"Farewell of Slavianka" () is a Russian patriotic march, written by the composer Vasily Agapkin in honour of Slavic women accompanying their husbands in the First Balkan War. The march was written and premiered in Tambov in the end of 1912. In the summer of 1915, it was released as a gramophone single in Kiev. Slavianka means "Slavic woman". History The melody gained popularity in Russia and adjoining countries during the First World War, when the Russian soldiers left their homes and were accompanied by the music of the march. It was performed also during parade of 7 November 1941 on the Red Square after which soldiers went straight to fight in the Battle of Moscow. This march was also used as an unofficial anthem of Admiral Kolchak's White Army. Western sources alleged that the song was banned prior to its use in the award-winning 1957 film The Cranes Are Flying, because of its lyrics about supposedly banned subjects. However, there are multiple documentations of the song being performed prior to this, many conducted by Agapkin himself. The earliest recorded publication of Farewell to Slavianka in the Soviet era was in 1929, and its earliest known performance by communist troops was in 1918. Most famously, it was one of four marching tunes performed during the iconic 1941 October Revolution Parade in Red Square. The song was originally published by Zimmerman Production Association around 1912. The march was published in an official collection of music for Red Army orchestras, and it was recorded in the early 1940s by a military orchestra under the conductor Ivan Petrov (1906–1975), but different lyrics were then used. Other lyrics are now usually sung by the Red Army choir. Subsequently, several Russian and Polish composers have written lyrics for the music. During the Second World War in German-occupied Poland, an adapted "underground" version of the song, Rozszumiały się wierzby płaczące ("Weeping Willows Began to Hum"), became popular in the Polish resistance and was based on lyrics by Roman Ślęzak. In the 1990s, the political party Yabloko lobbied unsuccessfully for the march to be adopted as the Russian national anthem. "Farewell of Slavianka" was used in movies like The Cranes Are Flying and Charlie Wilson's War, which is about the Soviet–Afghan War, and in the Russian movies 72 Meters (72 метра) and Prisoner of the Mountains (Кавказский пленник, Kavkazskiy plennik). An instrumental version of the song was