Raisa Kudasheva was born in the forest as a Christmas tree profession. New Year and Christmas hits: the story of the song “A Christmas tree was born in the forest”

Few people know that the song “A Christmas Tree Was Born in the Forest” is not at all folk. Its text was composed in 1903 by Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva, a teacher, librarian and poet. She was 25 years old then.

The poem “Yolka” was published in the Christmas issue of the children’s magazine “Malyutka”. And the music for this song was composed by biologist and agronomist, amateur composer Leonid Karlovich Bekman, who composed this song for his daughter. Because musical notation he didn’t know it, his wife, Elena Aleksandrovna Bekman-Shcherbina, wrote down the notes. This is how the song turned out. The musicians’ little daughter, Verochka, immediately began singing it. In 1906, “The Herringbone” was included in the collection “Verochka’s Songs,” which Rachmaninov, Taneyev, Scriabin spoke approvingly of...

Under Soviet rule, Raisa Adamovna somehow asked to join the Writers' Union, which was then ruled by Fadeev. When she came to his office, he asked what published books she had, and she replied that, in general, none, but she really wanted to join the union, because of rations, etc., and to earn a living for a poor woman hard. Fadeev asks sternly: “Well, have you even written anything?” “Yes,” Raisa Kudasheva answers, “one poem...” And she begins to read: “A Christmas tree was born in the forest...”. “So you wrote this?” - Fadeev shouted. And he began to remember where it was published and how he read these poems for the first time and cried when he reached the last lines: “He cut down our Christmas tree to the very root,” and then accepted it into the Writers' Union.

Dmitry Kolupaev. New Year tree at school.

In the original text by R. A. Kudasheva there were 56 lines -

When writing the song, the poem was shortened. The first two verses of the canonical version of the song are performed by Morozko, examining his forest possessions, in feature film"Morozko" (dir. Alexander Rowe, 1964)

“I didn’t want to be famous, but I couldn’t help but write,” - this is how, already in the 50s, Raisa Kudasheva, who hid under literary pseudonyms all her life, explained her shyness. About the former princess (the poor governess married a widower prince, but soon became a widow herself, and during the years of the revolution she lost both her property and her title), Alexander Fadeeva once said: “Her poems have such popularity that our poets never dreamed of.” Raisa Adamovna herself did not suspect for a long time that her poem was set to music until she heard it by chance on a train, where a little girl was asked to “sing something for the passengers.”

Nikolai Lyadovsky. Christmas tree.

Today it is difficult for us to imagine that this song once did not exist, but it is even more difficult to understand why for so long no one knew, or maybe was simply not interested in the authorship of these simple and sweet verses and this simple melody.

Rybakova Irina Vladimirovna. New Year.

Kudasheva has been writing poetry since childhood. Her first work appeared in print in 1898, and since then Raisa Adamovna’s poems and children’s fairy tales could be read on the pages of many children’s magazines of the early twentieth century. She always published under pseudonyms because she did not want fame

Very little is known about her life. After graduating from high school, she served as a governess to Prince N.A. Kudasheva, later married him. According to reviews of people who knew her well, she had teaching talent. For a long time, Raisa Adamovna worked as a teacher, and in Soviet times for several decades as a librarian.

Kudasheva has been writing poetry since childhood. Her first work appeared in print in 1898, and since then Raisa Adamovna’s poems and children’s fairy tales could be read on the pages of many children’s magazines of the early twentieth century. She always published under pseudonyms, because she did not want fame - this is what the poetess herself later said in an interview.

The song “A Christmas tree was born in the forest” is a fragment of Kudasheva’s poem “Christmas tree”. It was also signed with a pseudonym. The poem was published in the New Year's issue of the children's magazine "Malyutka" in 1903. Two years later, Leonid Bekman set it to music. By the way, the authorship of music, like the authorship of the poem, has long been controversial. Most likely, the melody of “Christmas Trees” is based on a German folk song.

Raisa Adamovna did not know that her “Christmas Tree” had become a song. She later recalled that it was only in 1921 that she heard the familiar lines on the train. A girl, a random companion of Kudasheva, sang a song.

There is a legend that the authorship of Raisa Adamovna was revealed upon joining the Union of Writers of the USSR. According to one version, one day an elderly woman knocked on M. Gorky’s office and said that she would like to join the Writers’ Union. When Gorky asked what she had written, the woman replied: “Only thin children’s books.” To this Gorky replied that his organization only accepts serious authors who have written novels and stories. The woman did not argue and walked towards the exit, and then turned around and asked: “Maybe you’ve heard at least one of my poems?” and read the famous lines to Gorky: “A Christmas tree was born in the forest, it grew in the forest, it was slender and green in winter and summer.” Having heard these lines, Gorky immediately accepted Kudasheva into the Writers' Union. According to another version, this story happened to Alexander Fadeev.

In total, Raisa Kudasheva published about 200 songs and stories, fairy tales and books of poetry. Fame and recognition came to the writer only in the late 1950s, when she was already in her eighties. The only photograph of Raisa Adamovna has survived - she was taken for an interview in Ogonyok, at a very old age.

Legend

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I. Strings from 6th to 1st (from left to right).
II. Fret number.
III. Open string.
IV. No sound is produced on the string.
V. Fingers: index (1), middle (2), ring (3), little finger (4).
VI. Barre with his index finger.

