Comin' in on a Wing and a Prayer (Russian songs of Victory)

Russian St.George's ribbon

Russia marks Victory Day today known as VE Day in Britain and Victoire in France. 

In the past years the holiday has been built up in Russia as the day of national pride. A drumbeat of patriotic pomp and circumstance accompanies parades and celebrations in Moscow and throughout the country. (Wearing St.George's ribbon badge for Victory day was introduced in 2005. The gold and black are traditional colours of the Russian Empire.)

The literary and musical legacy of the Great Patriotic war, as world war two is known in Russia, is truly amazing.

Contemporaries and historians note, however, that real hits that soldiers and families took to heart were not the patriotic marches and songs of military feats but lyrical numbers, songs about love and personal loyalty in the face of death and separation. 

The war also partially opened up Stalin's Soviet Union to Western pop culture. 

In 1943 Leonid Utyosov, the popular singer and musician, released his version of the American song Comin' in on a Wing and a Prayer, by Harold Adamson и Jimmie McHugh, a number 1 hit in 1943. In Russian it was called Bombardirovshiki – The Bombers. The lyrics were written  by T.Sykorskaya and S.Bolotin who kept the words close to the English original. 

They changed the key line in refrain, though, from 'on a prayer' to 'on the word of honour' – na chestnom slove. This Russian idiom means 'only just managing', 'just holding on', in poor condition. Translators' find also avoided the religious reference that would have been frowned upon in Soviet times. 

Russian and English texts are on the Soviet Music website.

In this video Utyosov sings Comin' in on a Wing and a Prayer with daughter Edith. The footage is from the US film Memphis Belle. In the Russian version of Tetradki I publish a video with both English and Russian versions of the song superimposed over footage from the same film.

And this is a country style take on the song in a very smokey 1997 video version by the Russian group Chizh and Co.  

Seventy Years Since Nazi Invasion of the USSR (a Soviet resource)

Russian version of this post is here

Today is the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, a tragic date deeply ingrained in the minds of Russians – 22 June 1941 (it was a Sunday).

The war left a huge legacy of literature, songs, music and graphic art. I have mentioned before (here) an important resource, the web-site Soviet Music (sovmusic.ru), which was recently reorganised to let visitors use it by historical periods (only the Russian language side of the site, the English language side is classified by theme). Its primary purpose is to preserve the original versions of Soviet patriotic songs, but it also contains records of speeches by war-time Soviet leaders and numerous posters. The Great Patriotic War section is here.

All files are free to download (read terms and conditions for limitations) and the full collection is available (for sale) on disc. 

Here is the link to the speech made on 22 June by the commissar for foreign affairs Vyacheslav Molotov. You can hear the nervousness, a shade of distress in his voice. It is also interesting that Molotov separates 'the German people, german workers' from the Nazi rulers. This internationalist motif was later drowned in the drumming up of nationalist, anti-German rhetoric. Molotov also evokes the patriotic theme, mentioning the invasion of Napoleon in 1812.

Stalin did not speak until 3 July. The closing words of Molotov's speech: 'Ours is a just cause. The enemy will be routed. Victory will be ours' are associated with Stalin, but they are in the middle of his speech and not as rhetorically stressed as in Molotov's version. They are in a subordinate clause, inside a bigger sentence. The confident 'Victory will be ours' ("Победа будет за нами") also appears in a slightly less powerful variation 'we will have to/must win' ("мы должны победить").

Molotov's text is here and Stalin's text is here.

This a YouTube video with Molotov's speech:

Bearskins March in Red Square

Watch also a France 24 reportage from Red Square showing the French squadron as well.

Welsh Guards from Britain in their trademark red tunics and black bearskin marched past Lenin’s mausoleum carrying assault rifles. Armed U.S. troops from the 170th Infantry Brigade based in Germany followed shortly after.  French air force troop and a Polish army unit also took part in the parade. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russia's Vladimir Putin were sitting together in the stands.

The presence of foreign troops in Red Square - once the heart of the Soviet Union - was a highly symbolic gesture, BBC says, demonstrating how far the rivalry of the Cold War has been pushed aside.

France was represented at the parade by the Normandie-Niemen squadron; the US by a detachment from the 2nd Battalion, 18th Regiment; and Poland by 75 service personnel representing the Polish army, air force and navy, the AFP reports.

Britain was represented by 76 soldiers from the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, wearing bright red tunics and tall bearskin caps. One member told the BBC they were excited to be taking part as it was important that former allied forces that defeated the Nazis during WWII should be together on the 65th anniversary of the ending of the war.

