Barrikadimarssi

[1905-1906?]



The old, beloved Barricades form now the object of a new song itinerary starting, rather obviously, with one of the most celebrated (and complicated) pages of our database website. Songs about barricades are not, and cannot be, “antiwar” songs: when people were called to the barricades, they were called to fight and resist against -usually well armed- enemies carrying guns and cannons into the core of the cities. The history of barricades is long, both in terms of real, historical events and as a firmly established symbol of people's resistance against oppression. This is why there are so many songs calling to real, physical barricades made of everything thrown down into the streets to form an obstacle, and to ideal barricades made of ideas and ideals, thrown down into people's heads to form an obstacle to any kind of oppression, repression, political and social normalization.

You may have noticed that the huge Warszawianka – A las barricadas page includes now an extensive Finnish section. But Finland has also its own song calling to barricades: the so-called Barrikadimarssi “March of Barricades” (or: to the barricades). This is an old work song known in Finland, but possibly of Russian origin, with remarkably warlike words. The song is based on an old Russian military march, Тоска по родине [Toska po rodině] “Longing for the Fatherland”; the first Finnish version of the song was published as the “March of the Russian Barricades for Circles and Orchestras” [Venäläisten barrikaadien marssi kööreille ja soittokunnille] in a collection of working songs. The song was not known in the Soviet Union, but due to its style it was originally thought to be Russian. It has also been suggested that the song was written by Finns in St. Petersburg, or by Sveaborg rebels in 1905-1906. The Barrikadimarssi became very popular as a broadside ballad during the Civil War. According to Ludvig Kosonen, when performing the song as a group song in the 1920s, certain words had to be omitted such as the opening “Brothers and sisters, to the Barricades!”. [RV]