SONG “THE TREE WAS BORN IN THE FOREST.” SELECT BATTLE (BURST)

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SONG “THE TREE WAS BORN IN THE FOREST.” TEXT

The Forest Raised a Christmas Tree,
She grew up in the forest
Slim in winter and summer,
It was green.

The snowstorm sang a song to her:
“Sleep, Christmas tree, bye-bye!”
Frost covered with snow:
“Make sure you don’t freeze!”

Gray bunny coward
Jumped under the Christmas tree
Sometimes a wolf, an angry wolf,
I ran at a trot.

Chu! Snow in the dense forest
It creaks under the runner;
Hairy horse
He's in a hurry, running.

The horse is carrying wood,
On the logs - a man*,
He cut down our Christmas tree
Right down to the spine.

And here she is, dressed up**,
She came to us for the holiday
And much, much joy
I brought it for the kids.

The last two lines of the verse are repeated

* option: “And in the firewood there is an old man”

** options: “Now she’s dressed up...”, “Now you’re here, dressed up...”

SONG “THE TREE WAS BORN IN THE FOREST.” AUTHORS

Russian Soviet composer Leonid Karlovich Bekman (1871-1939)

LEONID BEKMAN

Leonid Karlovich Bekman was born in Moscow in 1871. Leonid Karlovich's work biography began in the family of the famous cellist Anatoly Andreeevich Brandukov and his wife, pianist Nadezhda Mitrofanovna Mazurina, where he worked as a tutor and tutor. In 1900, he graduated from the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Moscow University, and then from the Petrovsky (now Timiryazevsky) Agricultural Academy, receiving the specialty of an agronomist and the academic degree of Candidate of Natural Sciences. Leonid Karlovich Bekman died in Moscow in 1939.

Russian Soviet poetess Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva (1878-1964)

RAISA KUDASHEVA

Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva was born on August 15, 1878 in the family of an official of the Moscow Post Office. She graduated from the M. B. Pussel Women's Gymnasium. She worked for some time as a teacher in a city school, and then served as a governess for Prince Kudashev, whom she later married. During Soviet times, I got a job in a library. Literary activity Raisa Adamovna's work began in 1896, when the magazine "Malyutka" published her first poem "To the Stream". It was followed by the story “Leri” for an adult reader, published in the magazine “Russian Thought” for 1899, as well as about two hundred songs, poems, stories and fairy tales for children, which Kudasheva published in the magazines “Firefly”, “Snowdrop” and “Baby” " During her life, Raisa Adamovna created only about four hundred poetic works. Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva died on November 4, 1964. She was buried in Moscow at the Pyatnitskoye cemetery.

SONG “THE TREE WAS BORN IN THE FOREST.” HISTORY OF CREATION

I heard the story of this song and the search for its authors for the first time more than forty years ago from Alexander Vyacheslavovich Shilov- a talented researcher and popularizer of songs, the discoverer of their authors, whose names were considered unknown for a long time.

I carefully keep the magazine given by Shilov « Soviet music» No. 6 for 1956, in which a selection of his short song stories was published under the heading “Forgotten Authors of Folk Songs.” One of them was about the song “A Christmas tree was born in the forest.”

In 1903, a children's magazine published in Moscow "Baby" published a poem in his second book "Christmas tree". These poems attracted the attention of an amateur musician Leonid Karlovich Bekman(1871-1939). An agronomist by profession, who graduated from the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Moscow University in 1900, and then from the Petrovsky Agricultural Academy, he had extraordinary musical abilities, played the piano by ear, improvised on the themes of his favorite works, and sang beautifully.

In February 1903, the wedding of Leonid Bekman and Elena Shcherbina, the adopted daughter of Evgeniy Nikolaevich Shcherbina, the director of the Slavic Bazaar Hotel, took place. After getting married, Elena added her stepfather's surname to her husband's surname. A talented pianist who graduated from the conservatory with a gold medal, she later taught there, and became an Honored Artist of Russia.

That's what she said Elena Aleksandrovna Bekman-Shcherbina(1882-1951) many years later about the events associated with the birth of “Yolochka” in the book “My Memories”:

On October 17, 1905, my eldest daughter Verochka turned two years old, and in the morning I gave her a living doll - sister Olya, who was born at half past midnight, that is, also on October 17. Verochka was absolutely delighted. The others were a little disappointed, since everyone was expecting a boy (except me, who didn't like boys).

While I was still lying in bed, Leonid somehow sat down at the piano, sat Verik on his lap and composed a song for her based on a poem from the children’s magazine “Malyutka” - “A Christmas tree was born in the forest, it grew in the forest...”.

Verochka, who had excellent hearing, quickly learned it, and so as not to forget the song, I wrote it down. Subsequently, we both began to compose other songs for children, and in order not to endlessly rewrite them for our friends, we decided to publish a whole collection with silhouette drawings, similar to the drawings of Elisabeth Boehm, known at that time. This is how the collection “Verochka’s Songs” arose, which went through four editions in a short time, then “Olenka the Songster”. The songs were a great success. And all the children still sing “Yolochka”, and few people know that this song, which has become almost a folk song, was composed not by a musician, but by a candidate of natural sciences and an agronomist.

