Листая старую тетрадь Расстрелянного генерала, Я тщетно силился...

Leafing through an old notebook
The executed general
I tried in vain to understand
How could you give yourself
At the mercy of vandals.

From the dark depths of centuries
You rose as a giant
Your Petersburg reconciled enemies
High valor of the regiments
In the age of golden Catherine.
Russia...

Sacred music of times
Over the gold-domed Moscow
The bells were ringing
But, even the quietest, he
Someone did not give rest.

And the golden domes
Someone blinded a black eye:
You irritated the forces of evil
And, apparently, so they got them,
That they decided to blind you.
Russia…

The heavens opened with a crash
And screeched out of there,
Chopping off the heads of the churches
And glorifying the new king,
Newly born Judas.

You were tied with kumach
And dropped to my knees
The ax flashed over the executioner,
And I read the sentence to you
The bloody king is a great genius.
Russia…

Leafing through an old notebook
The executed general
I tried in vain to understand
How could you give yourself
At the mercy of vandals.

Oh, general's notebook,
A revival of a forgotten truth,
How hard it is to read you
Deceived by a generation
Russia...