"Mommy! I want to defeat these lousy fascist bandits as soon as possible"
Stories of courage and front—line life, bitter confessions made on the verge of death, and moments of hope - from the first days of the Great Patriotic War to the victorious march towards Berlin. The State Historical Museum presented a large-scale multimedia exhibition "Letters of the Fiery Years. Family Archive". More than a thousand messages were selected for the exhibition, reflecting the thoughts, feelings and experiences of ordinary soldiers and commanders, their families and friends. Izvestia visited the opening of the exhibition and publishes excerpts of some of them.
"We've been on the front line for 20 days now, chasing fascists from corner to corner"
— Hello, dear mother! <...> For 20 days now, we have been on the front line, chasing the fascists from corner to corner, he (the enemy. — Ed.) is suffering heavy losses right before our eyes. The fighting is fierce and intense. It is a great relief that the weather has turned colder. The attack had just ended, they had kicked him out of the ferry, and many prisoners had been taken. In general, they are big cowards, they are very afraid of assault and encirclement. On the fifth day, there is an artillery exchange, day and night, howling, whistling and explosions overhead. Our front is very organized and clear, despite the front line. Hot food every day and everything else that is required daily before lunch. Our victory is a fact.
A letter from Mikhail Muromtsev, a border guard of the NKVD troops, to his mother. August 4, 1941
"In all conscience, I believe that I will be killed."
— My dear daughter Tatiana, you will read this letter when I cease to exist. I am writing it on the eve of the day when I must leave Leningrad for a difficult and dangerous front. In all conscience, I believe that I will be killed, but it is so easy to die here that I decided (that I needed to) write you this letter.
I have always tried not to hide anything from you and not to deceive you. However, there is one thing that I did not have the courage or the determination to admit to you. Here I went to deception, sparing your childish head, trying to delay the day when you find out the truth about your father. Before there was a war, it was not difficult to do this, but now the bridge separating our life from death has become so unreliable that I am afraid that death will take me by surprise and you will learn what I want to tell you, not from me, but from others. And you can only know the truth from me and from Mom.
Life brought me into contact with another person, Natasha. I loved your mother, but a new feeling for this girl overwhelmed me, and I decided that I had to leave you: from you, dear Tanyusha, and from my Lucy. It was hard. I want to put these years into oblivion, so as not to torment my soul during the difficult hours of my current reflection. But this is the most important thing I wanted to write to you about, and I will tell you, Tanya, without sparing myself or justifying myself: your father acted callously with his Lucy, he left you because he wanted new happiness, new spring, new joys. Yes, I did this, I did not have the strength and determination to sacrifice my desires for the sake of my dear and faithful friend— your mother, for the sake of a helpless child aged 6-7— a girl named Tanya, whom I loved and love infinitely.
Alexey Muravyov's letter to his daughter Tatiana. August 18, 1941
"Do you know how nice it is to receive your letter and read it under the roar of the cannonade"
— My dear relatives, my beloved Mamchik and sons. I received your letter today and will try to respond to it. Mamchik! Are you writing to me about warm clothes, do you think I'm freezing here? No, Mom! Our Soviet people dress their Red Army perfectly. Any capitalist army in the world can envy our army in terms of security. The situation is excellent with regard to financial security.
Mamchik! Yesterday I received a letter from our people, that is, from my mother. She's alive and well. They all live well. Mamchik! You write that the regional executive committee has provided you with fuel, and I am very happy about that. I had no doubt about that. Our party and Government always show Stalinist concern for the families of military personnel. We are already feeling signs of spring, it is already flowing from the roofs during the day, it is getting damp to walk in felt boots. However, we have no shortage of shoes, we are shod, clothed and fed well. The lousy Gans have something to envy us.
You've probably already read that our units occupied Dorogobuzh, but it's very close to Smolensk, these are the sources of our glorious Dnieper. A huge number of war trophies were captured in Dorogobuzh. Mommy! I want to defeat these dirty, lousy, half-decayed fascist bandits as soon as possible. The XVI fascist army was defeated and destroyed near Leningrad. We don't have any details here yet. Mamchik, my dear. Write me at least the shortest letters more often, even postcards. You know how nice it is to receive your letter and read it to the roar of the cannonade.
A letter from Nikolai Dokuchaev to his family. February 25, 1942
"Poor Edya! He doesn't have a dad anymore!"
— Hello, Zhenechka! I am very glad that you received my first package. It's a pity that the post office doesn't accept parcels now, otherwise I would have sent you and Svetika both liver and soldier biscuits, which I can't eat myself. I now live in a house where a 7-year-old girl, Allochka, and her brother Edya, 1 year and 6 months old, live with my mother. They don't have a dad. When the Germans were fleeing under the onslaught of the Red Army, they shot 18 men and young boys, including Daddy Allochka and Eddie, here at the Gorchitsy state farm. The girl understands that she does not have a father, that he is dead, but Edya does not understand this and does not want to understand, and asks her mother several times a day.: "Where's Dad? When will Daddy come and put Edya on his lap?" Poor Edya! He doesn't have a dad anymore!
Letter from Major Victor Jabot of the Artillery Technical Service to his daughter Evgenia. April 7, 1942
"No distance, nothing and no one can separate us"
— My dear! You are very far away from me, but my heart and thoughts are always with you. No distance, nothing and no one can separate us. I think about you all the time, and I feel, and I know, that you're thinking about me, too, far away. I will not receive any more letters from you, but I will read and reread the ones you sent me earlier, and I will think, think and think about you, mentally talk to you.
Cute! Don't worry about me, be calm. I'm all good. Everything is fine in the district committee. I still work as an instructor in agitation and propaganda. There's a lot of work, but that's a good thing: it's easier to bear separation at work. I entered the sniper school, and the commission found me fit to serve in the army. I'll study in the evenings. I have to graduate in November, in the fall, but I will try very hard and when you arrive, I will definitely pass ahead of schedule so that I can go with you on New Year's Eve. You're going to take me with you now, aren't you?
A letter to Pavel Kachuyevsky from his wife Natalia Kachuyevskaya. 1942
"The joyful time will soon come when we will hoist the Banner of Victory over Berlin"
— Greetings from Czechoslovakia! Hello, my dears! And once again, the holiday is on our street, we came out of the fighting on the plain of Czechoslovakia. Now we're on a well-deserved rest, but I must say that the brigade has thundered all over the front, even the Krauts have found out about the stormtroopers. Our unit has been presented with the name "Guards", the front itself is petitioning. So we're rattling now!!! <...> A joyful time will soon come when we will hoist the Banner of Victory over Berlin, return to you and together we will build our lives to live even better than before the war.
Alexander Okeanov's letter to parents. December 5, 1944
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
