[2] He went on to work in the printing department of the Revolutionary Military Council, moving on to ROSTO.
[3] He adopted the nickname Kumach, a Turkish name for a variety of red cloth used to symbolize revolution.
Vasily wrote numerous songs, the most famous being probably Священная война (Svyaschennaya Voyna, 'The Sacred War'), Песня о Родине (A Song About the Motherland),[6] Гимн партии большевиков (Hymn of the Bolshevik Party) and Как много девушек хороших (Such a lot of nice girls!
Composer Lyubov Streicher used Lebediv-Kumach‘s text for her song "A Simple Soviet Man", which was recorded commercially by pianist Maria Yudina in 1937.
[7] He was also one of the first persons to use the term blat (блат) in print, when Krokodil published the poem Blat-not.