[Leica] Song of the War Correspondents

[pklein at threshinc.com (Peter Klein)]

As I've posted, we visited Ted Grant recently.  Ted's stories reminded 
Katya of something from her younger days in the USSR--a popular Russian 
song about photojournalists?  And, it actually mentions Leicas!  It was 
written during World War II, and was often played on Russian media when 
the "Great Patriotic War" was celebrated or memorialized.  So Katya 
found the song on YouTube, and wrote up a literal translation of the words.

Here is a video of the song as sung in a 1944 Russian movie "short."  It 
shows scenes photographers and cinematographers during the war, plus 
some general war footage, The final onscreen title says "Glory to 
heroes."  It is, of course, a propaganda piece designed to build morale, 
but still very interesting.

You might notice that the arrangement mixes 1920s-30s "hot jazz" with a 
Glenn Miller-style Big Band sound.  Jazz was normally disapproved of as 
an example of "decadent Western culture." During the war, there was a 
thaw in the official disapproval. Then after the war, many jazz 
musicians were sent to labor camps as part of the "Campaign Against 
Cosmopolitans."
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4V7tgp9qFo>
The video might show a 30 second commercial first.

Here is Katya's translation of the song lyrics. They are taken from a 
longer poem by Konstantin Simonov, who actually was a war correspondent 
as well as a poet, novelist and playwright.

--------
*Song of war correspondents*

 From Moscow to Brest
There is not a place,
Where we did not wander in the dust.
With a Leica and a notebook,
And sometimes with a machine gun
We went through the fire and the frost.
Without a sip, comrade,
The song can?t be started,
So let?s pour ourselves a shot.
Here's to writers,
Here's to photographers,
Here's to those marching under fire!

We have a reason to drink -
For military communications,
For U-2, for ?Emka?, for success;
For how we marched on foot,
How pushed with our shoulders,
How we got there ahead of everyone.
 From the winds and vodka
Our throats were hoarse,
But we say to those who reproach:
"Try, like us, to roam,
Sleeping in the field,
Try fighting for at least a year!"

Where we have been,
They did not give us tanks -
But it never discouraged us.
In the ragged pickup
With only a revolver
We were the first to enter cities.
So let's drink to victory,
To our newspaper,
And if we will not live to see it, my dear,
Someone will find out,
Will photograph and write,
Someone will remember you and me!
------

Pretty amazing, eh?
--Peter