Something for the weekend. Katyusha sung by Алиса Супронова (Alisa Supronova).
The song is one of longing by a young woman who is waiting for her intended away with the Red Army. Written in 1938, it was not performed until 1941 when young ladies from a Moscow industrial school serenaded Soviet troops on their way to the front with it. Needless to say, the song was massively popular with soldiers in the Red Army ever after.
Pears and apples blossomed on their branches.
Mist (was) creeping on the river.
Katyusha set out on the banks,
On the steep and lofty bank.
She was walking, singing a song
About a grey steppe eagle,
About her true love,
Whose letters she was keeping.
Oh you song! Little song of a maiden,
Head for the bright sun.
And reach for the soldier on the far-away border
Along with greetings from Katyusha.
Let him remember an ordinary girl,
And hear how she sings,
Let him preserve the Motherland,
Same as Katyusha preserves their love.
The Soviet mass rocket launchers during the war were nicknamed Katyushas, after the song, by Red Army troops due to the fact that they were constructed at the Voronezh Komintern Factory and were marked with a K. I am sure the Germans would have much preferred the song.
Bonus:
I doubt she was singing in 1987 (Afghanistan) or in 2022 (Ukraine) and I doubt the soldiers involved cared about singing as much as finding out when the next train leaves for home.
The song is pretty popular among the Ruskies no matter the political situation, and in Russia the political situation is usually bleak.
there is a video of Russian ill trained conscripts telling Putin that they are going to be slaughtered in the Ukrainian War and begging him to cease the aggression. Sadly most of the soldiers in the video are dead.as they prophesied. Many Russian mothers and sweathearts are mourning their sons.
Military service has never been popular among the Russians, except when Russia is invaded. Napoleon’s invasion of Russia they designate the Patriotic War and World War II they designate the Great Patriotic War. Absent that situation, Russia has to rely upon conscription. In regard to the Ukraine, the Russians see that they are attempting to conquer a sister slavic country, and it makes no sense to them. Lacking trained infantry, Russian commanders have died in droves, note the number of generals who have died, leading, or attempting to lead, mobs of untrained men, often lacking artillery and air power. Future Russian generals will point to the Ukraine debacle as an example of how not to make war.
An interesting cultural note:
If you look at the list of langauges given, the right-hand list ends in what transliterates to “Angliiskiy” or “English.” Above that is “Tureshkii” or “Turkish.” Above that, “Frantsuzskii” or “French,” then “Islanskii” which is “Icelandic, then “Grecheskii” or “Greek, and then we come to “Nemetski” which sounds like “Nemesis.”
It is, and it is the Russian word for German.
The printable word the French use for the Germans is Allemands, after the old tribal confederation for some German tribes.
Same with Spanish (Alemania) but in Italian it’s Germania. My guess is it’s the Romans’ doing.