Chant Des Partisans

Song Name: Chant Des Partisans (Also known as The Song of the Partisans or Song of Liberation)

Year of Release: 1943

Written by: Joseph Kessel and Maurice Druon (French version), Anna Marly (original Russian lyrics)

Released by: Anna Marly and Germaine Sablon

Key Lyrics: "Ohé, partisans, ouvriers et paysans, c'est l'alarme/Ce soir l'ennemi connaîtra le prix du sang et des larmes (Hey, partisans, workers, and peasants, this is the signal/Tonight the enemy will know the price of blood and tears)."

"C'est nous qui brisons les barreaux des prisons pour nos frères/La haine à nos trousses et la faim qui nous pousse, la misère (It's us smashing the prison bars for our brothers/The hatred on our backs and the hunger that drives us, the misery)."

"Demain du sang noir séchera au grand soleil sur les routes/Chantez, compagnons, dans la nuit la liberté nous écoute (Tomorrow black blood will be drying under the sun on the roads/Sing, colleagues, freedom is listening to us in the night)."

Description: The song was written by Anna Marly in London when she served as a canteen worker for the Free French Forces in London (after the forces had retreated from Dunkirk). Marly's native language was Russian, so she initially wrote the lyrics in Russian and titled it Marches des Partisans (translated into English as Guerrilla Song), likely inspired by a song called The Partisans from the Russian Civil War that the Soviet Army adopted during World War 2. However, when she performed the song at the home of the Russian ambassador, a member of the French resistance told her the song needed French lyrics. Once the lyrics were translated into French, the whistled melody became the theme song of the BBC program Honneur et Patrie (Honor and Fatherland) and was broadcast on the channel twice a day to boost the morale of the French resistance. The song was also recorded with Marly and Germaine Sablon for the propaganda film Three Songs about Resistance, with the former playing guitar and the latter singing. The song's lyrics motivate the resistance, calling them to take up arms against the Nazis, free those under the grip of the Third Reich, and to be willing to fight and die for the cause of liberation. 

Why It Was Important: The song transcended boundaries; though written initially by a Russian who sympathized with the Soviet struggle against the Nazis, it eventually became a symbol for the French because of an action as simple as translating the lyrics. The lyrics of the song were written as an explicit call to arms, and urge people to liberate themselves from Nazi oppression and to stop at nothing to achieve their freedom, even death, showing how far the drive for liberation went. The song was initially played on the radio as a whistle because the whistled melody could bypass a German attempt to jam the BBC broadcast and because whistling the melody helped French resistance members avoid detection. This showed that despite efforts to stop music from being used as propaganda, it nonetheless remained effective, and showed that music is an effective tool for morale boosting in wartime even despite efforts to stop it from circulating.

Recordings:

Song of The French Resistance - "Le Chant Des Partisans" (YouTube rendition)