Russia has commemorated its World War Two victory with a grandiose military display in Moscow's Red Square. For the first time ever, NATO troops took part in the parade, marching alongside some 10,000 Russian troops, Reuters reports. Underlining the message of reconciliation, a 1,200-strong military band closed the parade with a moving rendition of Beethoven's Ode to Joy.

“Our unified formation is evidence of our common willingness to defend the peace,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told the troops. “Only together can we confront today’s threats, only on the basis of good neighbourliness can we solve the problems of global security.”


Most Russians seem to back Medvedev’s invitation to the NATO forces. A poll by the independent Levada Centre last month showed that 55 percent viewed the presence of NATO troops at the parade as wholly or partly positive, with only 28 percent opposing it. The result may reflect markedly better relations between Moscow and Washington since Obama’s election and his 'reset' of relations. This has already brought a new treaty cutting nuclear weapons and a deal on helping supply NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Victory Day is one of Russia’s most important public holidays and Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said that this year’s commemorations would be among the biggest ever, with over 102,000 troops marching in cities across this vast country.

Obama, unable to come to Moscow because of a scheduling clash, praised the invitation to NATO troops.“President Medvedev has shown remarkable leadership in honouring the sacrifices of those who came before us, and in speaking so candidly about the Soviet Union’s suppression of elementary rights and freedoms,” he said in a statement.

Please read 'The Songs of Victory'

Songs of Victory: In The Dugout

VE Day - Den' Pobedy - is a huge holiday in Russia. It is marked on the 9th of May, not on the 8th as in Western Europe. The difference is because of the time zones - what happened late at night on 8 May in Berlin, was already the 9th Moscow time. But I also like to argue that we, Russians, celebrate the first day of peace, while in the West  the last day of war is celebrated.

My correspondents write to me that over the recent years the holiday has become the biggest event in the Russian calendar of official festivities. This is probably connected to the resurgence of Russian nationalism. A multitude of militant nationalist groups practically hijack the event. There is also bitterness and anger in the former Soviet republics where nazi collaborators and nationalists who fought against the Soviet Union freely parade and harass the Red Army veterans.

However, as everywhere in Europe, in Russia the end of the Second World War was a powerful liberating moment. The soldiers returning home stood tall, walked proud, the felt free and not afraid of anything. The feeling was universal - from the private to Generalissimo himself.

Of the war books I've read recently I was most impressed by Antony Beevor's 'Stalingrad' (1998.) It has been waiting on a shelf for a long time. Something in me resisted picking it up. As a Russian, I've read many books, fiction and non-fiction, on Stalingrad. Konstantin Simonov, Vassily Grossman and others. I started on Grossman's 'Life and Fate' and then remembered that Beevor cites him often. Then I saw 'Enemy At the Gates' (Jude Law as the Russian sniper, Ed Harris his German opposition and Bob Hoskins as Khrushev) - and decided to have a go at 'Stalingrad'. It was unputdownable. I read it first in one go, then again with a pencil and a wad of stickies.

Beevor the historian is meticulous. His every sentence is supported by a wealth of documental evidence, and where that evidence is dubious or politically or ideologically slanted, he indicates it.  Beevor the narrator is a brilliant master of multi-angled technique. Close-ups of events described through the eyes of participants on both sides, from ordinary riflemen to officers in the field to staff members to commanders and politicians are then interspersed with commentary and analysis, also by participants and observers. We see the unfolding battle from the trenches, through tank sites and from the cabins of airplanes above the ruined city. We go from Stalin's Stavka (HQ) to Hitler's Wolfsschanze.

The result is both a convincing historical account and an exciting read.

All over Russia today war-time songs are played. Beevor mentions the 'Dugout' (Zemlyanka)  as the most popular song among the Russian soldiers. The words

It is so hard for me to come to you
And here there are four steps to death.

were especially poignant, as the Army commander in Stalingrad Vassily Chuikov ordered the positions never to be farther than 50 metres away from the German lines. That made it impossible for the Germans to use heavy artillery and bomb Russian positions from air.

Here is the Dugout sung by Lidiya Ruslanova in 1942.
Text of the poem in English as quoted in 'Stalingrad' is below the video.



The Dugout (or In the Dugout),
lyrics by Alexei Surkov, music by Constantine Listov

The fire is flickering in the narrow stove
Resin oozes from the log like a tear
And the concertina in the bunker
Sings to me of your smile and eyes.

The bushes whispered to me about you
In a snow-white field near Moscow
I want you above all to hear
How said my living voice is.

You are now very far away
Expanses of snow lie between us
It is so hard for me to come to you
And here there are four steps to death.

Sing concertina, in defiance of the snowstorm
Call out to that happiness which has lost its way
I'm warm in the cold bunker
Because of your inextinguishable love.