05 May 2020 Local Press in June 1942 Keeping our Oath With Honour
Za Noviy Sever, June 3, 1942
Translated by Daria Cherkasova
Hello, my dearest — mom, dad, my sister Grania, Agnia, and Ivan! I am sending you my heartfelt greetings from war! We are far away from each other and do not have an opportunity to correspond regularly. I do not have time, especially now. Nevertheless, you could write to me more often. What joy it is to receive a letter! You may have thought that I am no longer alive. Of course, everything can happen in the war, but, as you can see, I am alive and well.
My dear family, the world has never seen such a war. Nazi tyrants commit horrible atrocities. They want to intimidate the Red Army men and Soviet people, want to break our resistance by torture, gallows and executions. We saw many dreadful things, while moving forward in the footsteps of retreating enemies. It rouses hatred for the enemies and provokes us, Soviet people, to seek vengeance on them.
Nazi beasts are paying for the blood and murders of our children, women and old people with their own blood. The day of revenge is almost at hand. Executing the order of the People's Commissar of Defense — our great Stalin— Red Army is ruthlessly defeating the enemy and chasing its battered remnants of the army back to where it came from. We are engaged in the attack too: we surround the vicious villains, grip them like a vice so they could not escape the deserved punishment. Over the graves of our tormented comrades, tortured and hanged inhabitants of the city K., we promised to revenge their deaths on Hitler’s villains and we shall keep this oath honorably. Recently, our platoon has defeated more than one unit of those two-legged beasts.
I ensure wireless communication for our troops and, as a secretary of Komsomol, mobilize young Communists and soldiers in defeating the enemy. In fact, there is no need in motivating them, as all of them are eager to join the battle.
How is your life? How is work going? Do the children study well? Write to me, my dearest.
My address is army field forces, military post office # 913
Sergeant and radio operator,
M. Kodanev | The original article from Za Noviy Sever, June 3, 1942 |
He Fought the Enemy with Honour
Za Noviy Sever, June 26, 1942
Translated by Victoria Osovskaya
In the hour of formidable danger looming over our Motherland, at the call of Lenin and Stalin’s Party the sons and daughters of the Soviet people rose to fight the brutal German-Nazi hordes. They took up the deadly weapons, got into the combat vehicles and planes, and went to meet the enemy. Together with them Dmitriy Fedorovich Osipov, a son of the Komi people, a member of the great Lenin and Stalin’s Party, went to defend his Motherland. For many years, comrade Osipov worked in the Storozhevsk district of the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Comrade Osipov is well remembered in Storozhevsk as an energetic worker.
Having arrived at the artillery unit, comrade Osipov actively studied the dangerous weapon.
Soon he was elected the Executive Secretary of the Komsomol Bureau and a member of the Party Bureau by the Communist Party organization. Comrade Osipov was highly regarded and admired by the whole contingent. Being always
cheerful and resilient, he inspired his combatants for battle actions. In the days of the fierce fights, he and his disciples, members of the Komsomol, aptly sent deadly shells onto Nazis’ heads. Being the best political worker, he was appointed the Unit Commissar by the Command.
On 2 May, on the day of the Great Proletarian Holiday, our artillery was smashing the enemy. The Nazis tried to crush us with their fire. The enemy shells were bursting all round us. At that very moment, a misfortune happened that saddened our entire unit. A fragment of an enemy shell took the life of Comrade Osipov. We will not forget him. Now his disciples, brave artillerists, are even stronger and beating the enemy even more accurately.
The image of our comrade Dmitriy Fedorovich Osipov who was killed in the fight against the Nazi beasts and gave his life for the happiness and freedom of our homeland, will strengthen the hatred towards the enemy and raise the working population of the Storozhevsk district and the whole Komi Republic for better work in agriculture, industry, and selfless work aimed at the final defeat of the enemy.
S. Ermakov,
Commissar of the battalion | The original text from Za Noviy Sever, June 26, 1942 |
The translations above were made by graduate students of the Syktyvkar State University under the partnership project with the National Library of the Komi Republic implemented in February - April 2020. The project is dedicated to the 75th victory anniversary of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
More information about the project here
#mytranslation2020 | 
