The XX century was turbulent, with many revolutions and wars. In this post, I will write about some of the songs that encouraged the fighters to combat those bloody events.

The criteria for the songs were to be composed in the XXth century and to cover events from the same century. For this reason, I had to eliminate pieces like “The Internationale,” “Warszawianka,” or “Ay Carmela !” which were composed in the XIXth century. Another criterion was to add only songs I like. It is a subjective list, and I don’t claim to be an exhaustive list. It is essential to mention that I don’t associate myself with the message of all the songs. It would be impossible to sustain both communist and anti-communist causes simultaneously. However, that doesn’t stop me from appreciating beautiful and motivating songs. Conversely, I chose not to write about some events because I failed to find lovely songs with my subjective taste. Some pieces were contemporary with the revolutions they referred to, while others were composed before or later. I chose to cover only revolutions and not World Wars.

From a chronological perspective of the XXth century, the first six decades were dominated by communist or anarchist revolutions. In comparison, the last four decades were democratic revolutions fighting against dictatorship.

The first revolution of the XX century we cover here was the 1905 uprising in Russia. In our times, we remember those events in the movie “Battleship Potemkin” by Serghei Eisenstein from 1925. That movie remains a masterpiece of cinematography and propaganda. It is possible that the song “Potemkine” by Jean Ferrat, composed in 1965, was inspired by that movie.

We continue with the Mexican Revolution from 1910-1920. The most known song from that period, “La Cucaracha,” was from the previous century. Therefore, I chose “La Adelita,” a song about the women “Soldaderas” participating in the revolution.

The next event was the Russian Revolution of 1917. The most known hymn of the “great revolution” is “The Internationale,” which dates from the 1870s. For the same reason as above, I chose “Farewell of Slavianka,” composed in 1912 by Vasily Agapkin and played during the events.

After the Russian Revolution, there were many tries by communists to seize power in different European countries. Most notable would be the revolution in Germany during 1918-1919. A representative piece of that revolution is “Brüder, Ergreift Die Gewehre,” written by Max Barthel, although some things are unclear about this song.

The Spanish Revolution happened in the 1930s. There are many beautiful songs from that time. My first choice would be “Ay Carmela !” but since it was from the previous century, I selected “Si me quieres escribir,” a song of the Left forces composed in the 1920s. It has to be added that “A las barricadas” is, in fact, “Warszawianka” melody with Spanish verses.

The Cuban Revolution started in 1953 and succeeded in 1959. The well-known song “Hasta siempre comandante” was composed in 1965 as a response to a farewell letter from Ernesto Che Guevara to the Cuban people. Che Guevara was an Argentinian anarchist who, after the success of the Cuban revolution, left Cuba to support the uprisings in other countries, in Congo and later in Bolivia, where he was murdered.

We can say that communist and anarchist revolutions died with Che Guevara. The subsequent revolutions covered here are fights for democracy.

In 1956, the first anticommunist uprising in Europe took place in Hungary. There was no official song for that event, but 10 years later, in 1966, an Italian journalist, Pier Francesco Pingitore,  wrote the lyrics commemorating those events. It was called “Avanti ragazzi di Buda” to remember the young students who participated in that rebellion. The Hungarian uprising was crushed the same year by the Soviet Army.

The Spring in Prague happened in 1968. Again, it was a fight for freedom and democracy. The Warsaw Pact countries’ armies occupied Czechoslovakia and crushed the democratic movement. Romania was the only country from the Warsaw Pact without sending troops and condemning the aggression instead. The Prague Spring had a huge impact all over Europe. Many poems and melodies were composed for the revolution in Prague. I had to select four songs: one in Czech, two in French, and one in Italian. Guicini’s song refers to the self-immolation of Jan Palach in Prague in 1969, a moment with broad impact at the time and over the years. His death is covered in other songs, like this one from Salvatore Adamo:

“Y en a qui meurent au printemps
Comme des éclairs, comme des flambeaux
Barrant la route un court instant
Aux chars d’assaut” -Mourir dans tes bras

The following two events are not revolutions in the classical sense. In 1970, Salvador Allende became president of Chile, moving the country to socialism. In 1973, there was a coup d’etat, which led to Salvador Allende’s death and starting of dictatorship in Chile. “El pueblo unido” was composed in Chile in 1973, a few months before the coup.

In 1974, Greece changed the ruling regime from dictatorship to democracy after the unsuccessful Cypriot coup followed by the Turkish invasion of the island. Mikis Theodorakis, the famous composer, returned to Greece and had concerts where they sang his composition “To Yelasto Pedi,” among others.

In 1989, there was a significant event in Eastern Europe, and democracy was instated in East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria. This is the only event I witnessed live from the last century’s revolutions. I chose a wonderful Czech song from that time.

I really enjoyed doing the research for this article because I discovered many beautiful songs. It is not easy to match the objective history with the subjective pieces. It was a complex century, but at least they wrote beautiful music. I recommend this webpage as a starting point if anyone is interested in doing a similar job or wants to learn more on such a topic.

Disclaimer: Don’t listen to these songs before you go to sleep.

If you wonder what the usage of this post my answer is that it can be used as a playlist to be listened to during running or exercising.