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A Little Song About Bears

Soviet song

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ42456090 ↗
Source-derived summary

"A Little Song About Bears" (Russian: Песенка о медведях) is a song written by Leonid Derbenyov and composed by Aleksandr Zatsepin for the 1966 Soviet film Kidnapping, Caucasian Style, in which it was sung by the main heroine (played by Natalya Varley and dubbed for the song by Aida Vedishcheva).

In Russia, "Pesenka o medvedyakh" is considered one of the most popular songs of the 20th century.

Composition

The song states that the Earth is being rotated by bears (supposedly polar bears) rubbing their backs against its axis. And that the bears work very diligently in order to help future lovers meet each other sooner ("so that someone says 'I love you' to someone earlier by a year or two").

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “A Little Song About Bears” as soviet song. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1966—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1967. The account is most persuasive where Little, Song and Bears can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as soviet song. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q42456090. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1966.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “A Little Song About Bears”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow A Little Song About Bears primary sources, A Little Song About Bears archive and Little research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “A Little Song About Bears”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “A Little Song About Bears” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.