The White Russian

In April 1919 No. 47 Squadron RAF was sent to Southern Russia to help General Denikin's White Russian forces in their fight against the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War. The Squadron’s mission was ostensibly to provide training, but they also carried out operational sorties. When I was commissioned to write a march for the Squadron I tried to give it a slightly Cossack flavour in places and also included the old Imperial Russian Anthem (as used by Tsarist Russia and included in Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture) in the trio. The march was performed on the Festival of Remembrance on BBC1 TV and is recorded on a Studio Music sampler.