It was a mix-up brought the both of us in here -
Him for embezzlement, me through Ksenia.
We were in love, but now she’s far away from me;
She shouted out my name and struggled to break free.

The law arrived and we were pounced upon,
And that is how both him and me are cons -
The con Vasiliev and Petrov the con.

And in the camp you can’t call it a life - it’s grim;
It’s full of burglars, thieves and every type of crim.
They’ve got a dreadful attitude to him and me,
And they come on to us rather peculiarly.

It doesn’t matter what you did or what went wrong;
The screws don’t care, we’re nothing but a pair of cons -
The con Vasiliev and Petrov the con.

So we decided that we’d better run away
For if we stayed inside we’d live to rue the day;
We were roughed up by thugs and bullied all the time
And the head doctor wanted us as concubines.

We were determined to break free but time marched on,
And in the meantime we were still the same old cons -
The con Vasiliev and Petrov the con.

We spent four years preparing for our prison break,
We saved up three whole tonnes of food supplies to take,
And one armed robber was a real honey bun -
He gave a ladle we could use while on the run.

We held each other’s hands and we were gone,
Our derring-do applauded by the other cons -
The con Vasiliev and Petrov the con.

Like little waifs we crossed the tundra cold and vast;
We gave the roads a miss and stuck to little paths.
He had no clue, the fool, and I knew even less
Whether Mongolia or Moscow lay ahead.

I said: "The sun sets in the west so let’s press on."
But it was too late as the law then came along
For con Vasiliev and Petrov the con.

There was a big announcement in the camp next thing
Because our colonel brought two desperados in;
He got two medals and a bonus through our flight
And couldn’t rest from punching us in his delight.

For all our pains we had some extra years tagged on,
And now we’re nothing but the same old pair of cons -
The con Vasiliev and Petrov the con.