The Hebrew version of Katyusha

The Hebrew version of Katyusha

Katyusha has become a folk song in Israel, as many other old Russian songs. It was translated into Hebrew by the Belorussian born author and poet Noah Pniel in 1940, while he was in Lithuania, and prior to his arrival in Israel. The song became very popular among the Jewish pioneers at the time and later on became popular in the youth movements in the young state of Israel and in the Kibbutzim. It also later had a famous rendition by the Gevatron, a popular Kibbutz group that specialized in Russian and Soviet era covers. The song is often called "a pear and an apple blossomed" (לבלבו אגס וגם תפוח) after the first line of the lyrics in Hebrew. It is very popular to this day, in the early 21st century, in community singing in Israel.