Once, the song Warriors of Light by the Belarusian band Lyapis Trubetskoy unexpectedly became something of an anthem for Ukraine’s Maidan. During the current protests in Belarus, it’s hard to say that any particular song has become the anthem. However, the events themselves have inspired the creation of many beautiful songs, some of which I’ve already shared on my blog. But there’s one song that has unexpectedly been heard in many places and from many voices. It’s called Razbury Turmy Mury (often shortened to Mury), which translates from Belarusian as Tear Down the Prison Walls (or simply The Walls).
The history of the song is also remarkable. It’s recounted on Wikipedia, but I’ll summarize it briefly. The song was originally written by the Catalan author Lluís Llach as a protest against Franco’s dictatorship in Spain.
In 1978, the Polish bard Jacek Kaczmarski took the original melody but wrote his own lyrics, which were different from the Spanish version. However, this song became the anthem of Solidarity, the leading opposition trade union in Poland at the time.
It was this version, with Kaczmarski’s lyrics, that became known in the post-Soviet space, and it was translated into both Russian and Belarusian. Notably, it was the Polish text, not the original Catalan one, that was translated.
When the protests began in Belarus in 2020, the Belarusian version of the song was performed by various artists. However, the version I find most powerful and moving was recorded by Sergey Kosmos and Sergey Tikhanovsky, the latter being the individual who initially planned to run for president but was imprisoned, after which his wife, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, stepped in as the candidate. For their rendition, both Sergeys added two verses to the original translation.
Below the music video for the song, you can find the lyrics in both Belarusian and English (the latter has been translated literally from Belarusian).
