Yablochko ( "little apple") is a

chastushka Chastushka ( rus, частушка, , tɕɪsˈtuʂkə, plural: chastushki) is a traditional type of short Russian humorous folk song with high beat frequency, that consists of one four-lined couplet, full of humor, satire or irony. It may be descr ...

-style folk song and dance, traditionally presented as a sailors' dance. The choreographed version of the dance first appeared in the 1926

Reinhold Glière Reinhold Moritzevich Glière (23 June 1956), born Reinhold Ernest Glier, was a Russian and Soviet composer of German and Polish descent. He was awarded the title of People's Artist of RSFSR (1935) and People's Artist of USSR (1938). Biography ...

ballet ''

The Red Poppy ''The Red Poppy'' () or sometimes ''The Red Flower'' () is a ballet in three acts and eight tableaux with an apotheosis, with a score written by Reinhold Glière and libretto by Mikhail Kurilko. This ballet was created in 1927 as the first Sovie ...

'' and from there is known in the West as the Russian Sailors Dance.

History

Song

There is no any "canonic" song under this name, although numerous texts are known, their common part being only its tune and the signature lines starting with "Эх, яблочко..." ("", "Ekh, little apple"), in numerous versions: "Ekh little apple, where are you rolling?" (Эх, яблочко, Да куда котишься?), "Ekh little apple on the saucer" (Эх яблочко, да на тарелочке!), etc. Verses of this kind proliferated during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

, in

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

and

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

camps. The song itself has nothing to do with apples, with its verse commonly being related to the political issues of the time. A variant of this song, written by

Yuliy Kim Yuliy Chersanovich Kim (, ; born 23 December 1936, Moscow) is a Russian bard (Soviet Union), bard, composer, poet, and songwriter. His songs, encompassing everything from mild humor to biting political satire, appear in dozens of Soviet movies, ...

, is sung by Sharikov (transformed from a stray dog) before the medical commission in the 1988 film ''

Heart of a Dog ''Heart of a Dog'' (, ) is a novella by Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov. A biting satire of Bolshevism, it was written in 1925 at the height of the New Economic Policy, a period during which communism appeared to be relaxing in the Soviet Union. ...

'': "Эх, яблочко, да с голубикою. Подходи, буржуй, глазик выколю!" (Erh, little apple, with bog blueberry, Come here

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...

man, I'll gouge out your eye!).Пустовая Дарья
Шарикова нашли среди алкоголиков
August 5, 2008, '

Dance

Researchers believe that the "" dance appeared as a synthesis of the British and Ireland

hornpipe The hornpipe is any of several dance forms and their associated tunes, played and danced in Great Britain and Ireland and elsewhere from the 16th century until the present day. The earliest references to hornpipes are from England, with Hugh As ...

dance and Russian traditional dance.

References

{{reflist Russian folk songs Russian folk dances