Svoboda (song)

Svoboda (Freedom) is a song by the Russian rock band DDT. It was written by Yuri Shevchuk in 1997 for the album “World Number Zero”.

The song was written by Yuri Shevchuk while writing songs for the new program “World Number Zero” in 1997. It was originally called “Swamp”, and the first version of the song was included in the so-called “Village Album”  a demo recording of the album “World Number Zero” made by   Shevchuk and  Konstantin Shumailov.

Rough studio recordings of “Svoboda” began in the summer of 1998 during the recording of the album “World Number Zero”, but due to the rigid concept of the album, it was included with modifications in the more lyrical album “Blizzard of August”, released in February 2000.

The song was highly appreciated by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He said he had never heard the word sung like that or spoken at all.

In 2024, after the death of Russian oppositionist Alexei Navalny, Yuri Shevchuk dedicated a song to his memory.

Participated

 * Yuri Shevchuk — vocals, author, bells
 * Vadim Kurylev — guitars, backing vocals
 * Igor Dotsenko — timpani, cymbals, bells, backing vocals
 * Konstantin Shumailov — keyboards, samplers, backing vocals
 * Pavel Borisov — bass guitar, backing vocals