About War After the War

10 hrs. 59 min.

Language Russian

Author Vladimir Karpov

Narrator Valentin Aksentiuk

Description

"We drove Hitler’s filth out of Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria. Recently liberated: Sofia and Belgrade. Soviet troops entered the land of East Prussia. The October 1944 issue of the journal “Frontline Illustration” told about these events and the heroes of the battles. As usual, there were many photographs from the scenes of those events, and the last page of the journal looked like a poster featuring distinguished front-line fighters of all branches of the armed forces—some kind of champions or record-holders in their military profession. The pilots were represented by three-time Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Pokryshkin, who shot down 59 enemy aircraft. Snipers—Il’ya Grigoryev, who killed 328 Hitlerites. Artillerymen—gunner Veniamin Permyakov, who knocked out 16 tanks from his gun, including 12 “Tigers.” Tankers were represented by Guards senior sergeant Ivan Kalinin, who together with his crew destroyed 11 enemy tanks, 15 guns, and more than 280 fascists in battles. Communications operator Yaroslavtsev was among the first to cross the Dnieper and ensured uninterrupted communication. The infantry was embodied by Roman Smishchuk—he in his very first battle knocked out 6 enemy tanks with grenades and bottles filled with incendiary mixture. And as for the army reconnaissance men, I was presented—an участник of the capture of 79 “prisoners” (the “tongues”). All of us were Heroes of the Soviet Union, and Pokryshkin, as I already said, was a three-time Hero. For each of us, the artist I. Semenov drew a friendly caricature, and poet V. Granov wrote playful verses under each drawing. This magazine spread turned out cheerful and striking; many people remembered it. And of course we really liked it—those who were depicted on it, and our friends and loved ones. I still keep this issue of the magazine. More than once I thought: it would be good to find the people shown on this page and tell more about them—because they were remarkable people, not just heroes, but record-holders of the war! And I have now found all those depicted on the last strip, issue No. 22(94) for October 1944, and I will now tell you how their fates turned out both before and after the materials about them were published in the magazine."