
“Through Valleys and Over Hills” (Po dolinam i po vzgoriam) is a famous Russian Civil War song associated with the Red Army and partisan forces in the Russian Far East. The best-known version was written by Pyotr Parfyonov after the 1922 Battle of Volochaevka, although the melody and earlier versions of the song have a more complicated history. An earlier related poem, written by Vladimir Gilyarovsky in 1915, was dedicated to the Siberian Riflemen during World War I. The lyrics describe partisan divisions marching through valleys and hills, fighting the White Army and capturing cities in the Far East. They commemorate battles such as Spassk and Volochaevka and celebrate the eventual end of the campaign on the Pacific coast. The song became widely popular in the Soviet Union after the Civil War and later gained renewed popularity among anti-fascist partisan movements during World War II, particularly among Soviet and Yugoslav partisans. It was also incorporated into the repertoire of the Alexandrov Red Army Choir. One of the song’s most notable features is the large number of adaptations. Versions appeared in Serbo-Croatian, Greek, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Kurdish, Spanish, and other languages. Different adaptations often changed the political or historical context of the lyrics—for example, Yugoslav versions focused on the Partisan struggle against fascism, while other versions were connected with anarchist or revolutionary movements.