Poems and Songs of Vladimir Vysotsky. Serving the Elements.
Commentary to the song “We put out to ocean...”
The original title of this song is “Save Our Souls!”
The song has much in common with the sailor song “The Submarine”, and there is a music video on the tragedy of “Kursk” to it.
And if we talk about “Kursk”, it is necessary to recall the song of the same name by the veteran of the submarine fleet Stanislav Slutsker, dedicated to her crew.
Since this song was written, the attitude of the state authorities towards the people has not changed — even after the outbreak of war with the united forces of the West. The final part of the song has much in common with the words of Ivan Otrakovsky (this channel is in Russian), the head of the Army of Defenders of the Fatherland (this site is in Russian) (mentioned in the commentary to the song “The obstacles we have are begotten by our age...”): “Is it possible to win if a group of enemy agents is in the highest echelons of power? And the rest, who are in power and on our side, realize it, but keep silent, playing a giveaway game. What will it come down to, defeat? My favorite saying is: as long as the jackals command the lions, defeat is inevitable. Do you hear that? Inevitable! Therefore, it is necessary to wage a liberation struggle. And first of all on the political field! And for this purpose it is necessary to wake up the Nation, robbed, beaten and powerless, reminding her about her national pride, national self-consciousness. About her right to freedom, labor, [her right] to solve state affairs through the people’s power, [her right] to the subsoil stolen from her, to the right ideology of Service! And, finally, about the right to the Motherland, which has been taken away from us!”
Stanislav Slutsker also wrote the song “The Steel Fellows” (2006), which is dedicated to Andrey Baburov.
Another close in spirit song is Alexander Gorodnitsky’s “The Submariners’ Song” (1966).
There is also Alexander Zharov’s song about the submariners, it is “A Good-Looking Girl” (1985).
Another good song is Sergey Grebennikov’s “The Tired Submarine” (1963).
Yury Vizbor also wrote a quite good song titled “A Song on the Submariners” (1970).
The words “to protect our honor and the planet aflame” are an allusion to Rudyard Kipling’s words from “The Canadian Memorial”.
The song was written for the film “The Different Opinion” (1967), performed in the play of the Taganka Theater “A House on the Embankment”.