With a girl the same age as “Yolochka” - Olga Leonidovna Skrebkova(1905-1997), the same Olenka, whose birth was marked by the composition of a song, the music for which was invented by her father, I was lucky enough to meet, get acquainted and talk. This was somewhere in the mid-80s. I was then preparing a story about the history of “Yolochka” for the “Favorite Song” column in the newspaper “Soviet Russia”.

Music collection "Verochka's songs" with songs by Leonid Karlovich and Elena Aleksandrovna Bekman

I excitedly leafed through the pages of the first edition. "Verochka's Songs" And "Song Deer". These books were created with such love! It was impossible not to admire the illustrations for them made by the then student of the Stroganov School, Konstantin Bogdanovich, about whose fate I still know nothing. And I really hope that the chroniclers of Stroganovka, which recently celebrated its anniversary, will respond and help in finding information about this talented graphic artist.

As for Olga Leonidovna and her older sister Vera Leonidovna Sukharevskaya(1903-1977), they worthily continued the family musical traditions. Both successfully graduated from the Gnessin School and the Moscow Conservatory. There are also professional musicians among their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

In the collections “Verochkina’s Songs” and “Olenka the Songster,” the Bekman couple, who composed them, did not give a single surname of those who own the words of the songs included in them, including “Yolochki”, limiting themselves only to the fact that these texts "borrowed"

But the question arises: “Where from and whose?”

I asked it at one time to Olga Leonidovna Skrebkova, and now to her niece, the granddaughter of Leonid Karlovich Bekman and the keeper of his archive, Olga Yuryevna Serdobolskaya. However, unfortunately, I never received an answer.

For many years, the name of the author of the words “Yolochki” was not known. Only in 1941 it became clear that these poems belonged to Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva(née Giedroyc). She was born in 1878 in Moscow, in the family of a Moscow post office employee. Her first poem (under the pseudonym “A.E.”) was published in the magazine “Malyutka” in 1897, when she was 18 years old. And in 1903, under the same pseudonym and in the same place, she published the poem “Yolka”, which drew the attention of Leonid Bekman. He chose from it only those stanzas that you and I sing today.

How can we explain the fact that Raisa Adamovna published her poems under pseudonyms?

The fact is that at first the girl's passion poetic creativity Her parents, Adam Osipovich and Sofya Semyonovna, and then her husband, the widowed Prince Kudashev, in whose house she was a governess, did not approve. Having married him, she only changed her pseudonym to “R.K.”, signing with it the publications of her poems, fairy tales, and stories. By 1917, Raisa Adamovna remained a widow. The revolutionary authorities requisitioned her house, and the forty-year-old princess and her younger sister who owned three foreign languages In order not to die of hunger, they hardly got a job in one of the Moscow libraries, where they were not very interested in their noble origin.

So they lived together with their sister, Maria Adamovna. At first - on Ozerkovskaya embankment, in apartment No. 1 of building 48/50, and in the post-war years - in apartment 7 of building No. 4/6 on Mazhorov Lane. This lane is still called that way, and the house has been preserved.

New Year's issue of the magazine "Malyutka", in which Raisa Kudasheva's poem "Yolka" was published

Raisa Adamovna learned that her poem “Yolka” was set to music and sung by children many years after it was written and was very happy about it. But when I heard “Yolochka” on the radio, and it was announced that both the music and its words belonged to Leonid Bekman, I was indignant and decided to defend my authorship. It took her a lot of time to prove this, evidence of which is materials from Shilov’s archive - letters, postcards that she sent him. Alexander Vyacheslavovich gave me some of them and invited me to meet the author of “Yolochka”.

“With snow-white hair, a friendly smile, and glasses through which lively eyes looked, she looked like kind grandmother from a fairytale", - this is how he publicly described the meeting with the author famous song Ogonyok correspondent Boris Alekseev in the January 1958 issue of this magazine. I remember her exactly like that too. It was in July 1964, when I took the entrance exams to the academy. I was happy and delighted to see and listen to the story of this amazingly modest and kind woman. But this meeting turned out to be the only one. In November of the same 1964, Raisa Adamovna passed away.

I recently found the house where she lived. Other people have been living in the apartment I mentioned for a long time. But there are those in this house who remember Raisa Adamovna. They promised to help me in my search related to her biography, which I will definitely continue. And I really hope for the help and participation of the readers of our column. I will definitely tell you about the results in its future issues.

And in conclusion, let me remind you of the words of this ageless, seemingly eternally existing song about New Year tree. Like a precious relic, it has been passed on from generation to generation for a century.

The first publication of Raisa Kudasheva’s poem “Yolochka”, which will later become a replacement song

Christmas tree.
Words by R. Kudasheva.
Music by L. Beckman

The Forest Raised a Christmas Tree,
She grew up in the forest
Slim in winter and summer,
It was green.

The snowstorm sang a song to her:
“Sleep, Christmas tree, bye-bye!”
Frost covered with snow:
“Make sure you don’t freeze!”

Cowardly bunny gray
Jumped under the Christmas tree.
Sometimes a wolf, an angry wolf,
I ran at a trot.

Chu! Snow in the dense forest
It creaks under the runner.
Hairy horse
He's in a hurry, running.

The horse is carrying wood,
And there’s a man in the wood.
He cut down our Christmas tree
Right down to the spine.

Now she's dressed up
She came to us for the holiday
And much, much joy
I brought it for the kids.

