Little people

This video has just been sent in a comment by Araz to the post “Paper soldiers”. It was made in 1974 during a casting where Rolan Bykov was looking for a child actor to his film Автомобиль, скрипка и собака Клякса (Car, violin and Blob dog). The poem (1969) of Robert Rozhdestvensky is read on it by Sasha Chernyavsky. The following pictures were taken between 1941 and 1944 in Stalingrad, Leningrad and on the Soviet Western front.


На Земле
............безжалостно маленькой
жил да был человек маленький.
У него была служба маленькая.
И маленький очень портфель.
Получал он зарплату маленькую…
И однажды —
прекрасным утром —
постучалась к нему в окошко
небольшая,
казалось,
война…
Автомат ему выдали маленький.
Сапоги ему выдали маленькие.
Каску выдали маленькую
и маленькую —
по размерам —
шинель.

........А когда он упал —
.....................некрасиво, неправильно,
в атакующем крике вывернув рот,
то на всей земле
............не хватило мрамора,
чтобы вырубить парня
в полный рост!
On the ruthlessly
............little Earth there was
once a little man.
He had a little job
and a very little purse
with a little salary…
And once –
on a beautiful morning –
there knocked on his little window
a little – 
it seemed –
war…
A little gun was given in his hands,
little boots were given on his feet,
a little helmet was given on him
with a little
– by measure –
cloak.

........And when he fell –
................in an ugly, ungainly way –
with his mouth frozen in the “hurrah” of the assault –
on the whole world
............there was not enough marble
to carve him
life-size













5 comentarios:

Araz dijo...

Thank you for this post, I am really amazed by your energy and enthusiasm. My wife showed me this video on 9 May, which we celebrate as the Day of Great Victory over fascism. I don't know if it is me getting older or becoming more sentimental, but this recital has got a great emotional power enough to make me cry. Thanks for finding out all those details and the photos.

Your post actually resulted in new discoveries for me. First I found out that the scenario for Bykov movie was written by Russian Azeri writer Alla Akhundova. Here is her photo taken taken in 1989. What is more interesting is that she was also the script writer of a popular 1969 Azerbaijani movie about children of wartime Baku - Sherikli chörek (which can be translated as Joint Bread). The full movie is available at Google Video.

Julia dijo...

No sé qué me da más pena si las imágenes de los niños heridos o aquellas en las que se muestran orgullosos con sus armas y uniformes.

Araz dijo...

Although the poem is about "little" humans doing way bigger heroic things, children at war is a heartbreaking topic. This poster by Harry Pearce is my profile picture currently. The last Nazi newsreel from March 1945 shows German children on the opposite side of the front.

Studiolum dijo...

Yes, the newsreel – all of it, but especially the part where children relate about their heroic deeds to the Führer, including the perhaps not even ten year old who joined the army as a volunteer and has already used “Panzerfaust” – is really heartbreaking. Just like the beautiful film Sherikli chörek. I wished I understood more of its long dialogs. But the faces and the play also spoke for themselves. And I enjoyed to see some glimpses of old Baku.

Araz dijo...

Sherikli chörek - Shared Bread was the first movie for Alla Akhundova and it was her first success. The story is about a little boy living in 1945 wartime Baku. His father died in the war and mother is working at a military factory. He is left alone at home for days, but unfortunately loses his cards for bread and struggles during all these days. I am glad you liked it.

By the way, Baku was a strategic city because of oil, it was producing more than 90% of soviet oil at the time. This interesting documentary video shows how important it was for Nazis. My grandfather fought in Mozdok-Malgobek Operation where they were stopped and later turned back.