2021-02-09
Other articles >
Heroes are not born
Not as a tribute to fashion and not as a result of general mobilization - most of those who went to the front since June 1941 did it at the call of their hearts. Today, these beautiful words are probably worth little, being smeared by TV series, worn out by the press. However, in the harsh 41st, when they sang from all the receivers 'Get up, the country is huge', a noble rage boiled up in the soul of every Soviet person. Nobody thought anything about the political landscape, or about other unrelated things. It was necessary to PROTECT THE HOMELAND, that's all.
How much those two words included! After all, most often, sitting in a trench or making another march, the soldiers remembered their home, loved ones, mother - all that is called the MOTHERLAND, and all that needs to be loved and protected.
The first postage stamp issued in the USSR in August 1941, immediately after the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, is dedicated to this topic. Tens of thousands of volunteers went to the front - young and not so young, those who yesterday still stood at the machine or plowed the field. After June 22, they all became heroes, ready to give their most precious thing - their lives-for the country to be able to plow and build again.
They went into the unknown, and the mothers, seeing off their little bloods, tried to stand next to each other for at least a second longer, holding hands, bitterly realizing that this might be the last time...
It is this severe scene of farewell, which visited every home, that the artist Viktor Koretsky depicted on his poster. The photo poster formed the basis of the first stamp with a face value of 30 kopecks, which went into circulation on August 12, 1941.
Standard Soviet agitation, of course, involved the production of propaganda products. But it is unlikely that only slogans could cause such a rise in patriotism, with which hundreds of thousands went into battle, knowing that it might be the last. The mass consciousness of the people, who only 2 decades ago became at the helm, still remembered hunger and poverty - and no one wanted to become a yoke again.
That is why mothers told their children: 'Be a hero!'and they gave them to the front, leaving a bloody wound in their heart. But no matter how terrible the prospects were, holing up in the underground was even worse.
The fate of the stamps of this series was quite military, with a predictable share of tragedy. Part of the print run was taken out of the Goznak warehouse and delivered to the post offices. The rest of the party remained at the factory where he was hit by a bomb during one of the air strikes. Most of the stamps are ' Be a hero!'it was lost forever, so today they are a great philatelic rarity.
In 1987, the Minister of Culture of the USSR even issued an order that prohibited the export of the stamp ' Be a Hero!'from the territory of the Soviet Union.
Looking at the people depicted on the stamp, I get the feeling that this is my great-grandmother seeing off my grandfather to the war. I remember from old photos the 'fashion' for padded jackets and shawls, in which the woman on the stamp is depicted - this is how my great-grandmother dressed. She spent three sons in the war-only my grandfather, Grigory Ivanovich, survived. He went through the whole war, was wounded, reached Brest and Berlin, has a medal 'For bravery'. I don't remember much of his stingy stories - he didn't like to talk about the war. But it was only over the years that I realized what kind of pain it was.
I was able to find records in the military archives - just two stingy lines that say what a feat he did. In July, the 44th ordinary Gregory Pokhodaev 'gave way to the four German spies in our trench'. And at one point, I suddenly realized what was behind these words, what horror my grandfather experienced, but came out Victorious, and remained alive. Being a simple guy, he returned from the war as a Hero. But the main thing is that he's back.
In 1975, a souvenir sheet with the image of the famous brand was released. In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Great Victory in May of the same year, the international philatelic exhibition 'Sotsfileks-75' was held in Moscow, the symbol of which was the brand ' Be a Hero!'.
Today, many attempts are being made to revise THAT war, to distort the truth, blackening the bright and passing off lies as the truth. But the fact remains: we survived, did not bend and did not run to the burrows. And let someone call it 'great-power chauvinism', or the result of mass propaganda - in 41, the people of the Country of the Soviets stood up as a single wall to defend the Motherland, and everyone can be called a Hero, because everyone then performed their own, albeit small in the scale of the Universe, but a Feat. It was from such small Feats that the Great Victory was woven. And this should be remembered, this should be proud of!
Add to your online collection any, even the rarest brands, coins, postcards, banknotes, paintings You can thanks to the service for collectors HOBBYKEEPER ONLINE. It not only allows you to become the owner of a digital version of any rarity in one click, but also to quickly enter descriptions, edit and add data about all your copies. The service is available 24/7 both from a PC and from any mobile device thanks to the adapted version of programs.
Join us - and the impossible will become possible, and the inaccessible will become available together with Hobby Keeper!
Irina I.
