Polish Army march 'My Pierwsza Brygada' (We, the First Brigade) (composed in autumn 1917 by an anonymous author, to the texst by Andrzej Hałaciński and Tadeusz Biernacki) soon became an unofficial anthem of the Independent Poland, - slowly resurrecting during the Ist Word war from the 150 years of occupation by Prussia, Austria and Russia. The Legions, formed in 1914-1916 by later Marshall Josef Piłsudski, were the beginning of the New Army of a Free Poland. The Army, who, two years later, after the WWI was ended and the independent state of the Polish Republic was reestablished, had to defend the newly born Polish state against the deadly threat of the Red Army ivasion, during the 1920 Polish-bolshevik war.
The victorous Battle of Warsaw (15 August 1920) where the the Communist invasion on the whole of Europe and its culture was stopped by Pilsudski's young army, has never been forgotten by the Soviets, as the greatest humilation in the history of the Soviet Russia.
In April 1940 -- the Stalin ordained massacre of the Polish Officers in Katyn, is considered by the historians as the Stalin's revenge on those, who twenty years earlier had stopped and beaten the Budionny troops just at the gates of Warsaw and Western Europe.
My, Pierwsza Brygada (We, the First Brigade)
The Legions are a beggar's tune,
The Legions are a sacrifical pyre,
The Legions are a soldier's pride,
The Legions are a martyr's fate.
We the First Brigade,
A sharpshooter's battalion,
Onto the pyre we have cast them
Our life's fate
Onto the pyre, onto the pyre.
Oh, how much suffering, how much pain,
Oh, how much blood and how many tears shed,
Despite this there is no doubt,
The end of our wandering has given us strength.
We the First Brigade...
They shouted we were done for
Not believing us, that where there's a will there's a way!
We spilled blood on our own
And our beloved Leader was with us.
We the First Brigade...
Recording:
Pierwsza Brygada - Eugeniusz Mossakowski, baryton, z udz. Chóru
W. Lachmana i ork. pod dyr. Bronisława Szulca, Syrena-Electro (ok. 1930)
ATTENTION! Unremastered; direct accoustic recording from the gramophone!
