Illia Alekseivitch SHATROV
Countless readers have asked us for more information about На сопках Маньчжурии (Na sopkakh Mandchurii – The hills of Manchuria), a traditional Russian waltz – perhaps one of the prettiest – many have discovered and taken delight in from the movie URGA.
The father of this waltz, Illia Alekseyevich Shatrov was born on 1st April 1879 in a cosy family from the petite bourgeoisie of Zemlyansk (region of Voronei). Brought up in a musicians’ family, the young Illia will early be playing the bunch of traditional Russian tunes he’s been shrouded into.
The death of his father in 1893 will drive him forth to the Warsaw School of Music, at that time part of the Russian territory, where he studies the trumpet and graduates with honours in 1900.
In the turn of 1903 he is made conductor of the clique of the Morkhanski 214th infantry regiment.
Led off by an undeclared Japanese attack storming Port-Arthur, the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese war breaks out and finds the 214° Morkhansky engaged in Manchuria. This regiment consists of 6 superior officers, 43 staff officers, 404 line officers, 3548 troopers, 11 horsemen and 61 musicians, who were fighting side by side with the whole regiment.
In February 1905, Port-Arthur is circled by the Japanese. Towards the end of the conflict, the 214° Morkhansky, swamped into the raging battle, gets progressively surrounded by enemies and will be slaughtered after a 12-day long battle. Only 7 men will get by, counting Illia A. SHATROV.
Together with his unfortunate companions, he will be decorated with St. George’s Cross, the greatest and most appraised military honour in the Russian Empire.
Shatrov completes “The Hills of Manchuria” in 1906 and dedicates it as a tribute to his fallen comrades.
This waltz reaches an immediate success and becomes strewn all over the Russian Empire. Illa Shatrov was only 27 by then. He deceased in 1952 after having lived and taken part into the 1st and the 2nd world war.
English translation by courtesy of
