"We are longing for Changes!" - an iconic Rock Song of Glasnost' and Perestroika that led to the collapse Soviet Union
This song was also reinterpreted in Ukrainian to bring changes to Ukraine. Now it's being translated into English. Plus, another film for your family movie night.
Original version:
"My zhdyom peremen" (Russian: «Мы ждём перемен», lit. '"We are waiting (longing) for changes"'), also known as "Peremen!" (Russian: «Перемен!», lit. '"Changes!"') is a song by the Soviet rock band Kino, written by Viktor Tsoi. The song has become a iconic during Glasnost' and Perestroika, used as protest song for political movements against totalitarian regimes in Post-Soviet states.
Click on this Youtube link to listen this song with overlaid with footage of dramatic events of the August 1993 that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Below you can also listen to it as originally performed at the of 1987 film Assa - with English subtitles. The film itself has become a cult film, due to the fact that it was one of the films that brought Russian rock music from the underground into the mainstream. The release of Assa is seen as a benchmark for when Perestroika reached the mass culture, and entered its prime phase. And you can watch the entire film here (also with English subtitles!)
Importantly, you can feel - with goose-bumps in your skin - the energy that this song possesses and how it is getting everyone to stand up and fight for changes. And such changes have arrived: first to Russia (to break away from USSR in 1993), and then to Ukraine (to break away from USSR-becoming Russia) in 2014 - in both cases through peaceful demonstrations, which in both cases, we met with military offence (with luckily no deaths in Moscow, but over 100 deaths of civilians in Kiev) and then led to change of the government and the whole lifestyle (more democracy and freedom).
Ukrainian version:
Below is the Ukrainian interpretation of the song. You can get equal “goose-bumps” feeling from listening to this version too. And you can also sense how people felt there on the streets of Ukrainian capital in December 2014 during the Euromaidan protests.
My dad was there, as were many of my friends and relative. They all say it was one of the best feelings they had in life - with so many people (of all kinds - Ukrainian speaking, Russian speaking, all ages and genders, regions from all across Ukraine) united by the same desire for change and freedom. They all wanted to be part of EU (like people in Poland or other neighboring former socialist countries already were ), not getting back to the USSR.
It was the very joyful, very optimistic event, which unfortunately ended up with brutal police force, leading to deaths and many injuries.
If you were at Freedom Convoy in Ottawa protests last year, you know what kind of feeling and energy I’m talking about…
Other languages:
This song has been already reinterpreted in German, two years ago.
Sprechen Sie Deutsch, irgendjemand? - Genießen Sie unten!
This video also shows how to play it on a guitar
And here are 47 more translations of this song into twenty other languages, including one in French and ten in English, one of which - singable - is mine.
Working English draft:
What I really would like to do is to make an English and French version of this song - adapted to our new times.
If any of you have song / poetry writing skills, please contact me at dg @ ivim.ca. I have already started (shown below), but looking for feedback and further improvement.
Below is karaoke video so you can sign along if you wish to. The original lyrics is here.
We are longing for changes!
(Song by Viktor Tsoi. English interpretation by Dmitry Gorodnichy)
Instead of love - hatred and fear
Instead of flame - smoke
A check on a calendar grid -
Another day's gone.
The burning Sun finished its course
It's time for the night to reign.
The cities bursting with noise
Are going to bed.
Refrain:
We need changes! - that's what are our eyes are telling us.
We need changes! - that's what our hearts are begging us.
In our dreams, in our thoughts, in the pulsations of our veins -
We need changes! We are longing for changes!
Electric alarms are waking us up.
The radio is back aloud.
Muffins with coffee and cream
Are in our hands.
This simple scheme is always right.
That's how it’s always been.
There is nothing left outside
everything is within.
Refrain.
We are accustomed to our routines
We are afraid to change them
That how we’re going in circles
Year after year.
(Life after life)
We don't have thoughts that are of our own.
We have not been trained for that.
But then we still have our hearts
And that's enough!
Refrain.
1986 - 2023