The lyrics of the national anthem of the Soviet Union

I happened to be watching THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, and was struck by the sound of the crew of the submarine singing the Soviet Union's national anthem as the ship's silent drive was engaged ... and realised that I had no idea what lyrics were!

The crew of the Red October singing the Soviet Union's national anthem as the silect drive is engaged.

I resolved to rectify that and found that there are several translations of the original Russian lyrics, including an official 1944 CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) version.

The original Russian words are:

Союз нерушимый республик свободных
Сплотила навеки Великая Русь.
Да здравствует созданный волей народов
Единый, могучий Советский Союз!

Славься, Отечество наше свободное,
Дружбы народов надёжный оплот!
Знамя советское, знамя народное
Пусть от победы к победе ведёт!

Сквозь грозы сияло нам солнце свободы,
И Ленин великий нам путь озарил:
Нас вырастил Сталин — на верность народу,
На труд и на подвиги нас вдохновил!

Славься, Отечество наше свободное,
Счастья народов надёжный оплот!
Знамя советское, знамя народное
Пусть от победы к победе ведёт!

Мы армию нашу растили в сраженьях.
Захватчиков подлых с дороги сметём!
Мы в битвах решаем судьбу поколений,
Мы к славе Отчизну свою поведём!

Славься, Отечество наше свободное,
Славы народов надёжный оплот!
Знамя советское, знамя народное
Пусть от победы к победе ведёт!

In Romanised script, it reads as follows:

Soyúz nerushímyy respúblik svobódnykh
Splotíla navéki velíkaya Rus.
Da zdrávstvuyet sózdannyy vóley naródov
Yedínyy, mogúchiy Sovétskiy Soyúz!

Slávsya, Otéchestvo náshe svobódnoye,
Drúzhby naródov nadyózhnyy oplót!
Známya sovétskoye, známya naródnoye
Pust ot pobédy k pobéde vedyót!

Skvoz grózy siyálo nam sólnce svobódy,
I Lénin velíkiy nam put ozaríl
Nas výrastil Stálin — na vérnost naródu,
Na trud i na pódvigi nas vdokhnovíl!

Slávsya, Otéchestvo náshe svobódnoye,
Schástia naródov nadyózhnyy oplót!
Známya sovétskoye, známya naródnoye
Pust ot pobédy k pobéde vedyót!

My ármiyu náshu rastíli v srazhéniakh.
Zakhvátchikov pódlykh s dorógi smetyóm!
My v bítvakh resháyem sudbú pokoléniy,
My k sláve Otchíznu svoyú povedyóm!

Slávsya, Otéchestvo náshe svobódnoye,
Slávy naródov nadyózhnyy oplót!
Známya sovétskoye, známya naródnoye
Pust ot pobédy k pobéde vedyót!

The 1944 official CPSU translation of the lyrics are as follows:

Unbreakable Union of freeborn Republics
Great Russia has welded forever to stand;
Created in struggle by will of the peoples,
United and mighty, our Soviet land!

Sing to our Motherland, glory undying,
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong!
Flag of the Soviets, peoples' flag flying,
Lead us from victory to victory on!

Through tempests, the sunrays of freedom have cheered us,
Along the new path where great Lenin lead,
Be true to the people, thus Stalin has reared us,
Inspired us to labour and valorous deed!

Sing to our Motherland, glory undying,
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong!
Flag of the Soviets, peoples' flag flying,
Lead us from victory to victory on!

Our army grew up in the heat of grim battle,
Barbarian invaders, we'll swiftly strike down.
In combat the fate of the future we'll settle,
Our country we'll lead to eternal renown!

Sing to our Motherland, glory undying,
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong!
Flag of the Soviets, peoples' flag flying,
Lead us from victory to victory on!

The lyric were amended after the death of Stalin, and the line that reads 'Be true to the people, thus Stalin has reared us/i>' was changed to 'To a righteous cause, he raised the people'.

The flag of the Soviet Union.

A surprise parcel!

On Tuesday a courier delivered a parcel from my old friend and fellow blogger, David Crook ... who writes the A WARGAMING ODYSSEY blog.

It contained x unpainted resin buildings that will work very well with my existing collection of wargame buildings and especially my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War project.

It also included two painted buildings from the range of pre-painted FLAMES OF WAR terrain items ...

... and a copy of Avalon Hill's THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN.

The latter will make a great campaign map for my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War project.

This was a wonderful present ... and has given me lots of things to think about over the next few weeks. Thank you David!

I may be thinking a lot ... but I haven't been idle

Since my last blog post, I have been doing a lot of thinking about my future wargaming. I have several ideas and possible strategies that I want to explore, but I have not come up with anything definite as yet.

