AND WHERE WERE JACOB SVERDLOV'S SONS?
Sverdlov killed the bloody Tsar,
He signed the warrant for it;
So when they struck his statue down
The Tsarists cheered who saw it:
They hauled the hollow statue down,
And the Tsarists sang when they saw it.
And where were Jacob Sverdlov's sons?
And Lenin's proud granddaughters?
And where were Trotsky's Bolsheviks?
All of them lost, slaugtered;
All of the leaders, fighters, Reds,
All of them, all, slaughtered!
They made no statues out of bronze,
The heroes Stalin killed;
In Lubianka and Vorkuta
They died, their voices stilled:
The Tsar's song fills the air this dawn
Because that voice was stilled
They died defending working people,
And who now cares to tell
Their tale, recall the fight of those
Old Communists who fell?
With lies they've sealed the graves of those
Old Communists too well.
When tsarists sing the Tsar's old song
And Socialism calls forth a sneer,
Who cares for the Reds whom Stalin killed?
Dim pictures from afar
Of the tribe wiped out to clear the way
For those who hail the Tsar?
And where were Jacob Sverdlov's sons,
And Trotsky's armed granddaughters?
And where are Lenin's Bplsheviks?
All of them, all, slaughtered;
All of the leaders, fighters, Reds,
All of them, all, slaughtered!
Socialist Organiser: 5-9-'91