The Winter of Winters by Robert M. Kidd #BlogTour

"The only way to meet Numidians was to fight fire with fire. Charge, move, retreat... anything to avoid that lethal blizzard of javelins. To stand still was to die, and simply raising a shield was no protection from the lethal accuracy of Numidian javelins." 

"Stirred by Hannibal's rousing speech, together they'd chanted "Death to Rome" from the highest mountaintop. They'd ridden a thousand miles to challenge Rome. Now it was their time, their page of history. And it would be written by Numidians."

The Winter of Winters is the second book in the Histories of Sphax series, a remarkable historical saga by Robert M. Kidd.

I have read and enjoyed the first book in the series earlier this year (see my review of The Walls of Rome). The second book might be read as a standalone, but I would still suggest reading the books in order so that you can get acquainted with all the main characters, the dynamics between them, and understand the historical events better.

Book Blurb:

218 BC. Hannibal’s exhausted army staggers down from the last Alpine pass like a rabble of half-starved savages, the remnants of a once magnificent army that had set out from the Rhodanus with such hope. Now there is no way back. 

With the legions of Consul Publius Scipio closing fast, Carthage needs its Gaulish allies like never before. But where are the Insubres? Where are the Boii? Where are the thousands of warriors pledged by solemn oath?

In the maelstrom of battle, Sphax, nephew of Hannibal, forges a reputation as the scourge of Rome. But will his ingrained recklessness and quest for honour set him at odds with the forbidding genius of his uncle? 

Only one thing is certain in this winter of winters, a great battle is coming that will decide the fates of Rome and Carthage.  

Set in 218BC, the story moves along with Hannibal's exhausted army as they've crossed the Alps. Hannibal's men are cold and half-starved. "This flat watery land in winter's grip seemed to be waiting, watching, holding its breath. Who was stronger: Rome or Carthage?... More than half their (Carthage) number had been slain... Scattered over the high places and bleak alleys of those accursed mountains were the shallow graves of their fallen... Hannibal called them the bravest of the brave... the strongest of the strong! But in truth, Sphax knew they were just the survivors, the lucky few".

Like the first book, The Winter of Winters tracks real historical events as seen through the eyes of Sphax, Hannibal's nephew. He hates Rome with passion. "After legionaries had butchered his parents, he'd been taken into slavery and spent the next ten years of his boyhood in misery. He would always carry the fugitus sign that had been branded into his right forearm; a punishment for trying to run away when he was fourteen."

We learn more about Hannibal's military strategy and tactics. He teaches Sphax, "In war, nephew, always demonstrate weakness in front of your enemies before you reveal your true strength in the final, decisive moment. "

We get to know Hannibal not just as a military leader but as a person. "From the age of nine, when he'd begged his father Hamilcar to take him on campaign, his uncle had known only war. His nature and character, down to the last furrow etched on his brow had been forged not by childish pastimes and idle pleasures, but on the battlefield".

Sphax observes and learns. He is still impulsive and easily provoked, but he is also critical of some of his uncle's decisions, showing maturity and insight.

In one episode Hannibal gives a rousing speech to his army that they are alone in a foreign land, surrounded by enemies, and that they "either conquer by the sword or meet death on the battlefield". To illustrate his speech, he forces the Tricorii warriors, prisoners of the Numidians, to fight to deatn among themselves. 

Sphax muses, "There was no need to force those wretched prisoners to fight each other to the death to illustrate his argument. When Sosylos writes the history of this war they will be remembered as an insignificant footnote. Men's lives should not be reduced to a footnote!". This observation shows that Sphax is growing up, and becoming wiser and more sensible. 

In this book we are introduced to a new character - Corinna is the daughter of Queen Teuta of Illyria and a hostage of Rome. Since her childhood, she has been trained and educated in the arts of war. "She was to be moulded in the image of her mother, where skill with lance, sword and bow were prized above all things. She was destined to become a warrior princess, who would conquer and bring territory and glory to Illyria".

Robert M Kidd's passion for the historical period he writes about is palpable. He vividly evokes the privations of the army in the enemy territory, violence and fragility of life, without a trace of glorification of war. Highly recommended. I'm already itching to return to the Histories of Sphax.