Rather than sitting in my armchair pondering, I have been working on a couple of things. Firstly, I have continued renovating the Fallschirmjäger figures that I inherited from Eric Knowles' collection ... and they are looking good!

Secondly, I have been repainting the resin model of Tallinn's famous Viru Gate. The original model was painted silver(!) and red ...

... and I have repainted the stonework using a dark grey undercoat (Humbrol No.67) which I dry brushed with beige (Revell No.314). The roof tiles were repainted using carmine red (Revell No.36) and dry brushed with a 3:1 mixture of carmine red and beige. The results looked like this ...

... and I think it looks miles better.

My Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War collection: Part 7c: ‘I once was lost, but now I’m found’

The contents of the third box I found in our storage unit included the following Russian figures and equipment:

2 x Half-track artillery tractors (1:72nd-scale resin)

2 x Howitzers (1:72nd-scale unknown calibre)

31 x Infantry in greatcoats and side caps (Pilotka), fur hats (Ushanka), and helmets (1:76th-scale Dixon Miniatures)

1 x Officer in greatcoat (1:72nd-scale Skytex)

23 x Infantry in greatcoats and fur hats (Ushanka) (1:72nd-scale Skytex)

The contents of this box were all originally in the collection of the late Eric Knowles.

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An aside ...

There is still at least one more box of figures that I haven't retrieved from our storage unit AND there are also two large boxes containing ROCO Minitank vehicles.

This project is now turning into something much bigger than I expected ... and I have a feeling that at some point I am going to have to draw an albeit temporary line under it, otherwise other projects might suffer.

My Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War collection: Part 7b: ‘I once was lost, but now I’m found’

The contents of the second box I found in our storage unit included the following Russian figures and equipment:

10 x BA-64s Armoured Cars (1:76th-scale [?] models given away with a magazine)

4 x Willys Jeeps (1:72nd-scale Italieri Fast Assembly)

10 x Infantry in tunics and side caps (Pilotka)

6 x Infantry in tunics and helmets

3 x Infantry in tunics and fur hats (Ushanka)

My Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War collection: Part 7a: ‘I once was lost, but now I’m found’

I recently paid a visit to our storage unit, and whilst looking for a boxful of MDF bases, I found three boxes containing more vehicles and figures that I planned to renovate and include in my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War collection.

The contents of the the first box - which were all from the collection of the late Eric Knowles - included the following German troops and equipment:

18 x Cavalry

2 x Pack horses

6 x Artillery Limbers

2 x 75mm FK 16 nA Field Guns

2 x 75mm sIG 18 Infantry Guns

2 x 7.7 cm IG L/20 (?)

14 x Dismounted Cavalry

11 x Officers and HQ Staff

What wargame rules have influenced my World War II wargaming?

Whilst I was waiting for my wargaming mojo to return, I spent some time looking at the World War II wargame books on my shelves and thinking about how much they have influenced my World War II wargaming.

The first was Donald Featherstone's WAR GAMES ... and it was both his basic rules and Lionel Tarr's rules that I started using first.

My much battered copy of Donald Featherstone's WAR GAME. I do have a copy in much better condition and a copy of John Curry's reprint, but this volume has very fond memories for me.

In particular, the images of Lionel Tarr's Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War battle around Stalingrad ingrained themselves in my wargaming psyche and I still hanker to fight similar battles in my dotage!

The next was Charles Grant's BATTLE: PRACTICAL WARGAMING.

Once again, the battered cover of this book shows just how much usage it got in the years after I bought it.

The main text of this book had originally appeared as a series of articles in the long-defunct MECCANO MAGAZINE, and its influence on me was mainly the way in which Charles Grant organised his troops into units and sub-units and in his use of ROCO Minitanks. It is thanks to him that I have loads of T-34/85s and sWs half-tracks in my collection although most of them remain unpainted!

When it comes to showing how it was possible to model a whole variety of different military vehicles from the limited resources available at the time, John Sandar's AN INTRODUCTION TO WARGAMING stands head and shoulders above his contemporaries ... and his rules were bl**dy good as well!

Thanks to his influence, I have - over the years - converted all sorts of ROCO and Airfix military vehicles into something that I could not buy off-the-shelf ... as the recent photographs of my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War collections show.

Some examples of John Sandar's vehicles, as featured in a book edited by Peter Young and entitled THE WAR GAME. The book was illustrated with photographs taken by Philip O Stearns.

I know that my old friend Chris Kemp (the designer of NQM or NOT QUITE MECHANISED) was also inspired by John Sandar's book, and his rules had a profound influence on my World War II wargaming. The original draft of the rules (which were originally titled PANZERBLITZ OR NOT QUITE MECHANISED) were quite literally drawn many years ago and I have followed their evolution and development ever since.

The cover of the very first edition of NQM. My copy was the first of only twenty!

