# What are these two Russian songs? (from 1969's "Topaz", and '63's "55 Days at Peking") **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies, music\ **Created:** [January 25, 2025, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-two-russian-songs-from-1969s-topaz-and-63s-55-days-at-peking/1013392 "2025-01-25T18:55:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-two-russian-songs-from-1969s-topaz-and-63s-55-days-at-peking/1013392/1 "2025-01-25T18:55:39Z")
Okay, short and sweet…does anyone know the name of [this song](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aLsmFWhHWG65qsZp34MTn1d1-u_aaB3x/view), that a truckload of Russians can be heard briefly singing in the 1969 Hitchcock film _Topaz_, and/or _[this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUul98_STG8)_ song (a different one) featured in a medley (“Help Arrives”) at the end of 1963’s 55 Days at Peking? I’ve wondered about both of them for a few years, now, and I just realized they were starting to blend in my hazy memory. 'Probably a good time to get them sorted out before I get too creaky. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-two-russian-songs-from-1969s-topaz-and-63s-55-days-at-peking/1013392/2 "2025-01-25T19:38:33Z")
The second one appears to be called “Help Arrives” ! From the original soundtrack of that film. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-two-russian-songs-from-1969s-topaz-and-63s-55-days-at-peking/1013392/3 "2025-01-25T19:44:48Z")
'Sorry, looks like I messed up with that second link—the mystery Russian song included in the “Help Arrives” medley would be [at _this_ point in the track](https://youtu.be/cUul98_STG8?si=eWO5QG6mH1S_hiVj&t=132). ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-two-russian-songs-from-1969s-topaz-and-63s-55-days-at-peking/1013392/4 "2025-02-10T12:49:00Z")
…could I fire up my one allotted “bump,” to open up the work week? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-two-russian-songs-from-1969s-topaz-and-63s-55-days-at-peking/1013392/5 "2025-02-15T13:17:26Z")
I’ll get Inna on it later today… she grew up in the Soviet Union and may know these. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-two-russian-songs-from-1969s-topaz-and-63s-55-days-at-peking/1013392/6 "2025-02-15T13:26:39Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > “Help Arrives” medley would be [at _this_ point in the track](https://youtu.be/cUul98_STG8?si=eWO5QG6mH1S_hiVj&t=132) Just sounds like movie wallpaper. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-two-russian-songs-from-1969s-topaz-and-63s-55-days-at-peking/1013392/7 "2025-02-15T14:46:08Z")
Fair point. In the soundtrack of a movie, it’s not always easy to tell sometimes what music was pre-existing and what was written for the film. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-two-russian-songs-from-1969s-topaz-and-63s-55-days-at-peking/1013392/8 "2025-02-15T15:52:59Z")
#1. Traditional Russian folk tune. Name unknown, sorry. #2. Russian march music, familiar to Inna. She noted that whoever was playing/singing had a non-Russian accent. This one was a common march in the Imperial (Tsar era) army. The second song is about two singing birds, one of them a canary the other a nightingale. Wait! She found the original to #2… ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-two-russian-songs-from-1969s-topaz-and-63s-55-days-at-peking/1013392/9 "2025-02-15T15:57:59Z")
Stupid discourse… [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/-iVZqR5U1e8/maxresdefault.jpg "Соловей, соловей, пташечка! - Русская солдатская песня с текстом - ИПК Валаам") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iVZqR5U1e8) ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-two-russian-songs-from-1969s-topaz-and-63s-55-days-at-peking/1013392/10 "2025-02-15T16:01:40Z")
And on Spotify… https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/5Aan2pUPLhsedCa0KOXB3T?si=eV8uU3ugQJae-ttQ_2NsPQ&utm_source=oembed ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-two-russian-songs-from-1969s-topaz-and-63s-55-days-at-peking/1013392/11 "2025-02-15T16:10:27Z")
#1 is a Cossack tune. 43 seconds in and you will hear the melody… [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/3kxtkApP2l0/maxresdefault.jpg "Звонница - Как за Доном за рекой") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kxtkApP2l0) ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-two-russian-songs-from-1969s-topaz-and-63s-55-days-at-peking/1013392/12 "2025-02-15T22:35:14Z")
Fantastic! Thank you so much, **JohnT** and **Inna**! _Спасибо!_ ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2025, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-two-russian-songs-from-1969s-topaz-and-63s-55-days-at-peking/1013392/13 "2025-02-16T18:33:18Z")
You are welcome! She enjoyed doing the research and was able to find #1 through the lyrics. One of her findings was one of these songs being sung by a hero of the Red Revolution (1917-1921). ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2025, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-two-russian-songs-from-1969s-topaz-and-63s-55-days-at-peking/1013392/14 "2025-09-12T15:39:29Z")
Going to bump this for the opposite cross-cultural exchange. Apparently, it was a thing in Soviet Russia for musicians to get immigration visas to the US and UK, bump around for a year or three doing bar and coffee shop gigs, and then come back to the USSR and achieve success with all the amazing songs they “wrote”. This is one of them: [Михаил Шуфутинский - Третье сентября (Песня '94) - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv-tbdVOuOA) Now the above is a post-Soviet concert, but the song was big in the USSR at least five years prior to this. I swear it sounds AWFULLY FAMILIAR, but I just can’t place the original. Anyone else recognize it?