Letters go slowly on Russian land

We have already written about the WW2 illustrated front postcards, whose Italian section was just recently complemented with the in the meantime accumulated forty more pieces – you should look back on them. The illustrated postcard, however, like so many other items, was usually a shortage at the front, and if the soldier wanted to cheer up his beloved ones at home, he himself had to draw one, or to ask a comrade with good manual skills – such people enjoyed a large esteem in the army – to draw it for him.

The following camp postcard transformed in a similar way was found by us when going from house to house in the village and scanning old photographs. The high esteem in which such works were held is shown by the fact that it was the only letter preserved by the owner together with her family photos.



The phrase “Letters go slowly on Russian land”, illustrated and surely painfully experienced by the drawer is a quotation from one of the most popular contemporary hits, the “Hungarian Lili Marleen”, Valahol Oroszországban (Somewhere in Russia), sung by the greatest diva of the age, Katalin Karády. The date of the postcard is 3 August 1943. Not long before was presented in the Hungarian movies the film of the same title by Frigyes Bán, in which Jenő Pataky, acting a lieutenant going back from leave to the front, asks the famous singer to sing to his comrades in the radio, and she performs this song. The soldiers at the front sit around the radio in an awe.


Katalin Karády: Valahol Oroszországban (Somewhere in Russia, 1942)

Üzenet jött messze-messze földről, Halványzöldszín tábori levél. Aki írta, a szívével írta, Minden sora őszintén beszél. Refr.: Sokkal jobban szeretlek, mint máskor, Minden percben Rád gondolok százszor, Valahol Oroszországban, Valahol Oroszországban. S arra gondolok, mikor a csillag rám ragyog, Azt a csillagot Te otthon Épp úgy láthatod… Mindig a Te leveledet várom, S csak terólad álmodom az álmom, Valahol Oroszországban, Valahol Oroszországban. Muszka földre lassan jár a posta, S alig várják már a válaszom. Megkérem a rádiótól szépen, Közvetítsék kívánság-dalom! Refr.: Sokkal jobban szeretlek, mint máskor, Minden percben Rád gondolok százszor, Valahol Magyarországon, Valahol Magyarországon. S arra gondolok, mikor a csillag rám ragyog, Azt a csillagot Te ott künn, Épp úgy láthatod… Sokkal jobban szeretlek, mint máskor, Minden percben Rád gondolok százszor, Valahol Magyarországon, Valahol Magyarországon….

A message came from a land far away, A pale green camp postcard He ho wrote, wrote it with his heart Each line speaks sincerely Refr.: I love you so much more than usual Thinking of you a hundred times every minute Somewhere in Russia, Somewhere in Russia. And when a star shines, I think that You see the same star at home In the same way… I always look forward to your letter, And I dream only about you Somewhere in Russia, Somewhere in Russia. Letters go slowly to Russian land And my answer is eagerly waited. So I ask the radio very much To broadcast my song of desire: Refr.: I love you much more than usual Thinking of you a hundred times every minute Somewhere in Hungary, Somewhere in Hungary. And when a star shines, I think that You see the same star at the front In the same way… I love you much more than usual, Thinking of you a hundred times every minute Somewhere in Hungary, Somewhere in Hungary…

Letters went slowly from and to Russian land already during WW1, and already back then there were not enough illustrated postcards at every brigade. Maybe it is better so, because to this we owe those hand-drawn camp postcards which occasionally pop up on philatelic sites, and which recorded such geographic, historical and ethnographic observations on the Galician front, which would have been far beyond the capacities of the postcard designers in the hinterland. At least as long as the letters came from Russian land.

The bytes have not yet dried on this post, and Natasa from A nagy háború (The Great War) blog, who already some weeks ago helped us with a copy of the only available Hungarian postcard on the language of stamps, has sent us seven additional hand-drawn postcards from her collection. Three of them illustrate various verses from the above Karády song, and one of them even takes over the snail motif from the first postcard. Since many years ago – although in peacetime – I was the one who made these kind of drawings for comrades in the army, I vividly remember how the commissions were given, how they ordered the precise content and collected the visual models from which to compile their postcards, and how in this way the motives migrated further and further, like the letter-carrying snail on Russian land.

Wishing you a happy new year from the banks of the Don – Sanyi!