Русское зазеркалье (двуязычная версия)

I anticipate your disappointment: some of you, even if being touched by this soldier’s philosophy, would still ask me, ‘What is there to reflect upon, to analyse, to talk about?’ Others would deprecatingly characterise this poetical text, inspiring common soldiers to go and fight the Nazis even at cost of their own lives, as a banal piece of the official Soviet propaganda. It is a piece of the official Soviet propaganda, but not only that. And what is propaganda, by the way? The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines propaganda as ‘ideas or statements that may be false or present only one side of an argument that are used in order to gain support for a political leader, party, etc.’ Propaganda is, in other words, political brainwashing, an attempt at manipulation, something that produces ‘emotional rather than rational response,’ as Wikipedia formulates it, and that tries to channel our energy in the politically desired direction. Now, is anything inducing people to do the right thing a piece of propaganda? For instance, is ‘We’ll Meet Again’ a piece of propaganda in the same way, as it presumably tries to strike the same chords within its audience?

You know, I would prefer ‘In a Frontline Forest’ over ‘We’ll Meet Again’ if I were a soldier, and this not because of my nationality, but only because the Russian song sounds less manipulative. It doesn’t really say that I (in my capacity of a soldier, that is) would necessarily meet my sweetheart again; instead of it, it very coolly warns me that anything, including my own death, can happen, which is of course less comforting, but more honest. The song doesn’t tell lies, the only comfort that it gives being the idea that everyone can die only once—which is completely true, by the way. So why do we still want to see it as an attempt at manipulation?

Would you also like to regard, say, St Luke’s Gospel, the whole of it, as a single piece of propaganda, just because it appeals to our emotionality rather than to our intelligence? Some of you would probably answer affirmatively which then would allow me to say that the Russian song we are talking about is in a good company.

As for this song being ‘too simplistic,’ in terms of its philosophy, in particular, and ‘soldier’s philosophy’ in general, I would give you a lengthy quotation from A Christmas Sermon by Robert Louis Stevenson, a Scottish novelist and travel writer of the 19th century.