Other Voices, Other Battles

On August 19, 1942 the German 6th Army and the 4th Panzer Army under General Paulus began the assault on Stalingrad, and the beginning of the end of the Nazi threat. It was both a simpler and more brutal time, and I find the taste in music of the day an interesting window into the soul of the peoples who fought that war.

One of the more famous Russian songs from the era was actually composed in 1938. Though written before the war, it has military overtones, taking for its subject the separation of a soldier and his lover. The soldier is admonished both to guard the Motherland and remember the simple girl he left behind. The lyrics mention “the far borders”, which evokes images of the first conflict between Japan and Russia in Manchuria in 1937, which would eventually culminate in the Battle of Nomonhon / Khalkhyn Gol in 1939. However, as pointed out here, the girl sends her song “along the track of the bright sun”, that is looking from East towards the West, meaning her lover was stationed on the Polish border, not the Chinese one.

At any rate, here are the lyrics, in Russian and English:

КАТЮША                                       Katyusha
Слова Михаила Исаковского      Lyrics: Mikhail Isakovsky
Музыка Матвея Блантера           Music: Matvei Blanter

Расцветали яблони и груши,       Apple and pear trees were blooming,
Поплыли туманы над рекой.       Fog crept along the river...
Выходила на берег Катюша,       Katyusha came out onto the bank,
На высокий берег, на крутой.     Onto the high, steep bank.

Выходила, песню заводила          She came out and started a song
Про степного сизого орла,           About a grey-blue eagle of the steppe,
Про того, которого любила,         About the one that she loved,
Про того, чьи письма берегла.    About the one, whose letters she cherished.

Ой ты, песня, песенка девичья,         Oh, you, song, young maiden's song,
Ты лети за ясным солнцем вслед        Fly out, follow after the clear sun
И бойцу на дальнем пограничье        And tell the warrior at the distant border-post
От Катюши передай привет.              That Katyusha sends him her greetings.

Пусть он вспомнит девушку простую,      Let him remember a simple maiden,
Пусть услышит, как она поет,                  Let him hear how she sings,
Пусть он землю бережет родную,            Let him protect the Motherland
А любовь Катюша сбережет.                  And Katyusha will protect love.

Расцветали яблони и груши,        Apple and pear trees were blooming,
Поплыли туманы над рекой.       Fog crept along the river...
Выходила на берег Катюша,        Katyusha came out onto the bank
На высокий берег на крутой.       Onto the high, steep bank.


And here is a modern rendition of the song made in 2005 for the 60th Anniversary of VE Day.



More chilling to American ears are the choral arrangements that call forth images of mass devotion to causes, be they National Socialism or the Komintern. There is no denying the motivational power these songs evoke, but stripped of the lyrics, it is hard to separate Soviet from Nazi propaganda music.

In translation, however, it is apparent that the Soviets were more apt to appropriate religious imagery to motivate the peasantry, as with the song “Sacred War”



Still, the shadowy, moody soul of the individual Russian soldier comes out in some of the other pieces, such as Dark Night:



After the war and the death of Stalin, Russia still struggled with the legacy of the enormous price exacted by the campaign on their soil. The gravel-throated guitar poet Vladimir Vysotsky, of whom Bob Dylan is but a pale imitation, put voice to that struggle in 1964:

БРАТСКИЕ МОГИЛЫ                                         Our Brothers' Graves

На братских могилах не ставят крестов,      On our brothers’ graves stand no crosses
И вдовы на них не рыдают,                             And widows do not sob over them
К ним кто-то приносит букеты цветов,        Someone brings bouquets of flowers
И Вечный огонь зажигают.                            And an eternal flame burns

Здесь раньше вставала земля на дыбы,       Before the earth rose on its hindquarters here
А нынче - гранитные плиты.                       And now granite plates
Здесь нет ни одной персональной судьбы -       Here there is no personal fate
Все судьбы в единую слиты.                         All fates are poured into one.

А в Вечном огне виден вспыхнувший танк,        But in the eternal flame one sees a tank afire
Горящие русские хаты,                               Burning Russian huts
Горящий Смоленск и горящий рейхстаг,       A burning Smolensk and a burning Reichstag
Горящее сердце солдата.                           The burning heart of a soldier

У братских могил нет заплаканных вдов -        At our brothers’ graves are no weeping widows
Сюда ходят люди покрепче.                                Here there come sterner people
На братских могилах не ставят крестов,          At our brothers’ graves stand no crosses
Но разве от этого легче?..                               But really, does that make it easier?