Have you ever heard the "Buchenwald Alarm"? The lyrics and her music are so piercing that they cannot leave indifferent any thinking and feeling person. Even the most callous people cry, listening to a work written on the opening day of the memorial to the victims of war in Buchenwald. The music and the words of the song accurately convey the rumble of the memorial bell, they draw scary pictures of fascist atrocities and the images of people tortured or burnt alive. Few people know that the song, which has become a cultural monument to the victims of fascism, is in fact also a monument to party obscurantism. Poems for the song “Buchenwald Nabat” were written by front-line soldier Alexander Sobolev, but even many people of art still do not know this.
The Buchenwald Alarm. History
In the summer of 1958, a tower was opened in Buchenwald. The bell, installed on its top, with its buzz should constantly remind of the innocent victims of the prisoners of Buchenwald. Hearing this news, Sobolev, who once worked in a small-circulation newspaper, wrote a poem that began with the line: “People of the world, stand up for a minute!” Chopped lines, vivid images touched the soul of everyone who heard this poem. After some time, the simple-minded poet took his work to the newspaper Pravda. But ... they didn’t even read it. There were two reasons for this. The first is the non-partisanship of Sobolev. The second is his nationality. Alexander was a Jew. Without reading, the editor-in-chief crossed out verses and threw them to the author. But the former front-line soldier was remarkably persistent. He went through the whole war, so the indignation of the party bureaucrat did not scare him. A few days later, Sobolev took the Buchenwald Nabat to the Trud newspaper. This publication also published the work of non-party members, so new poems were accepted.
And the restless Sobolev went even further: he sent the text to the famous composer Vano Muradeli. Shocked by simple but emotional lines, the poet quickly shifted poetry to music. Working on the work, the musician cried. Thus was born the song "Buchenwald Alarm". But birth does not mean life. All the same bureaucrats from the CPSU, heading the All-Union Radio, considered that poetry is not poetry at all, but sheer obscurantism. The Buchenwald Nabat was rejected. However, the author of the words went with a new song to the Komsomol Central Committee. There just needed a repertoire for the student choir going to the World Youth Festival. It was in Vienna that the Buchenwald Nabat, performed for the first time, made thousands of people cry. A few days later, a song translated into many languages ​​was sung by the whole world. But the song did not reach Russia. For a long time, its execution was considered impractical for the same reasons: the non-partisanship and nationality of the author. Only after the documentary film "Spring Wind Over Vienna" did the song begin a triumphal march across Russia. But ... the author of the verses was never mentioned during her performance. Many to this day are convinced that the work is completely owned by Vano Muradeli. Naturally, Alexander Sobolev received neither royalties, amounting to hundreds of thousands, nor a copyright certificate. He lived in a hut, worked at a factory. The public became aware of his role in the creation of the song “Buchenwald Alarm” only a few years ago.
But neither in encyclopedias, nor in Wikipedia, nor in other directories does the Sobolev name still exist.