June 22: the Day We Never Forget

It was a nice and quiet Sunday morning of June 22, 1941, when Hitler started the most terrible and devastating war our great country ever experienced.

In just days "The Sacred War" became kind of an unofficial anthem of the fighting Soviet people.

Multilingual titles included.

The meaning of the War for us Russians (including Ukrainians and Belorussians, for the matter) is often underestimated by the Westerners.

According to the state statistics (the accounting lasted for decades, and seems unfinished till now), the Hitlerites, their satellites and collaborators intentionally killed 7,420,379 civilians on the occupied territory uf the USSR. More than 1.7 million of Soviet Ostarbeiters died in the 3rd Reich, and 450+ thousands of those who survived, did not return back; the country lost them all. Approximately 4.1 million of civilians died on the occupied territory due to unbearable conditions of the regime installed (hunger, diseases, lack of medical assistance, etc.). Thus, for the USSR the "New Order" cost was at least 13.7 millions of civilians alone.

The war led to a considerable increase of child mortality; extra 1.3 million children born during the War, did not survive it (calculated on the base of death mortality in 1939-1940).

To save the Motherland, 8,668,400 soldiers gave their lives.

Taking into account demographic losses, we come to the unthinkable figure of 26.6 million people — and it's the lowest possible strictly scientific calculation.

This was in fact a genocidal war. Quite possibly, the very collapse of the USSR in 1991 became a postponed consequence of it.

Even now I tend to stand up when hearing the song above — just like the people do in the video, my fingers make fists, and tears come to eyes. And I am a grandson of those who fought and survived the War.

The war we understandanly call the Great Patriotic. And my feeling is that we will never forget it — as long as Russia exists, as long as there are Russians (of all 190+ ethnicities) in Russia.

The Sacred War

On June 24, 1941 Vasily Lebedev-Kumach published a new verse "The Sacred War" in two major Soviet newspapers, namely Izvestia and Krasnaya Zvezda. The next day Alexander Alexandrov, Alexandrov Ensemble founder and future music composer of the Soviet national anthem, wrote music for the lyrics.

His ensemble performed the newly-born song June 26 at the Belorussky Railway Terminal of Moscow, while mobilized troops were departing to the front. In fact, it was sung five times one after one, and became an immediate and great success across all the fighting country.

The video starts with the first official radio announcement of the war,

that shocked the Soviet people at noon (Moscow time)
 of the wonderful sunny summer Sunday, June 22, 1941.

I would even say, the song became an informal anthem of the war, which was soon baptized as the Great Patriotic War, as it was indeed.

It is a kind of magic. I was born 25 years after the war; both my parents were born after the Great Patriotic War (yet before the end of the WWII). But every time I hear this song duly performed, my fingers make fists.

A Crimean Sings

... the National Anthem of the Russian Federation.

Simferopol-born Anzhelika Yutt performs our national anthem.

So far, it is the best soul performance of it I have ever listened to.

Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear — God, she's that inspired and happy to sing it.

For the Crimea has been Russian in soul, and is now in fact, and it has now future. You are, everybody is welcome to share this Crimean happiness.

Discovering the Soviet Past

A short preface.

The Soviet Government made huge efforts trying to elevate cultural level of people. Though, surely, workers and peasants were seldom guests in theaters (and the very number of theaters was not big enough to cover all population satisfactory), cinema was much wider accessible and popular.

Many remember that Lenin supposedly said "Cinema is the most important art for us". In the times when there were no TV and Internet it was definitely so.

Here is one of so called 'Cine-Concerts' created by the Lenfilm, that is Leningrad (now and before, St. Petersburg) Cinema Studio, to "bring good art to masses".

They Speak Music, Too

One of the most important targets of propaganda is dehumanization of adversaries, opponents, enemies.

When your opponents are properly dehumanized, you perceive them as Untermenschen, subhumans. And, e.g., information about bombing and shelling those subhumans comes in easier: killing or oppressing subhumans is not a tragedy at all, they are not like us, they are worse, those bad guys well deserve what they are getting...

The current propaganda of Kiev (Kyiv) regime reached great success in dehumanizing of mostly ethnically Russian* population of Eastern Ukraine, especially of the unacknowledged Donetsk and Lugansk Republics. And 'vatnik'** or 'kolorad'*** are one of the softest terms they use for their formal compatriots that have enough nerve not to share with Bandera-followers their Western Ukraine-born extremely nationalistic ideology.

Wake up and see. Population of one part of Ukraine that came to power by means of a coup d'état (mistakenly taken by many for the 'Revolution of Dignity') does not want let another part live as they want. Using a real doublespeak they equated aspiration for federalization of Ukraine to separatism (which was 100% stupid, yet proved to be a very effective step in the direction of dehumanization of opponents), and that started the so-called 'Anti-Terrorist Operation' (against those who absolutely do not comply with the term 'terrorist'). Namely, a civil war.

It's not easy to see common people among those declared subhumans, yet they are. They want peaceful life, jobs, social protection. And waht seems (but just seems) to be a stumblig stone — they want to be a part of Russian World (including Russian language education), which is quite understandable, as this land for centuries was a part of the Russian Empire and than the USSR.

Evidently, some people really think the Germans in Belgium or the Swedes in Finland have more rights, because the Germans and the Swedes are first class humans, and those in Eastern Ukraine are not. In fact, following Hitler/Goebbels and their predecessors.

I hope the majority of people world wide do not share this pretty racist viewpoint, and sooner or later it becomes evident through democratic procedures.

Because people of Eastern Ukraine are just like you.

And here is a really nice proof of what I say. I do not remember who said music is a universal language, but I agree it definitely is.

Two retirees from Donetsk play music. Donbass Arena are Anatoly Bukhtiyarov (accordion, 74 y.o.) and Nikolay Gladkov (drums, 72 y.o.); they can play almost anything from Russian folk songs to classical music and hard rock.

Since this video was recorded in August, some things have happened, press says. A mortar bomb exploded 25 metres away Anatoly's house, he was contused and a splinter cut his eyebrow. He is a lucky one in comparison with hundreds of mostly civilians who have not survived the war. The civil war.

And the brave retirees go on playing in Donetsk every Saturday and Sunday (except for some days when there were heavy shellings). They complain now their open air concerts attract hundreds people (before the war there were thousands coming to listen and see), but hope that music will help Donetsk people to survive and remain who they are: humans.

Neither 'super', nor 'sub'. Just humans.

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* Regarding ethnicity and nationality while discussing Russian and Ukrainian matters, please follow this link.
** Please read the footnote to this post.
*** 'Kolorad' has nothing to do with Colorado river. It's derived from Russian words for Colorado potato beetle as a derogatory and offensive term for those bearing so called 'ribbon of St. George'. In Ukraine, the ribbon became a symbol and distinction sign for those who stand against Ukrainian Nazism.