Abstract

The folk song “Transvaal, Transvaal, My Country” emerged in the Russian Empire about 120 years ago. It happened in the wake of the extraordinary public interest in the first major armed confl ict of the 20th century, the Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1902. The lyrics are based on a poem by a Saint-Petersburg poet, G. Galina. The song about the freedom struggle, which was waged by the people of a distant, but, like Russia, predominantly agrarian country, resonated with the early 20th-century Russian society. Its growing politicisation manifested itself in the keen interest that Russians took in the confrontation between two “peasant republics”, as Russian publicists termed them, and an empire, which had a strong army and a desire for expansion in the interests of its capital. The Russian song about a foreign war in Southern Africa became entrenched in Russian folklore and in Russian popular culture in general. A reason for the popularity of “Transvaal” in the Russian Empire was that the song enabled expressions of hope for social and political change in a form that was safe for the singer and his listeners under a repressive regime. The emergence and growing popularity of “Transvaal” coincided with the prevalence of protest sentiments in Russian society, among urban and rural residents, in the 1900s– 1910s. The song changed its meaning over the years. Sympathy for the Boers who fought against the British Empire was gradually replaced by sympathy for one’s compatriots. The Russian folk song, inspired by the events in South Africa, prompted people in the Russian Empire to refl ect on their own living conditions and the future of their homeland.