Old Russian Choir - Mogiła (The Grave) - Chór Siemionowa, 1930

Mogiła (The Grave) Rosyjska pieśń ludowa (Russian folk song) - Chór Jerzego Siemionowa (Jerzy Siemionow's Choir), Syrena-Electro 1930 (Polish product)

NOTE 1: Jerzy Siemionow (Georgi Semenov) was a Russian (Ukrainian?) Kiev-born singer, who emigrated from Tzarist Russia briefly after the victory of Bolshevic revolution, in 1917. As "white" Russian emigree, he embarked in Polish capital city Warsaw, where he founded a Russian -Polish male vocal quintett (a "Choir") consisting of Jerzy Siemionow -- baritone, Dymitr Dubrowski -- baritone, Iwan Pietin-Burlak -- tenor, Michaił Olchowy -- tenor, Aleksander Puchalski -- bas. Until 1939, they recorded numerous sides for Syrena Records and for Lonora-Electro, and in 1934 they were featured in Polish melodramatic movie "Hanka". Siemionow Choir was enormously popular so in White Russian emigree circles as before the Polish audiences. The Siemionow Choir continued its activity even during the first years of the German occupation of Poland, until the end of 1940 (In the occupied territories of Europe, the Nazis treated White Russians as their natural allies). However in June 1941, shortly before outbreak of the German-Soviet war, Georgi Semenov mysteriously evaporated from Warsaw. It is said, that he travelled to the Soviet Union and after that, his name vanished forever.

Was he a Bolshevik secret police agent? - Just as so many from the "white" Russian artists (Olga Tschechova, Alexandre Vertinsky) whose duty was to infiltrate the Russian emigree circles in the West and play their double roles, until in a right time they were called off from their services and retired, back in their KGB motherland?
------------------------------------

NOTE 2: Tonight, right on the eve of the All Souls Day -- which, on contrary to the Halloween street jamborees in the Anglo-Saxon culture, is in Poland a day of contemplation and prayer - my slideshow is devoted to the devastated and forgotten Polish cemeteries, located in what Poles consider the historical eastern frontier of their country and what is today's western territories of Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. Many generations of Poles have been buried there, as well as participants of the Polish-Russian and Polish-Ukrainian wars, and victims of the massacres and revolutions. Regretfully, many of these cemeteries have become a bone of contention between Poland and these countries. The Lwów Cemetery of Eaglets generates in Western Ukraine controversy, as many of the Poles buried there fought against the Ukrainians during the Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Russian wars of years 1918-1920. The cemetery was closed for several decades and reopened only in 2005, when the Lwów City Council finally gave its approval. Initially the council resisted the opening of the cemetery because of inscription on one of the collective graves commemorated the unknown Polish heroes who "died during the Polish-Ukrainian War". The inscription was changed several times and now it reads: Here lie Polish soldiers who "gave their life to Motherland". Also in Lithuania, due to a political campaign to "de-polonize" Lithuania, Polish cemetery in Rossa (Rosas) where famous people of Polish culture are buried is in shambles. Curiously, a few meters away from this cemetery, a large Russian cemetery is well kept and in good condition. Every year on All Souls Day, tens thousands of Polish zlotys are collected in Poland to renew this cemetery but with no effect in the Rossa Cemetery in Wilno. Not long ago, in another cemetery -- in Święciany, near Wilno -- the vandals smeared black paint on fifty graves belonging to Polish legionnaires and swastikas were daubed on memorial plaques. Most often, such acts of vandalism meet no public condemnation from the side of the Lithuanian officials.

Let us pray -- not only for those, who now lie in peace baneath the grave stones, but also for those, who take care the hatred be still alive in their hearts.