Yours, Yuri Evgenievich Biryukov

ORIGINAL TEXT OF THE POEM

Shaggy branches bend
Down to the children's heads;
Rich beads shine
Overflow of lights;
Ball hides behind ball,
And star after star,
Light threads are rolling,
Like golden rain...
Play, have fun,
The kids have gathered here
And to you, beautiful spruce,
They sing their song.
Everything is ringing, growing,
Goloskov children's choir,
And, sparkling, it sways
Christmas trees are a magnificent decoration.

A Christmas tree was born in the forest, it grew in the forest,
She was slim and green in winter and summer!
The snowstorm sang songs to her: “Sleep, Christmas tree... bye-bye!”
The frost was wrapped in snow: look, don’t freeze!
The cowardly gray bunny was jumping under the Christmas tree,
Sometimes the wolf himself, the angry wolf, ran at a trot.

More fun and friendly
Sing, kids!
The tree will bow soon
Your branches.
The nuts shine in them
Gilded...
Who is not happy with you here?
Green spruce?

Chu! The snow in the dense forest creaks under the runner,
The hairy horse is in a hurry and running.
The horse is carrying wood, and there is a man in the wood.
He cut down our Christmas tree right down to the root...
And here you are, dressed up, you came to us for the holiday,
And she brought a lot of joy to the children.

More fun and friendly
Sing, kids!
The tree will bow soon
Your branches.
Choose for yourself
What do you like...
Ay, thank you
Beautiful spruce!

The song was born on October 17 (30), 1905 - the day when Nicholas II signed manifesto, called “to grant the population the unshakable foundations of civil freedom on the basis of actual personal inviolability, freedom of conscience, speech, assembly and association” and marked the beginning of elections to the 1st State Duma

Many believe that the melody of the song was borrowed, citing the following primary sources:

1. song by Swedish poet and composer Emmy Köhler "Thousands of Christmas candles are lit" („Nu tändas tusen julejus“, 1898).

2. German student song from the early 19th century "We built a stately home" ("Wir hatten gebauet ein stattliches Haus", 1819).

To be fair, it should be noted that the melody “A Christmas Tree Was Born in the Forest” has some intonation similarities with both German and Swedish songs.

After the publication of collections by L. K. and E. A. Bekman "Verochka's songs" And "Olenka the Singing Deer", dedicated to their children, the song “A Christmas Tree was Born in the Forest” became widespread among the Moscow intelligentsia and earned the approval of such famous musicians as A. Scriabin, S. Taneyev, the Gnessin sisters and S. Rachmaninov. They say that Sergei Vasilyevich, who knew E. A. Bekman-Shcherbina from the conservatory, once approached her at a concert and asked: “Why do you write so little? You have such lovely songs.”

After October revolution official authorities did not remember the song until 1935, when, at the suggestion of P. P. Postyshev, a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, it was decided revive the New Year(more precisely - the traditions of celebrating New Year tree), and Bekman-Kudasheva’s song, which had ideologically neutral content, became a children’s New Year’s anthem.

Leonid Karlovich Bekman had extraordinary musical abilities. It is known that in the student choir of Moscow University, in which the future outstanding singer performed Leonid Sobinov, Beckman performed his parts when he was absent for any reason.

There are two versions regarding musical notation Leonid Bekman. According to one of them, Leonid Karlovich did not know the notes. On the other hand, he knew the notes very well and read from sight fluently, but was afraid to make mistakes in the recording of “Yolochka,” which he entrusted to his wife Elena Alexandrovna, a gold medalist at the Moscow Conservatory.

Before the October Revolution, both authors of the song belonged to the nobility: Leonid Bekman came from Baltic Germans; Raisa Adamovna belonged to the Lithuanian princely family Giedroyc, and by husband - to the family of princes Kudashevs.

Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva belonged to those people who can be called overly modest. For many years she signed her works with all sorts of initials and pseudonyms, explaining it this way: “I didn’t want to be famous, but I couldn’t not write”.

About the widespread recognition and extreme popularity of the song "The Forest Raised a Christmas Tree" Raisa Adamovna found out quite by accident many years after the creation of the poem. One day in 1921, she was traveling on a train, and her compartment neighbor, wanting to show off her granddaughter’s abilities, asked the girl to sing something “for her aunt.” And the girl sang 24 lines from Kudasheva’s poem, set to music by Leonid Bekman. Another version of this event names two grandmothers and two granddaughters.

In their collections, Leonid and Elena Bekman did not indicate the names of the authors of the poetic texts, simply writing that “the words were borrowed.” This tradition continued in Soviet times, when “Yolochka” was published without indicating Kudasheva’s name. For the first time, the name of Raisa Adamovna appeared just before the start of the war, on the title page of the collection “Yolka” (M.-L.: Detizdat, 1941). This was made possible thanks to the compiler of the collection - Esther Mikhailovna Emden, who spared no time and effort to establish the authorship of Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva.

Although justice was restored, Raisa Adamovna I regretted that it happened too late. In 1958, in a letter to A.I. Sytina, she wrote: “Too late this whole story came to me. If only a little earlier".

There is a legend that the authorship of Kudasheva was established Maksim Gorky. One day, an elderly woman knocked on his office and expressed a desire to join the Union of Writers of the USSR. Gorky refused, citing the fact that this organization only accepts serious authors who have written novels and stories, and not “thin children’s books.” The woman did not argue, but persuaded the writer to listen to at least one of her poems. Gorky agreed and, when he heard the famous lines, ordered to admit Raisa Adamovna to the Writers' Union and provide her with all possible assistance. According to another version, he ended up in Gorky’s place Alexander Fadeev.

Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva has no relatives left. However, if they showed up, they could receive 5% of the song performer's fee "The Forest Raised a Christmas Tree" until 2014.

In addition to the lyrics of the famous song, Kudasheva also wrote the lyrics "In the blue sea in the open", the music for which was composed by R. M. Gliere.

The most famous poetry collections of Raisa Adamovna are - “Sled-scooter”, “Trouble Cockerel”, “Grandma Zabavushka and Dog Boom”. Here is one of the poems published in them.

At Grandma's Zabavushka
The dog Boom lived.
One day boomu grandma
I baked some cakes.
- Here, Boom, take the plate,
Let's go with you to the buffet...
They look, and the mice have eaten everything,
There are no more cakes.

Famous artist Mikhail Zharov called these collections among his favorite books of his childhood.

spoke positively about them and Samuel Marshak, who wrote that these were “fun books, time-tested.”

He gave a high rating to the song “A Christmas Tree Was Born in the Forest” Vladimir Soloukhin: “It seems that this song has always existed, that Blok, and Tolstoy, and Chekhov, and that’s all, had to sing it in childhood, and that’s it, this song is as indispensable and inalienable to native speech as... well, I don’t know... In a word, you understand me".

In 1972, the creative association "Screen" was filmed illustrating the content of the song. However, unlike the plot of Raisa Kudasheva, the main character of the cartoon is not a peasant or an old man, but a boy who leaves a Christmas tree to grow in the forest, decorating it with New Year's toys.

At the gala concert "The World Welcomes Christmas" On December 22, 2002, the song “A Christmas Tree was Born in the Forest” was sung Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Emma Chaplin and Sissel.

Joseph Kobzon sang the lyrics to the tune Russian anthem, and the words of the anthem to the tune of “Christmas tree”.

SONG “THE TREE WAS BORN IN THE FOREST.” ALTERATIONS. PARODIES

In Soviet times, schoolchildren junior classes They sang the following adaptation of the song “A Christmas tree was born in the forest.”

The Forest Raised a Christmas Tree.
And who gave birth to her?
Four drunk hedgehogs
And a bald crocodile.

From the point of view of common sense (a crocodile, by definition, must be bald!) and basic taste, this is utter nonsense, but I remember it was fun. Nowadays, children’s alterations are somehow unnoticeable. Maybe the kids got more serious, or the song became less popular, but all I could find on the Internet were two “adult” adaptations. And both are on the theme of “destroyers native nature": on an individual basis (“Kid with an Ax”) and on a national scale (“Khimki Forest”). Well, the most popular parody on the Internet is, of course, “In the Forest Born the Christmas Tree.”

IN FOREST BOURNE THE FIR-BROWN

In forest born the herringbone
In the forest she is alive
In winter, summer slim
The green she was

Blizzard hep tell the song
Sleep Christmas tree must die
Frost wrapped that snow
To look don't freeze

Little gray little rabbit
Under the Christmas tree the jump
At some times wolf, the angry wolf
I ran at a trot.

Chu, snow on forest frequent
Under the runner zip-zap
Hairy-legged horse
To quikly quikly run

The horse is carrying wood,
And in the woods there is an angry man
Hi killing our Christmas tree
Right down to the spine

It now cabbage soup is the beautyful
On party to go to us
And many many joys
To kinders brought...

Kid with an ax

A Christmas tree was born in the forest, it grew in the forest,
Unfortunately, she was a very slender green one,
The gray bunny celebrated his New Year under the tree,
A hungry but cheerful wolf kept running past.

But it’s not Santa Claus sneaking through the forest,
He looks like his grandfather, he has one crimson nose,
It’s not a gray bunny, not a wolf or a bear that’s in a hurry,
A kid with an ax is crawling, trying not to make noise.

I saw our Christmas tree - one dashing blow!
And now he enters the market with the little green one:
Grab it, aunts and uncles, take it for nothing!
Bring a lot of joy to the kids for getting a C!

The little gray bunny was looking for that Christmas tree in the forest,
Until the hungry wolf devoured him in fright.
And now the guys are sneaking, axes are flashing,
And triplets bring a lot of joy!

Khimki forest

A Christmas tree was born in the Forest, it grew in the forest,
But, by the way, this “Christmas tree” did not live long.
She grew up near Khimki, which means, no matter how pity,
The Christmas tree was very difficult to build a highway.

The defender with a swearing sheet was jumping under the Christmas tree
And I didn’t give the Christmas tree to the builders as an insult.
The snow is spreading across Khimki at this very moment
We decided to build a route through the forest directly.

The bulldozer is carrying wood, and in the wood is a man,
He cut down our Christmas tree and cleared out the patch.
I also cut down birch, pine and oak trees
And instead of a dense forest there are now only stumps.

And the green Christmas tree is like a hot commodity
They sent it on wood to the Christmas tree market.
And so she came to our studio dressed up
And she brought a lot of inspiration to Murzilka.

