Ot Kraya i Do Kraya (From Frontier to Frontier)

DESCRIPTION: Russian: The listeners across the land are called upon to take up rifles to defend their homeland. They are urged to fight "for country and for freedom." They are warned to be ready for danger and sorrow, and are asked to fight to the end.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940s (recording, Paul Robeson)
KEYWORDS: war political nonballad patriotic foreignlanguage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 22, 1941 - German troops invade the Soviet Union without warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 356-357, "Ot Kraya i Do Kraya (From Frontier to Frontier)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
From Border To Border
NOTES [82 words]: When the Germans first invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Stalin appealed to the people to save the Communist state. As propaganda, it failed miserably.
Eventually the Soviets started appealing to the people to save Holy Mother Russia. Songs like this were emblems of that appeal. Combined with widespread (and true) reports of Nazi atrocities against Slavs (whom Hitler regarded as only marginally human), Stalin eventually built up enough patriotic fervor to allow the nation to survive. - RBW
File: SBoA356

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