Purchase Links   

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B093TD86FM/  

US - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093TD86FM/  

Author Bio – Robert M. Kidd  

When Cato the Censor demanded that ‘Carthage must be destroyed,’ Rome did just that. In 146 BC, after a three year siege, Carthage was raised to the ground, its surviving citizens sold into slavery and the fields where this once magnificent city had stood, ploughed by oxen. Carthage was erased from history.  

That’s why I’m a novelist on a mission! I want to set the historical record straight. Our entire history of Hannibal’s wars with Rome is nothing short of propaganda, written by Greeks and Romans for their Roman clients. It intrigues me that Hannibal took two Greek scholars and historians with him on campaign, yet their histories of Rome’s deadliest war have never seen the light of day.   

My hero, Sphax the Numidian, tells a different story!  

When I’m not waging war with my pen, I like to indulge my passion for travel and hill walking, and like my hero, I too love horses. I live in Pembrokeshire, West Wales.  

https://robertmkidd.com/  

https://twitter.com/RobertMKidd1  

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064169594911  

If you enjoy historical fiction, don't miss your chance to win an excellent prize.

 

Giveaway to Win Book 4 in The Histories of Sphax series to be dedicated to the winner, & a signed dedicated copy too (Open INT)  

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Anyone for Edmund? by Simon Edge

I have been reflecting more on memory and its limits. I am relieved to find that there are many events in my own deepest history that I can bring to mind, so my recall is not quite as rotten and decayed as I had feared. Almost all of them, though, happened after my death.

Anyone for Edmund? by Simon Edge is a magnificent blend of political satire, magic realism and historical fiction.

The above mentioned genre attribution might not be technically correct, though as Wikipedia helpfully states that magic (or magical) realism presents a realistic view of modern world with added magical elements, I'll go with this definition. It's precisely the case when supernatural phenomena is presented in otherwise real-world or mundane setting.

The book opens with an archaeological dig nearby the ruins of Bury St Edmund's Abbey, where the monks have hidden the sacred remains of St Edmund during the Dissolution of monasteries.
Hannah is one of the community volunteers, who happens to be there, when the skull is found.

Hannah's cousin Mark is a special adviser to the "sainted" Marina Spencer. After a career at the BBC, producing programmes for the World Service, he is supposed to have his dream job with Marina.
Power-hungry Marina is a pushy bully of a boss, who has a great talent for looking approachable and friendly on TV.
Her charisma doesn't extent to her aides whom she treats as minions of no significance. "Marina Spencer was the most neurotic person he had ever met. Her anxiety focused primarily on her media appearances, which was unfortunate, since she was the government's star media performer".

All her staff are hostages to her moods.
"She would demand them at all hours of the day and most hours of the night, since she was also an insomniac and expected her staff to be the same".
Mark dreads going to the office, where he's subjected to Marina's relentless criticism and his colleagues' competitiveness.
She never gives thanks for all the hard work her staff are doing. "Expecting gratitude from Marina was like expecting not to be squeezed to death by a boa constrictor: it was an unreasonable hope that went against nature".

It so happens that Hannah shares the news of the big discovery at the dig with Mark's mother, who in her turn can't wait to spill the news to her son, "It's a very exciting development. It'll be all over the news, when they announce it. They haven't done it yet, and I thought you'd like a … what's that horrible expression?" "A heads-up?" She thinks it to be the news of great importance, since St Edmund was England's patron saint until we got St George.

Marina needs new eye-catching ideas for her talk in the cabinet. Cornered, Mark comes up with a suggestion of a new patron saint for the whole of the UK, "Bringing all four nations together, after the trauma of the past few years"
"As ideas went, it was not so much half-baked as still in the mixing bowl before he had turned the oven on".
Once he suggests it, he has to build the case as to why St Edmund could be seen as a unifying figure, "He added a silent prayer to St Wikipedia that he could find some adequate connection".
The following spin is a matter of creative genius of Mark, his imagination and resourcefulness.

Without giving any spoilers, the credentials Mark builds for Marina's ambitious campaign - manipulating history data - are brilliant.
Simon Edge is one of the best wits in the British political satire.