« Khimki Forest Promotion" and "Matyugalnik Production" with the assistance of "Lubyanka Entertainment" and "Kremlin-DESIGN Group"

SONG “THE TREE WAS BORN IN THE FOREST.” TRANSLATIONS INTO OTHER LANGUAGES

If the situation with the alterations of the song is somehow not very good, then there are more than enough translations of “Yolochka” into various (sometimes even very rare) languages. By the way, some translations into English language, made automatically, can be considered a parody. I came across some in which the word “Christmas tree” was translated by the phrase "herring bone", which is true only for a pattern or drawing "herringbone". If we translate "herring bone" literally, it will work "herring bone". So it turns out that it was not a Christmas tree that was born and grew in the forest, but the skeleton of the most popular fish for snack among the people.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

A SMALL FIR SEEDLING

A lullaby was being sung
By whirling snowstorm,
The frost did never hurt the fir
For it was covered warm.

A frightened hare running by
Past little green fir tree,
A wicked fierce big gray wolf
Was hunting it to eat.

One day an old peasant man
Appeared in the wood.
He cut the best New Year tree,
He said: “This one is good!”

And now it’s in the party hall
With garlands, candles lit,
With lots of sparkling stars and balls.
Let's dance around it!

Sherlyn Rossa

There Was A Fir-Tree Born In Woods

There was a Fir-Tree born in woods,
And there she was grown,
In winter and in summer both
The grace and green she was.

The Snowstorm sang a song for her:
“Sleep, Firry, sleep tight-tight”
The Frost was covering with snow:
“Don’t freeze in such a cold night”

A yellow-bellied Bunny there
Was leaping under fir
From time to time an angry Wolf
Was running over near.

The snow around the thick woods
Is creaking under skid.
A shaggy Gee-Gee frisks ahead
In greatest rush indeed.

The Gee-Gee's carrying firewoods
On them there is a Man.
He chopped down our little Fir
At the very rootlet.

And now in gallant here she is
On feast to us she came
And many many joys
All little kids she gave.

by Joe White

The Forest Raised A Christmas Tree

The forest raised a Christmas tree,
'Twas silent and serene
In winter and in summer
It was slender and so green.

The wind sang it a lullaby:
Sleep, Christmas tree, sleep tight!
The snow was making clothes for it:
It was a pretty sight!

A trembling bunny put himself
Beneath its arms so wide;
The hungry wolf just passed him by -
A lovely place to hide!

Some sleigh bells rank throughout the woods,
The snow was crisp and clean,
A horsey brought a forester
To hew that tree so green.

And now it comes to visit us,
With lights and garlands bright,
While all the children dance and sing
To greet it with delight!

by Arthur Durando and Irina Popova (2009)

GERMAN

Two fairly accurate translations of “Yolochka” into German. The second of them belongs to the German writer Alfred Kurella (1895-1975), whose pen, in addition to original works, includes numerous translations of Russian writers - V. G. Belinsky, A. I. Herzen, N. G. Chernyshevsky and others, as well as T. G. Shevchenko, N. Hikmet, the Kyrgyz epic “Manas” and the Armenian epic “David of Sasun”.

Einmal in einem Walde

Einmal in einem Walde
ein Tannenbäumchen spross.
Grün im Winter, wie im Sommer,
es wuchs und wurde gross.

Gegen Kälte und Erfrieren,
als ob spendend etwas Trost,
bedeckte es behutsam
mit weichem Schnee der Frost.

Schneestürme Wiegenliedchen
sangen ihm dabei:
"Schlaf" schönes Tannenbäumchen!
Schlafe, bajiu-baj...!“

Ängstliche Häschen
oft hüpften unterm Baum,
da ein böse-böser Wolf
lief ab und zu vorbei.

Horch! Unter schnellen Kufen
knirscht der Schnee... Und bald,
vom Kutscher streng gerufen,
ein Pferdchen rennt im Wald.

Es zieht ein Bauernschlitten,
in welchem ​​sitzt ein Greis.
Und der, vom Schnee verschüttet,
wirkt, wie ein Schneemann, weiss.

Er fällt das Tannenbäumchen,
tut dies geschickt und schnell,
um es zu uns zu liefern -
solang der Tag ist hell.

Schön geschmückt, das Tannenbäumchen
steht jetzt vor uns, in dem Gebäude,
und Allen, Allen Kindern hier
bringt eine grosse Freude!

Im Walde steht ein Tannenbaum...

Im Walde steht ein Tannenbaum
I'm immersed in Kleid,
Ist schlank und lieblich anzuschaun
Zu jeder Jahreszeit.

Der Schneesturm singt ihm Lieder vor:
“Schlaf, Bäumchen, gute Nacht!
Ich deck dich zu mit weißem Schnee,
Erfrier mir nicht, gib acht!”

Das Häschen hockt sich untern Baum,
Es friert, ihm ist so kalt.
Der Wolf, der böse graue Wolf,
Läuft schnuppernd durch den Wald.

Ein Schlitten kommt den Weg entlang,
Ein Bauer sitzt darin.
Es knirscht der Schnee. Der Bauer schaut,
Wo er ein Bäumlein find"t.

Im Walde macht der Schlitten halt,
Der Bauer springt herab.
Er haut das Bäumlein mit der Axt
Dicht an der Wurzel ab.

