This song was inspired by the great Soviet-Russian poet Osip Mandelstam. Like many of his fellow poets, he was very careful to share certain new poems only with his closest friends. ThatÕs what he did with his famous ÒOde to Stalin,Ó whoÕs described therein as a belching executioner with grub-like fingers and a cockroach moustache. Within days of OsipÕs reading the poem to a handful of trustworthy friends, he and and his wife, Nadezhda, heard a knock on their apartment door.
So, yes, this songÕs about Osip Mandelstam, who later died in a gulag.
But it was written in April 2003, not long after another leader with a black-and-white view of the world proclaimed, ÒYouÕre either with us or against us.Ó
It seems a common thread connects so many overly powerful men throughout history. . . .
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