Posted by Bublichki are a traditional Jewish/Russian street food. They can look and taste like bagels or like doughnuts. In 1922, the Ukrainian Jew Yakov (Davidovich) Jadov from Odessa, composed a song titled “Bublichki”, “Бублички” in Russian, and its text was in the Russian language.
Here is the original Russian Bublichki text:
Ночь надвигается, фонарь шатается,
Свет пробивается в ночную тьму.
Я неумытая тряпьём прикрытая
И вся разбитая, едва брожу.
Припев:
Купите бублички, горячи бублички,
Несите рублички, сюда скорей!
И в ночь ненастную, меня несчастную,
Торговку частную, ты пожалей.
Отец мой пьяница, он этим чванится,
Он к гробу тянется, ему лишь пить.
Сестра гулящая, а мать пропащая,
А я курящая, глядите вот.
Припев.
Вот у хозяина проклятье Каина
Потом на улицу меня прогнал.
Кормилась дрянею, ловилась нянею,
Теперь живу я да у кустаря.
Припев.
And its English translation:
Night draws near, the streetlight sways,
Light fights through the dark of night.
I’m unwashed, clad only in rags
and I’m so broken, I can barely walk.
Chorus:
Buy my bagels, hot bagels,
Give me your rubles and do it quickly!
And on this gloomy night, in my dire straits,
Take pity on this poor peddler.
All Dad does is drink, he boasts about it,
It’ll be the death of him, not that he cares.
My sister walks the streets, Mom’s mind is gone,
And hey, look, I’m a smoker.
Chorus.
And then there’s my old boss, he had the curse of Cain,
He chased me into the street.
I was living on trash until my nanny caught me,
And now I live with a craftsman.
Chorus.
The socio-economic context of this song is the NEP (New Economic Policy), an economic policy implemented in the Soviet Union in 1921 by Vladimir Lenin in an attempt to stabilize the country’s economy after the Bolshevik Revolution. The NEP was intended as a temporary measure that allowed for a limited amount of free-market capitalism, while the state continued to control the large industries, the banks, and foreign trade. The NEP created a thriving class of small entrepreneurs, but it also led to further impoverishment of large parts of the population, mainly in the big cities. The song reflects the desperation of a street bagel vendor who is trying to sell his last bagels before nightfall. It paints a drab sociogram:
Dirty and in rags, the bagel vendor is barely able to walk. His father is an alcoholic, who is drinking himself to death. His sister is a prostitute. His mother has lost her mind, and he himself is a heavy smoker probably of Russian “makhorka” tobacco. He got fired by his boss – one wonders why.
The song is an accusation of the NEP for causing more problems than it solves. Everybody knew that the NEP was a government program and hence the song was understood as a critique of the Bolshevik government.
However, the Bolshevik government did not like this and responded with an ingenious propaganda move. They had the song “transmogrified” into Yiddish probably by Uli Hooves shortly after the Russian version was published. The melody remained the same, but the Yiddish text was quite different.
Here is the Yiddish Bublichki text:
Bublichki,
Koyft mayne beygelekh,
Heysinke bublichki!
Nu, koyft…
Es kumt bald on di nakht,
Ikh shtey zikh tif fartrakht,
Zet, mayn eygelekh
Zaynen farshvartst.
Der frost indroysn brent,
Farfroyrn mayne hent,
Fun tsores zing ikh mir
Mayn troy’rik lid.
Nu, koyft zhe bublichki,
Heysinke beygelekh,
Di letste beygelekh,
Nu, koyft, bay mir…
Ikh shtey aleyn in gas,
Fun regn ver ikh nas,
Di letste beygelekh,
Nu, koyft bay mir…
Di nakht es geyt farbay,
Der tog rukt on afsnay,
Ikh shtey in gas un trakht,
Vos vet dokh zayn?
Der veytik iz in hoyz,
Fun hunger gey ikh oys,
Oy, menchn, hert mayn lid,
Fun hunger shvakh…
Bublichki, beygelekh,
Koyft mayne bublichki…
Koyft!
And here is the English translation of the Yiddish Bublichki text:
Bagels! Hot Bagels!
Come-and-get my bagels
Hot bagels, hot rolls
It’s almost night now
Here I stand deep in thought
See, my eyes are!
They are so dark.
It’s freezing out here
My hands are frozen stiff
This sad song comes out of
My desperate troubles!
So! Come-and-get my bagels!
Hot bagels! Hot rolls!
My last few bagels
So! Come-and-buy my bagels!
Here I stand all-alone in the street
Soaked through by the rain
So! Come-and-buy my bagels
Night has fallen. There’s no light left.
Here I stand thinking
What will be?
There’s nothing but pain at home
I’m so hungry, I’m about to faint
Dear folks, hear my song
I’m so hungry I’m about to faint
So! Come-and-buy my bagels
My last few bagels!
As you can see, the socio-economic context of the song was changed completely from a Bolshevik NEP scenario to a pre-revolution Tsarist Jewish scenario. The story is no longer about a poor Soviet citizen but about a poor Jewish girl, who tries to sell her Bagels standing in the freezing rain. A picture of poverty and oppression of the Jews under the Tsarist regime. Soon, many people in Russia believed that the Yiddish version of the song was the original and that the Russian version was a later adaptation.
However, the original Russian version was adopted by the Russian criminal underground, which already existed under the Tsars, continued to exist under the Bolsheviks, and still exists today under Putin’s imperial regime. This criminal Russian underground was not only a group of gangsters, but it also understood itself and functioned as political opposition to the ruling powers. It maintained this dual role even into the presence. The Russian Bublichki song was perceived by the criminal underground as a political song and it preserved its popularity in Russia until this present day, while most Western musical performers, who play or sing it’s later Yiddish version seem to be unaware of its original Russian origin and believe it to be a genuine pre-revolution Yiddish song.
The lasting effect of a master stroke of Communist propaganda.