The cover of the recently published edition of NQM.

NQM led indirectly to the development of Tim Gow's MEGABLITZ!, a set of rules that I had a small part in helping to develop.

I took part in many wargames using these excellent rules, and putting together armies for them led directly to the creation of my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War collection.

A Megablitz battle that I staged at a wargame club in Norwich.

Finally, Frank Chadwick's COMMAND DECISION ...

... (and particularly his bathtub campaign book BARBAROSSA 25) ...

...made me realise that I could stage a large-scale Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War campaign if I felt so inclined.

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Other books that deserve an honourable mentions include LIONEL TARR'S MODERN WARGAMING RULES 1939-1945 (as recently published by John Curry as part of his 'History of Wargaming' Project ...

... and Gavin Lyall's OPERATION WARBOARD.

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WAR GAMES was written by Donald Featherstone and published in 1962 by Stanley Paul (ISBN 0 09 064901 X). It was republished in a revised edition in 2014 by the History of Wargaming Project (ISBN 978 1 2918 5142 7).

BATTLE: PRACTICAL WARGAMING was written by Charles Grant and published in 1970 by Model & Allied Publications Ltd/Argus Press Ltd.

AN INTRODUCTION TO WARGAMING was written by John Sandars and published in 1975 by Pelham Books Ltd. (ISBN 0 7207 0681 3).

NOT QUITE MECHANISED was written by Chris Kemp and published in 2024 by Lulu Inc. (ISBN 978 1 4452 7312 9).

MEGABLITZ! was written by Tim Gow and published in 2002 by Stratagem Publications.

COMMAND DECISION and BARBAROSSA 25 were written by Frank Chadwick and published in 1986 and 1988 respectively by Game Designers Workshop.

LIONEL TARR'S MODERN WARGAMING RULES 1939-1945 was compiled by John Curry and published in 2017 by The History of Wargaming Project (ISBN 978 1 3269 1498 1).

OPERATION WARBOARD was written by Gavin Lyall and published in 1976 by A&C Black (ISBN 0 7138 1646 6). It was republished in 2013 by the History of Wargaming Project (ISBN 978 1 2913 2352 8)

It’s back … but it’s not as bad as it was … and it’s helped me set some wargame-related priorities

That pesky virus/bug is back again, but its effects are somewhat reduced!

I half expected that this would happen as several other people have mentioned this boomerang effect in blog posts and comments … and in several cases, it lasted on and off for several weeks.

As part of my strategy to cope with the debilitating effects of the virus/bug, I have decided to set myself three wargame-related priorities, one short-term, one medium-term, and one long-term. There are, respectively :

1. Complete the next Portable Wargame Compendium by the beginning of November so that it can be published in time for Christmas.
2. Write a set of World War II rules for the Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War that I can use with my vehicle and figure collection.
3. Complete renovating my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War collection.

This means that I don’t expect to do very much with my Belle Époque collection for the next few months … although that might well change if my interest in my medium- and long-term priorities flags at some point.

My Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War collection: Part 6: The unfinished figures are finished … and my mojo is returning!

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I discovered a number of figures that I had not finished renovating … but now they are! (It’s worth noting that I also found a small number of German figures that were also unfinished, and these are also shown below.)

The newly-completed figures include:

4 x German Officers (including a metal copy of an original figure from the first Airfix German Infantry box!)

6 x Russian Officers (3 of whom are Naval officers)

4 x Cavalry

13 x Naval Infantry (I have since discovered two more of these figures that need to be completed.)

5 x Infantry in greatcoats and fur hats (Ushanka)

4 x Infantry in tunics and fur hats (Ushanka)

12 x Infantry in tunics and side caps (Pilotka)

17 x Infantry in tunics and helmets

Completing these figures and reading Charles D Winchester’s books has certainly gone a long way to reviving my wargaming mojo … and I am already contemplating adding some more stuff to this collection and fighting some wargames with them.

My Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War collection: Part 5: German Allies

The second REALLY USEFUL BOX also contained the figures and armoured vehicles of two German allies in my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War collection.

Its contents comprised:

1 x Hungarian Officer

5 x Hungarian Gun crew

12 x Hungarian Infantry

2 x Toldi Light Tanks (1:76th-scale resin)

1 x Spanish Officer

8 x Spanish Infantry

My Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War collection: Part 4: German figures

The second REALLY USEFUL BOX contained the German figures in my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War collection.

Its contents comprised:

7 x Officers

32 x Gun crew

16 x Repurposed World War I Infantry

56 x Infantry (i.e. 1:76th-scale)

30 x Infantry (i.e. 1:72nd-scale)

1 x Officer (who was missed from the first photograph included in this blog post)

1 x Feldgendarmerie

2 x Pack mules