Whirlwinds of Danger
| "Warszawianka" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| English title | Whirlwinds of Danger March Song of the Workers The Song of Warsaw Hostile Whirlwinds |
| Written | between 1879 and 1883 |
| Published | 15 September 1883 |
| Genre | revolutionary song |
| Writer(s) |
Wacław Święcicki Douglas Robson (1st English version) Randall Swingler (2nd English version) |
| Composer(s) | Józef Pławiński |
| Language | Polish |
Whirlwinds of Danger (original Polish title: Warszawianka) is a Polish socialist revolutionary song written some time between 1879 and 1883. The Polish title, a deliberate reference to the earlier song by the same title, could be translated as either "The Song of Warsaw" (as in the Leon Lishner version) or "the lady of Warsaw". To distinguish between the two, it is often called "Warszawianka 1905 roku" ("Warszawianka of 1905"), after the song became the anthem of worker protests during the Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland (1905–1907), when 30 workers were shot during the May Day demonstrations in Warsaw in 1905.
According to one version, Wacław Święcicki wrote the song in 1879 while serving a sentence in the Tenth Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel for socialist activity. Another popular version has it written in 1883, immediately upon Święcicki's return from exile in Siberia. By the beginning of the next decade the song became one of the most popular revolutionary anthems in Russian-held Poland. The music was written by composer Józef Pławiński, who was imprisoned together with Święcicki, based partially on the January Uprising song "Marsz Żuawów".
Its Russian version with altered lyrics, which removed any mention of Warsaw from the song, the "Varshavianka", once experienced considerable popularity. Gleb Krzhizhanovsky is usually reported as the author of the Russian version and the moment of writing the text is thought to be 1897, when Krzhizhanovsky was imprisoned.
The Spanish song "To The Barricades" is set to the same tune. In East Germany, a German translation was created and used as a common piece of marching music by the Army; whilst France's 1st Parachute Hussar Regiment adopted the same music using different lyrics.
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