Soviet WWII Songs

Not that somebody accused me of something, but just in case...

Pre-Scriptum: Not everyone who tells something about Russia or the Soviet Union (=the USSR) positively is a paid or unpaid troll... One can hardly tell something positive about Pol Pot's Cambodia, (not quite every randomly taken) one (but yet) can easily tell a lot of positive about Russia or (oh awe!) the USSR...

/End of Pre-Scriptum.

 

 

A few extremely important notes should be made. Without them watching the materials from this page would lose a half of their charm.

 

First, Russia and all Russia-connected projects are the most prog-rock-wise ones on Earth. Russia is a very progressive-rock-styled country. Famous modern Russian comedian once said that "Russia is the country of unpredictable past". First thing that should be said about Russia's past, present and future is "chaotic, unexpected and unpredictable". The Soviet reality has added the descriptions "ascetic" and "highly bureaucratized" to it. One must know that for every group of former Soviet citizens who hate or dislike the USSR, you can easily find no lesser group(s) of people who still like or adore it. Why? Well, because for most of its citizens at least since the mid-50s the USSR was rather weird than cruel, rather cold than cruel. To me (I was born in 1983, so lived in it only last 8 years of its existence, though), all my relatives (who were not ehm bosses in the system, utterly not) and to many others it was rather Weird Empire than Evil Empire. It had its own otherworldly charm, its own thisworldly benefits, its own positive sides. The negative sides are well-known (sure, it was totally stupid and plain wrong to de facto conquer the Central European countries, etc), so it is perhaps logical to mention the positive ones at least once, too. I am just saying that Japan or China are not the strangest nations in the world...

 

Second, not everybody in the West knows that in the former USSR and some present-day post-Soviet countries there's a term "The Great Patriotic War": it is the part of WWII in Europe when/where the USSR actively participated, that is really fought. The Great Patriotic War (or, literally, The Great Fatherland-ish War) lasted from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945. When Russians say WWII, they usually imply GPW, thus. This moment, this achievement is firmly sacralized in the Soviet and post-Soviet Russian history.

 

Third, as to why it is sacralized. According to more or less correct calculations, the USA has lost 370,000 people during WWII, the UK has lost 300,000 ones - all from both countries were the military men. The USSR lost no less than 27,000,000 people, of which only 9 million were soldiers, 18 million civilians have died, too. During the Siege of Leningrad or Battle of Stalingrad the USSR lost more people in each than both the USA and the UK did in the whole war. Some say, it is partly because of the incompetent and/or cruel army commanders. Partly, probably, yes. Partly, not. According to the official data, 1710 Soviet cities & towns and around 70,000 villages, 32,000 factories were totally destroyed in GPW.

 

Fourth, thus, Russian people perceive the victory in WWII as 99% theirs, exclusively theirs. No matter how much money or battle tanks you give to win, it is people's blood that is remembered most, and remembered forever. There's a widespread idea in Russia that the USSR could have won the war singlehandedly, themselves. There's a widespread answer that maybe in 1950 with 100 million people lost, yes...

 

So, for Russians, for Russia, WWII (GPW) plays much much more important role than for the westerners (or the easterners). Lots of songs have been made about, lots of books, poems, movies made. Sometimes it came close to poor kitsch, in many cases it gave great works of art. However, to comprehend their might fully, you have to keep all written above in mind.

 

The primal song that comes to mind, one of the most significant ones on this topic is, certainly, The Sacred War, also known by its first line as "Get up, vast country!" or "Arise, vast country!".

 

Here is the exact song, illustrated by some black-and-white GPW chronicles. Subtitles with pretty correct and literal translation in English and other languages are avaialble, turn them on below the video, as usual

 

 

Here below is the WWII classic one, with "samurais" though

 

 

Translation can be found here

Here is the canonic version by Mark Bernes with a literary (not totally literal) English translation in the subttiles.

 

This song was also performed by another Mark, Marc Almond

 

 

 

 

The scene ends with a fragment of real b/w chronicle made on May 10, 1945. The plot and idea of this silent footage is understandable without any explanation - soldiers are met by their relatives at the railway station in Moscow.

And the song sings, "We need one victory, one victory for all, we do not care about the cost". So true.