "And Again the Battle Continues" was recognised in just a year and a half! It remains relevant to this day...
Versions by other performers...
Apart from Lev Leshchenko and Iosif Kobzon, Leonid Smetannikov became a rather famous performer of this hit:
Among the most modern popular covers is the version by the Novosibirsk trio SILENZIUM:
https://youtu.be/eT80Jl5f4Ro
And here is a composition performed by Yegor Letov (Civil Defence band):