Seither steht es im Lichterschmuck
Bei uns zur Weihnachtszeit
Und bringt den Kindern groß und klein
so viele, viele Freud.

aus dem Russischen von Alfred Kurella, Schriftsteller und Übersetzer (1895-1975)

FRENCH. SPANISH LANGUAGE. PORTUGUESE

Translations into Romance languages ​​include French, Spanish and Portuguese. The French text diverges slightly from the original in detail, while maintaining the main plot outline; Spanish and Portuguese convey the Russian original almost word for word. Unfortunately, we could not find a translation into Italian.

MON ARBRE DE NOËL

Dans la forêt, il a grandi,
Un Arbre de Noël...
L'été, l'hiver il est tout vert,
Gracieux et solennel!

La grande tempête chante tendrement:
“Bel Arbre, bonne nuit!”
Le Père Noël le couvre de neige,
Il est donc endormi!

Le p'tit lapin y saute gaiement,
C'est son ami très sûr,
De temps en temps le loup méchant
Regarde les alentours...

Chut! La forêt est pleine de neige,
Elle craque sous les patins,
Le cheval noir trottine encore,
Il gèle dur ce matin!

Ce cheval tire les traineaux,
Il y a un vieux cocher,
Et c'est lui qui a coupe
Cet Arbre bien-aimé!

Et le voilà à notre fête,
Mon Arbre très joli,
Et nous avons beaucoup de joie
Et les cadeaux promis!

On vous souhaite bien des choses,
Beaucoup de grands succès,
Soyez toujours en bonne santé,
Bonne Chance et Bonne Année!

The translation was made in 1999-2001.

En el bosque nació el pinito

En el bosque nació el pinito,
En el bosque ha crecido,
Era esbelto todo el año
Y verde siempre ha sido.

La ventisca le cantaba:
“Duérmete pinito, bay-bay!”;
La helada lo cobijaba:
No te vayas a congelar!”

El asustadizo conejito gris
Bajo del pinito estaba brincando,
A veces el lobo, el lobo bravo,
Pasaba allí trotando.

Oye! La nieve por el bosque denso
Cruje bajo el trineo,
El caballito de pies lanudos
Corre para llegar a tiempo.

El caballito lleva la leña,
El hombre esta encima,
El corto nuestro pinito
Hasta los raíces.

Y pues ahora adornado,
El pinito vino a nuestra fiesta,
Y mucha, mucha alegria
El trajo a los pequeños.

Na floresta nasceu um pinheirinho

Na floresta nasceu um pinheirinho,
Na floresta ele cresceu.
No inverno e verão, era garboso,
Era verde.

A brisa lhe cantava uma canção:
“Dorme, pinheirinho, dorme!”
O frio, de neve o envolvia:
“Olhe, no congele!”

Assustadiça, uma lebre cinzenta
Brinca embaixo do pinheirinho.
Às vezes um lobo, lobo raivoso,
Passa trotando.

Ouve! A neve no fundo da floresta
Roça sob um trenó;
Um cavalinho pesado
Galopa, suavemente.

O cavalinho traz um trenó de lenha
E no trenó, um velhinho,
Ele cortou nosso pinheirinho
Da sua raiz.

E aqui está ele, enfeitado
Veio conosco à festa.
E muita, muita alegria
Trouxe as criancinhas.

BULGARIAN LANGUAGE. SLOVAK. CROATIAN

It is highly doubtful that anyone would perform “Yolochka” in Slavic languages, given the popularity of them for studying as foreign languages, but for those who speak them, I think it will be interesting to compare the original with translations into closely related languages.

ELKHICHKA

Snowy storm and more song:
“Sleep, little elkhichka, bye-bye!”
Mrazt took off I saw you:
“Watch so you don’t freeze!”

The bunnies are getting scared
Jump under the tree,
Soon the volk will rage, the volk will venom,
burzo prichvashe.

Shoot in horata chesto
Take your breath away,
Conche with kosmati kraka

In the forest, in the dark forest

At the fox, the dark fox,
where the cunning fox walks,
Yalinonka grew up on her own,
And the bunny is with her.

Oh snow, white snow
winter has arrived!
The bunny came to catch up -
Yalinonka is mute.

Santa Claus is in this forest,
chervony in nogo nis.
Vіn of the stribaychik bunny
he brought it to us.

Little gray bunny,
Come, come to us!
Marvel - your Yalinonka
burn all over the palace!

Ivan Nehoda

HEBREW

I don’t know whether our former compatriots sing the song “A Christmas Tree Was Born in the Forest” in their historical homeland, and if so, in what language. But given such purely Russian traditions as eating vodka and pork, singing a children's New Year's song will not look like something out of the ordinary.

Scriptwriter and director:
Production designer:
Operator:
Composer:
Sound engineer:
Editor:
Artists:
Editor:
Director assistant:
Director of the film:

creative association "Ekran"
Boris Butakov
Natalia Bogomolova
A. Frango
V. Sveshnikov
A. Kutsyi
Nina Butakova
I. Berezin, V. Pukhova, G. Chernikova, Nina Pomortseva
Valeria Konovalova
V. Pikhova
M. Chichelnitsky

One day, the chairman of the Writers' Union, Alexander Fadeev, was informed that some old woman had come, asking to see her, saying that she wrote poetry. Fadeev ordered to let her in. Entering the office, the visitor sat down, put the knapsack she was holding in her hands on her lap, and said:

- Life is hard, Alexander Alexandrovich, help somehow.
Fadeev, not knowing what to do, said:
— Do you really write poetry?
— I wrote it, it was published once.
“Well, okay,” he said to end this meeting, “read me some of your poems.”

