Bolesław Czerwieński

Boleslaw Czerwieński (1851–1888) was a Polish poet and essayist, socialist, political and revolutionary activist. In 1881, on the tenth anniversary of the Commune of Paris, Czerwieński wrote a song Czerwony sztandar (Red Banner), which was a loose translation of the French revolutionary song Le Drapeau Rouge. It became a popular hymn among Polish workmen. The song was translated into Russian by Gleb Krzhizhanovsky at the Butyrka Prison in 1897, but this version was lost and never became popular. The best-known translation was published without an author's signature as an appendix to the Berlin's newspaper Rabochaya Mysl in February 1900. Krasnoe Znamya had been popular during both Russian revolutions. In 1919-1922, Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich proclaimed Vladimir Akimov (Makhnovets) as an author of the Russian text.