Licensing an old Russian song

Cuimean

My band is looking to record our version of Leonid Utesov's song "From the Odessa Jail" ("S odesskogo kichmana") for possible inclusion on an upcoming CD but we're running into problems. If anyone has any information on the song's writer (Utesov? Traditional?), I would certainly appreciate it. Also, if anyone's done licensing of foreign songs, especially Russian ones or anything not covered by Harry Fox, please let me know how you proceeded.

Thanks,

Rod

Quadropenta

This discussion mentions a book about him:
http://www.78online.com/forum/read.php? ... 9&t=101879