Poems and Songs of Vladimir Vysotsky. The Nature Reserve.
Commentary to the poem “The obstacles we have are begotten by our age...”
The meaning of this poem is obvious: the dogs symbolize the savages coming to Rossia from Transcaucasia and Central Asia, and also their offspring, who act even worse than dogs. These savages pose a great danger to the peoples inhabiting Rossia, and since we have not yet forced the government to pay attention to it, the only way out of this situation is to form a people’s volunteer corps of those willing to become “dog-catchers”.
In Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book”, these are the Bandar-log, and here is their road-song:
Here we go in a flung festoon, Now you’re angry, but — never mind, Here we sit in a branchy row, Now we’re going to — never mind, All the talk we ever have heard Let’s pretend we are... never mind, Then join our leaping lines that scumfish through the pines, |
The Red Dog in this book also symbolize those savages.
As Kim from Rudyard Kipling’s novel of the same name could say, it is better to share your shelter with a priest than with a snake, and better with a snake than with a harlot, and better with a harlot than with any one of them.
And the author of this publication joins the poet in saying, “Hail to the dog-catchers!”
Post scriptum. In 2022, there appeared in Rossia the Army of Defenders of the Fatherland (this site is in Russian) — an organization of unity of the people and the army, which is aimed to bring order to the country, what includes the liberation of our Homeland from the dominance of ethnic criminals united in diasporas.
The poem was written in 1972.