various rambling thoughts: The song of Stalingrad...

I just finished with the book "Stalingrad" by Anthony Beevor...an excellent book that just served to increase my fascination with one of the seminal battles of history...

I think what is most fascinating about the battle is not just the fact that the Russians won what was almost a lost cause to start with or that the Russians singlehandedly defeated an army that was invincible till then, effectively ending World War II. For me what is most fascinating about the battle was the human drama involved.

In battles, its too easy to get enmeshed into the details of the military tactics and the moves made by the central characters and too easy to forget the boots in the trenches - the guys who actually face the iron and the mud.

I found a song in the book which was perhaps sung or hummed by thousands of Russians fighting in the ruins of Stalingrad. A song about love and longing and of the almost certainty that they will never see again the one they love.

It was perhaps a song that would not have made the propaganda officers happy but it was so popular that they had to look the other way. Its easy to see why the song is not a war song. Its a love song that transcends patriotism or love of a certain ideology.

Its a tribute to the men and women who sang the song and then went over the top to fight for those whom they would never meet again...

The song's name is "Zemlyanka "

This haunting song was written by Aleksey Surkov, written in the winter of 1941. Sometimes also known from its most famous line as 'The Four Steps to Death' ...Here goes...

"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 sad 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.