She looked at him gratefully and in a weak voice started reading:

The Forest Raised a Christmas Tree.
She grew up in the forest.
Slim in winter and summer,
It was green...

- So you wrote this? - exclaimed the amazed Fadeev. By his order, the visitor was immediately registered with the Writers' Union and provided with all possible assistance.

Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva (that was the old lady’s name) lived a long life (1878-1964). Born Princess Gidroits (Lithuanian princely family), in her youth she served as a governess to Prince Kudashev, and later married him. She worked as a teacher, and in Soviet times as a librarian. In her youth she published mainly in children's magazines.

Kudasheva treated fame with amazing indifference and long years hid under various initials and pseudonyms. She explained it this way: “I didn’t want to be famous, but I couldn’t help but write.” In 1899, Kudasheva’s story “Leri” was published in the magazine “Russian Thought”, which remained her only work for adults. The story tells about the adolescence and youth of a girl from noble family, her first Great love to a brilliant officer. In total, Raisa Kudasheva published about 200 songs and stories, fairy tales and books of poetry.

In 1903 she wrote Christmas poem"Christmas tree":

Shaggy branches bend
Down to the children's heads;
Rich beads shine
Overflow of lights;
Ball hides behind ball,
And star after star,
Light threads are rolling,
Like golden rain...
Play, have fun,
The kids have gathered here
And to you, beautiful spruce,
They sing their song.
Everything is ringing, growing,
Goloskov children's choir,
And, sparkling, it sways
Christmas trees are a magnificent decoration.

* * *
A Christmas tree was born in the forest, it grew in the forest,
She was slim and green in winter and summer!
The snowstorm sang songs to her: “Sleep, Christmas tree... bye-bye!”
The frost was wrapped in snow: look, don’t freeze!
The cowardly gray bunny was jumping under the Christmas tree,
Sometimes the wolf himself, the angry wolf, ran at a trot.

* * *
More fun and friendly
Sing, kids!
The tree will bow soon
Your branches.
The nuts shine in them
Gilded…
Who is not happy with you here?
Green spruce?

* * *
Chu! The snow in the dense forest creaks under the runner,
The hairy horse is in a hurry and running.
The horse is carrying wood, and there is a man in the wood.
He cut down our Christmas tree right down to the root...
And here you are, dressed up, you came to us for the holiday,
And she brought a lot of joy to the children.

***
More fun and friendly
Sing, kids!
The tree will bow soon
Your branches.
Choose for yourself
What to like...
Ay, thank you
Beautiful spruce!

These verses signed “A.E.” were published in the Christmas issue of Malyutka magazine. As you can see, they were something like a Christmas game scenario. Children are encouraged to sing “more cheerfully and friendly” in order to earn gifts and goodies hanging on the Christmas tree. But the “voices of children’s choirs” based on her poems were heard only a few years later.

In 1905, the Kudashevo “Yolka” caught the eye of agronomist and passionate music lover Leonid Karlovich Bekman (1872-1939). He was a Baltic German, a hereditary nobleman, who had extraordinary musical abilities. In the student choir of the university, he sang the part of the future outstanding singer Sobinov, when for some reason he could not perform. Shortly before the events described, in February 1903, L. Beckman married Elena Shcherbina, the adopted daughter of E.N. Shcherbina (director of the Slavic Bazaar Hotel), a talented pianist who graduated from the Moscow Conservatory four years earlier with a gold medal, later an Honored Artist of Russia, a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Her professional skill was such that, for the sake of a joke, she could lie on her stomach on the lid of the instrument and play upside down.

The birth of the song occurred on October 17, 1905 - the day when the Tsar signed a historical manifesto that transformed the state foundations of the Russian Empire.

According to the memoirs of Elena Bekman-Shcherbina, it went like this:

“On October 17, 1905, my eldest daughter Verochka turned two years old, and in the morning I gave her a living doll - sister Olya, who was born at half past midnight, that is, also on October 17. Verochka was absolutely delighted. While I was still lying in bed, Leonid somehow sat down at the piano, sat Verika on his lap and composed a song for her based on a poem from the children’s magazine “Malyutka” - “A Christmas tree was born in the forest, it grew in the forest...” Verochka, who had excellent hearing , quickly learned it, and so as not to forget the song, I wrote it down. Subsequently, we both began to compose other songs for children. This is how the collection “Verochka’s Songs” arose, which went through four editions in a short time, then “Olenka the Songster”.

Later music critics found that Beckmann's music was not entirely original. The melody of “Christmas Trees” echoes the song of the Swedish poet and composer Emmy Köhler “Thousands of Christmas candles are lit” (“Nu tändas tusen juleljus”, 1898)

and with the early 19th century German student song "Wir hatten gebauet ein stattliches Haus".

Nevertheless, Rachmaninov, Taneyev, and Scriabin spoke approvingly of “Yolka.” After this, the new song began to gain wider recognition, although Kudasheva did not even know about it for many years.

In 1933, when the USSR first officially celebrated the New Year, designed to supplant the Christmas holidays, Kudasheva-Beckman’s song was again heard under every tree. Kudasheva's text turned out to be ideologically sterile, and therefore acceptable - Christmas is never mentioned in this Christmas song!