Every scene with Marina is pure political farce. She is a ruthless tyrant with an over-inflated ego. I loved the episode at St Edmund's Chapel, where she arrives wearing colours matching St Edmund's flags. She nearly causes a scene, when she realises that she is supposed to sit "in the blasted gods".
But when another, less prominent MP, makes a dig at Marina for sitting in the gallery, she responds, "I'm simply here to witness St Edmund's return to his proper place, Wendy. That's all that matters," said Marina, but the look that went with her words could have refrozen the polar ice cap."

As Mark's lies spin out of control, we are wondering if they are going to be exposed. He's not a contemptible, cynical political hack, in fact you'll most likely feel sympathy for him, and hope the whole brouhaha would end in his favour.

The narrative flits back and forth from Mark to Hannah to St Edmund, and that's where the narrative becomes supernatural. The Royal Saint is reliving his own life, before and after death, his miracles and legacy. Having seen Marina kneeling in front of his shrine, he takes her under his wing and wants to reward her for the seeming devotion, with the most drastic consequences for her opponents.

All Edge's books are an outstanding character study. The author is sympathetic to his hapless protagonist.
Marina is the perfect villainess whom you'll love to hate.

Edge is a skilful storyteller who reimagines the past and the present. The plot is intelligent, intricate and will keep you gripped.

After I finished reading the book, I visited the library to see if I can find anything on the British saints. There is a small extract on St Edmund in Richard James' England's Forgotten Past (2010 edition).

I also spotted Warriors of the Viking World by Ben Hubbard in The Works (at £3 at the moment), where I found this illustration.

Many thanks to Simon Edge and Lightning Books for my copy of the book!

The Surplus Girls by Polly Heron

"That's the point, my dear. You've got to work. You're a surplus girl."
"A what?"
"A surplus girl. That's what they're being called. With so many of our young men having lost their lives in the war, there's now a generation of girls with no men to marry them...
I didn't mean to give offence. My point is that surplus girls face a lifetime of fending for themselves."

The Surplus Girls by Polly Heron is a family saga set in Manchester, 1922.

It's the third book by the author which I've read this year (Polly Heron is a nom de plume of Susanna Bavin). The theme of the women's rights or lack thereof runs through her gripping stories.

The Surplus Girls is not a historical romance where a heroine from an impoverished background just has to flutter her eyelashes to catch a Duke or Earl and live happily ever after.
Heron's protagonists are real women, who live in poverty, and struggle every day to feed their family and make ends meet.

In Belinda Layton, the author has created a remarkable character. Her story is compelling, dark and devastating, but also full of exciting surprises and twists.

Belinda Layton is the eponymous surplus girl. She is one of thousands of young women who are left to fend for themselves after the death of their fiancés and husbands in the first world war.
Her beloved Ben is killed in action, and Belinda is "adopted" by her fiancé's mother and grandmother. Auntie Enid and Grandma Beattie dote on her and love her dearly, but they also put an immense pressure on her to stay in mourning for Ben.
Four years after his death, she is still in full mourning, and doesn't even dare to wear a white collar, or any colourful detail on her black outfit. She knows her family wouldn't approve or understand her desire to wear some colour.

Her own parents live in extreme poverty. The father is a total wastrel who cannot keep a job, and blames everyone else for his miserable existence. The mother is a slave to the family, and those children who have jobs, have to contribute to the family's budget (spent by father on drink and better food for himself).
They all expect Belinda to give part of her wage to them, even if she doesn't live with them any longer. They don't care about her, all they want is her meagre factory wages. There's no gratitude on their behalf, they take Belinda for granted. After all, she is not married, and thus has to give money to her parents.
They are so poor, that there's always a fear they would end up in the workhouse.

After four years of mourning, Belinda is ready to embrace the future without her fiancé. On her old teacher's advice, she decides to join a secretarial class, to try to better herself. That decision is not met with approval from her family, "I don't mean you no ill, lass, you know that," she is being told, "but this is where you belong. You can't climb out of your life. Everyone has their rightful place".

