Korobeiniki

When tile matching game Tetris was released in the 1980s, not many people out of what was then the Soviet Union which consisted of Russia and 14 other states, knew that the song played in the game was older than the game itself. A folk song, the song was called Korobeiniki and was based on a poem with also called Korobeiniki by Nikolay Nekrasov which debuted in Sovremennik magazine back in 1861. The song became popular for its associated dance style and increasing tempo. The song's name comes from the word for peddlers who sold fabric, sewing supplies and books who were called korobeinikis. The song and the poem is about a young peddler who falls in love with Katya, a peasant girl who only accepts one of his gifts, a turquoise ring. The poem has a dark ending, that is the peddler's murder committed by a forest but the song finishes with the peddler promising to marry the girl after his day at the market is finished.

In 1984, Tetris was created by Alexey Pajitnov, then an employee at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He drew inspiration for the game from his favourite board game Pentominoes, a game with wooden shapes made of five equal squares in a box. For Tetris, he changed this to four after imagining the shapes falling from above in a glass while the players controlled and guided the shapes. It became popular very quickly. However, Korobeiniki only became part of Tetris history when it was used under the name Type A on the Game Boy version of the now popular game and the rest is history. In fact, Korobeiniki was remixed into a song that told the history of the Soviet Union by music group, Pig with the Face of a Boy in a song called Complete History Of the Soviet Union, Arranged to the Melody of Tetris!