The rigid, short structure (and, to a lesser degree, the type of humor used) parallels the poetic genre of limericks in British culture.
Chastushki cover a very wide spectrum of topics, from lewd jokes to political satire, including such diverse themes as love songs and Communist propaganda.
In some areas hit particularly hard by the grain requisitioning of the Soviet regime during the Civil War, such as Ryazan, peasant chastushki tended to be bitterly hostile.
[2] Scholar Lynne Viola provides one such example of an anti-religious Soviet rhyme, rendered here in literal English translation: All the pious are on a spree, They see God is not at home.
[2]Given the difficult economic circumstances of the Soviet peasantry in the late 1920s and 1930s, chastushki overwhelmingly took an anti-government form, with the singing of anti-Soviet couplets a common practice at peasant festivals of the period.
[3] Following the assassination of Communist Party leader Sergei Kirov late in 1934, chastushki sprung up relating the killing to a recent decision to terminate bread rationing, including this literal translation of one example provided by scholar Sheila Fitzpatrick: When Kirov was killed, They allowed free trade in bread.
The following are some relatively printable examples, with slightly loose English translations that attempt to give an approximate feeling of the chastushka's rhyme and meter, and the general meaning: Знаем Ленина заветы.
Кулаки, попы – наш враг Призовет их всех к ответу Большевицкий красный флаг.