Farewell of Slavianka

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Farewell of Slavianka (in Russian Прощание славянки - Proshchanie Slavianki) is a Russian patriotic march, written by the composer Vasily Agapkin in honour of the Bulgarian women bidding farewell to their husbands who left for the First Balkan War. The march premiered in Tambov in 1912 and was subsequently released as a single. Slavianka means "Slavic woman".

The melody gained popularity in Russia and adjoining countries during the World War I, when the Russian soldiers left their homes accompanied by this music. It was also used as an unofficial anthem of Admiral Kolchak's White Army.

It's incorrect that associations with the tsarist regime and the counterrevolutionary movements were so strong that the Soviet administration had the march suppressed until 1957, when it was used effectively in the award-winning film The Cranes Are Flying.

Proshchanie Slavianki wasn't banned in the Soviet Union. It is old and incorrect legend. This march was even published in official notes collection Official ceremonial repertoire for orchestras of the Red Army (in Russian Служебно-строевой репертуар для оркестров Красной Армии - Sluzhebno-stroevoi repertuar dlya orkestrov Krasnoy Armii), Moscow, Voenizdat, 1945. Editor of this collection was great Soviet march composer Semen Alexandrovich Tchernetzky (1881-1950), in 1925-1949 - Head of Military Music Service of People's Commissariat of Defense, later Ministry of Armed Forces of the Soviet Union. So, if this march was published in this collection, very official and strongly recommended for Soviet military orchestras, it couldn't be banned at the same time.

Also exists an recording, made precisely before 1948 and probably in the end of 1930-s and in the beginning of 1940-s, by military orchestra with Ivan Vasil'evich Petrov (1906-1975).

Subsequently, several Russian and Polish composers attempted to write lyrics for this music. During the 1990s, the Yabloko party lobbied for the march to be adopted as the National Anthem of Russia, but without success. Currently, the march is recognized as the anthem of the Tambov Oblast. Ships cruising along the Volga and the Rossiya train which runs from Moscow to Vladivostok make use of the tune before departing.