Tachanka (Тачанка) - EPIC Soviet/Russian Instrumental Song

Tachanka (Tачанка), sometimes labelled Song of the Tachanka (Песня о Тачанке) is a Soviet revolutionary song from the late Interwar period, composed by Konstantin Listov and written by Mikhail Ruderman in 1937.


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It describes an unnamed battle in the Russian Civil War and the Tachankas, or machine-gun carts, that were used by the Red Army at the time. The song underwent several lyrical changes over the years, and features in the repertoire of the Red Army Choir and Leon Lishner.

In some versions of the song's lyrics, references to the Red Cavalry are removed and replaced with Приазовская тачанка - literally "Tachanka from near the Sea of Azov". In other versions, references to the Komsomol are removed and replaced with "Tachanka from Ukraine" (Украинская тачанка).

A tachanka itself was a horse-drawn cart (such as charabanc) or an open wagon with a heavy machine gun mounted on the rear side. A tachanka could be pulled by two to four horses and required a crew of two or three (one driver and a machine gun crew). A number of sources attribute its invention to Nestor Makhno.

The Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine used tachankas mainly against enemy cavalry. Makhnovists also used tachankas to transport infantry, thus improving mobility of the army (about 100 km each day). Tachankas soon became used by the Red Army, with the famous example of Vasily Chapayev.