On this day...
Jun. 22nd, 2001 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpToday marks the 60th anniversary of Germany's invasion of Soviet Russia. On June 22, 1941, German military units opened up what became known as "the Eastern Front." Over the next few years, up to the surrender of Germany in May 1945, the losses in this campaign would turn out to be staggering, on both sides.
As an American, I had learned about "World War II" in school and on television. My dad used to watch the CBS show The Twentieth Century every Sunday afternoon, which featured war footage, week after week. (Though I watched the show willingly, I eventually developed a childhood phobia about planes flying overhead; I kept imagining bomb-bay doors opening up and being on the receiving end of a stick of blockbusters... but I digress...)
We in the West called the conflict "World War II"; the Russians called it "The Great Patriotic War."
In the end, something like 26 million inhabitants of the Soviet Union died... that's around 15% of the overall population (or about 1 in 6 people).
Hitler, like Napoleon before him, tried hard to subdue the great land mass of Russia. He failed. The photo above was taken during my first trip to the Soviet Union, a long time ago. It is a monument to the defenders of Moscow, and depicts bigger-than-life "tank traps" that were used to help slow down and eventually stop the German advance. The memorial, which is along the road from Moscow out to Sheremetevo airport, is supposed to mark the spot where the city's defenders stopped the invaders.
In my early trips to the USSR, I remember listening to radio programs devoted to reuniting families torn apart by a war that had been over for nearly 40 years. I cannot reconstruct any of the announcements, but even then, with my formative Russian, they were heart-grabbing pleas on behalf of people grown old who were still, after so many years, trying to find their loved ones.
Cheers...
As an American, I had learned about "World War II" in school and on television. My dad used to watch the CBS show The Twentieth Century every Sunday afternoon, which featured war footage, week after week. (Though I watched the show willingly, I eventually developed a childhood phobia about planes flying overhead; I kept imagining bomb-bay doors opening up and being on the receiving end of a stick of blockbusters... but I digress...)
We in the West called the conflict "World War II"; the Russians called it "The Great Patriotic War."
In the end, something like 26 million inhabitants of the Soviet Union died... that's around 15% of the overall population (or about 1 in 6 people).
Hitler, like Napoleon before him, tried hard to subdue the great land mass of Russia. He failed. The photo above was taken during my first trip to the Soviet Union, a long time ago. It is a monument to the defenders of Moscow, and depicts bigger-than-life "tank traps" that were used to help slow down and eventually stop the German advance. The memorial, which is along the road from Moscow out to Sheremetevo airport, is supposed to mark the spot where the city's defenders stopped the invaders.
And how can man die better(Yes, I know, the Soviets were atheists, but to help defeat the Nazis, Joe Stalin even allowed the resurrection, somewhat, of the Orthodox Church.)
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods,
-- Lord Macaulay
Horatius
In my early trips to the USSR, I remember listening to radio programs devoted to reuniting families torn apart by a war that had been over for nearly 40 years. I cannot reconstruct any of the announcements, but even then, with my formative Russian, they were heart-grabbing pleas on behalf of people grown old who were still, after so many years, trying to find their loved ones.
My stretcher is one scarlet stain,Requiescat in pace.
And as I tries to scrape it clean,
I tell you wot--I'm sick with pain
For all I've 'eard, for all I've seen;
Around me is the 'ellish night,
And as the war's red rim I trace,
I wonder if in 'Eaven's height,
Our God don't turn away 'Is face.
I don't care 'oose the Crime may be;
I 'olds no brief for kin or clan;
I 'ymns no 'ate: I only see
As man destroys his fellow man;
I waves no flag: I only know,
As 'ere beside the dead I wait,
A million 'earts is weighed with woe,
A million 'omes is desolate.
In drippin' darkness, far and near,
All night I've sought them woeful ones.
Dawn shudders up and still I 'ear
The crimson chorus of the guns.
Look! like a ball of blood the sun
'Angs o'er the scene of wrath and wrong...
"Quick! Stretcher-bearers on the run!"
O Prince of Peace! 'Ow long, 'ow long?
-- Robert W. Service
The Stretcher-Bearer
Cheers...
