POSTCARD N.76 - Russia

Postcrossing postcard sent on  12th April (?); received on the 20th April
Postcard image: Soviet pilots from the 9th Guards Air Division of the Red Army Air Force in front of a P-39 Airacobra
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9 May. Victory Day  against fascist Germany, reads the legend in this postcard evocative of the celebrations of  Victory Day in Russia, that Julia kindly included in the nice cover she sent me. Thanks a lot, Julia.

In fact, the Germans signed their surrender on the evening of the 8th May, Victory in Europe day, in Berlin, but given the difference in times zones between Berlin and Moscow the signing act took place already on the 9th May, from the Russian viewpoint and this would be the date that would go down on the Russian calendar as the Victory Day.

Anyway, this is a well known photo depicting soviet pilots from the 9th Guards Air Division of the Red Army Air Force in front of  one of Roosevelt's Lend Lease P-39 Airacobras... 

Quoting directly from an internet site where I found a reproduction of the photo .

"The Soviet pilots from the 9th Guards Air Division of the Red Army Air Force against the backdrop of Bell P-39 Airacobra fighter of Grigory Rechkalov.

The Soviet pilots from left to right: Alexander Fyodorovich Klubov (twice Hero of the Soviet Union, shot down 31 planes personally, 19 in a group), Grigory Andreevich Rechkalov (twice Hero, shot 56 planes personally and 6 in a group), Andrei Ivanovich Trud (Hero of the Soviet Union, 25 planes personally shot down and 1 in the group) and the commander of the 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment Boris Borisovich Glinka (Hero of the Soviet Union, shot down 30 aircraft personally and 1 in the group)."

Look at their faces....   they are all young men in their twenties, so full of life and future... Klubov wouldn't make it through the war and would die in 1944, his companions had better luck though.

War is really such a waste... and yet in the face of aggression, there is no other solution than to resist...

Looking at the photo I can't help but think how could someone, purportedly  heir to such a memory, choose to play the part his parents fought against, bringing death, pain and destruction to millions of people for the sake of ...what, precisely?

In the immortal words of John Donne  quoted by Hemingway as a title for one of his greatest books

"Each man's death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee.".