When Belinda joins the secretarial class, her world expands. While doing an unpaid job at the book shop to gain experience, she meets the shop owner's nephew Richard Carson. Belinda is smitten, her feelings and emotions are re-awakened. She had never considered the possibility of another relationship, but having met Richard, "she felt alive in a way she hadn't in years".

Working in the book shop, she also encounters Carson's cousin, Gabriel Linkworth. She doesn't trust him at first, as her loyalties lie with Richard. As time goes, she gradually learns to like and respect him. Gabriel is another victim of the war. Trapped inside a burning building in France, he is the only survivor. He loses his memory, not just the immediate past, but his entire life, his name, everything.

Belinda tries to understand her own feelings and figure out what she really wants.
Will she be able to find happiness after all the loss and devastation?

Heron's writing never falters, when creating an authentic, believable past. The class division, and the rigid rungs of social standing, with the inverted snobbery from the poorest who despise anyone who want to better themselves, reads true to life.
For example, when Belinda tries to persuade her family to allow her to apply for a new job, Grandma Beattie says, "Save your thanks for when we dry your tears after you've been knocked back from getting above yourself".

It's not just Belinda who's trying to follow her dreams. There are several sub-plots running along the main story, like the story of two sisters - Miss Hesketh and Miss Patience - who find themselves at the mercy of their half-brother who inherits the house which belonged to their late mother and wants to move in into his newly acquired abode without a second thought about the sisters. To survive, they start the secretarial school.
Their story is as engrossing as Belinda's.

I was glad to see the mention of Mary Brewer, a lady journalist who writes for Vera's Voice under the name of Fay Randall. Her story is told in The Poor Relation (<-- click on the link for the review). Seeing her name in another book was like meeting an old friend.

The Surplus Girls is the first book in a new series of family sagas. I can't wait to read the next book.

Many thanks to the author for my copy of the book!

Victoria to Vikings The Circle of Blood by Trisha Hughes #BlogTour

In the foreword to Victoria to Vikings: The Circle of Blood Trisha Hughes writes: "Interest in the British Monarchy has ebbed and flowed over the centuries depending on the reigning monarch and the controversy surrounding said monarch... My tale is a conglomerate of accumulated facts together with my imagination, backed up by plausibility in the quicksand of history."

Victoria to Vikings - The Circle of Blood by Trisha Hughes
Synopsis:
At the heart of our present are the stories of our past. In ages gone by, many monarchs died while they were still young. There were battles and diseases and many were simply overthrown. But the days of regal engagement in hand-to-hand combat are over and the line of succession has a good ageing prospect these days.
One of the most famous monarchs in history is Queen Victoria and her passing brought an end to an amazing era. She could be demanding, rude and she frequently fled public duties for the solitude of Scotland. But she loved fiercely, and her people loved her fiercely in return. Under her reign, England achieved greatness it had never known before.
Victoria to Vikings - The Circle of Blood spans from this great queen to another one: Queen Elizabeth II. Ours is the era of the longest living monarch in history and her ancestry is incredible. But walking two steps behind her, stalwart and loyal, stands Prince Philip, the strawberry to her champagne, and with him comes his own amazing Viking heritage.

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Review:
I thought I knew pretty much about Victoria and her disfunctional family, as I've read extensively on the subject in the past, both fiction and non-fiction.

Victoria to Vikings is an amalgam of history and biography. It's a compelling reading for anyone interested in the European history.
It spans the lives of six British monarchs, starting with Queen Victoria, but also dabs into the world of the Romanovs and the German Emperor's family.

Victoria had surpassed autocracy and had become the role model for all future successful constitutional monarchs, as well as a beloved figurehead... Her legacy was enormous: an empire, nine children, forty two grandchildren and the second longest-reigning monarch in English history.
Her story was one of a tiny, strong woman at the heart of an empire...

From hobnobbing with the academics for most of my married life, I know that they dread their books to be described or quoted as "reads as a novel", so I won't be using this expression, even if Trisha Hughes is not an academic.

On her website Trisha says: "I'm not a historian but I love everything history and I've enjoyed the intense research involved for a complicated subject as this."

