On the Hills of Manchuria

"On the hills of Manchuria" (На сопках Маньчжурии, Na sopkah Manchzhurii) is a haunting waltz composed in 1906 by Ilya Alekseevich Shatrov, a military musician who served in the Russo-Japanese War, while the lyrics are the work of the poet Stepan Petrov, better known by the pen-name of Skitalets.

It refers to the Battle of Mukden, the final land battle of the Russo-Japanese War where the Russian army was decisively routed by the Japanese. The original lyrics are about fallen soldiers lying in their graves in Manchuria, but alternative lyrics were written later, especially during Second World War.

“On the Hills of Manchuria” has become one of the most popular Russian songs, and has been transformed into urban folklore, with different versions coexisting with the original.