Hughes is a masterful storyteller, she has a great talent for putting a lot of data and information together in a very enticing, entertaining way. There are lots of facts on every page, but the narrative is never boring.
The narrative is vastly engaging but never dumbed down. It's a refreshing interpretation of the popular history, it's fast-moving, enlightening and enthralling.

Victoria to Vikings is a wonderful panorama of a book.
As a historical book, it is enormously entertaining, but...
There are some factual things that might be argued - for example, Queen Victoria is described as the longest-reigning monarch in English history to date. While it might have been true, when the book was being written, this should have been amended, especially that there are references in the book to Prince Harry and Megan's wedding.
And there were other minor details that should have been double-checked.

I also missed the illustrations. Photos of all the main protagonists would have been a great addition. As it happened, I kept checking out the Wikipedia for photos. Victoria's family tree is vast, with so much inbreeding and people with the same names, that you might get easily confused. Having a visual backing to all the members would be helpful to remind who is who.

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Author Bio:
I am an Australian author born in Brisbane, Queensland, now living in Hong Kong. My writing career began 18 years ago with my best-selling autobiography "Daughters of Nazareth" published by Pan MacMillan Australia. Over the past 8 years, I have been researching and writing a historical fiction trilogy based on British Monarchy throughout the ages beginning with the Vikings. Originally meant to be a single book, as facts accumulated the material gradually filled three books. I call this series my V2V trilogy.

Social Media Links
Facebook Trisha Hughes Author and Twitter @TrishaHughes_

This post is a part of blog tour, please check out the other stops:

Disclosure: Many thanks to Trisha Hughes, The Book Guild and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book, which I received for the purposes of reading and reviewing. All opinions are my own.

Betsy & Lilibet by Sophie Duffy #BlogTour

"Every life has some kind of depth, sadness, and moments of extraordinary wonder that should be marked and noted. Don't defy an old person by their last few years... They've had a whole lifetime before then. They were once a baby, a child, a teen, a sweetheart, a wife, a husband, a driver of ambulances in the war. Life and Death, they're connected".
Betsy Sunshine is in a nursing home on the south coast, with plenty of time to ponder on her life.

Born 90 years earlier on the same day as Princess Elizabeth, their lives couldn't be more different. The Princess will become one of the most iconic and celebrated figures of the 20 and 21st century and will wear the crown.

Betsy is from a completely different world, born into the dynasty of the undertakers. Their lives seem to run in parallel, but surprisingly intersect several times.

Betsy & Lilibet by Sophie Duffy is a fine portrayal of social history.

Raphael Samuel wrote once on the social history (see History Today, March 1985) that it "touches on, and arguably helps to focus, major issues of public debate, as for example on British national character or the nature of family life. It mobilises popular enthusiasm and engages popular passions". This quote applies perfectly to Betsy & Lilibet.

Through lives of ordinary people like Betsy and her family, we get a deep insight into the quintessential British character.

The Queen is more of a symbol rather than the main character of the book, in this sense the title is slightly misleading. Yes, she is always in the background, and we see plenty of quotes from her inspiring speeches. She appears in short but memorable - and amusing - cameos several times.

But it's Betsy who takes the central stage. Betsy who grows up, surrounded by death.
We watch her mature into a defiant and responsible person during the times of the WWII. The scenes of the London bombing are harrowing.
"I don't get blasé about the war as such, just immune to the inevitability. If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, there's nothing you can do about it. So I stop worrying about what might happen and get on with it..."
As the elder daughter in the family without sons, Betsy's father relies on her to come into business with him.
The undertakers' business and traditions are described in great detail, and it's is a fascinating read.

Betsy's sister Margie is a trouble with a capital T. Unlike her elder sister, she is a free spirit who doesn't want to conform, and who wants to enjoy every minute of her life.

And there is Janet, a close friend and part of the Sunshine household after her own family is killed during the bombing. Two of them will have an everlasting bond, based on secrets and lies, but also love and forgiveness.

As an old lady, Betsy is a bit of a harridan. She decides that she doesn't want to be polite any longer and is very direct. Yet she is very open-minded for a person of her generation. It's as if working with death has taught her to appreciate and celebrate our differences and foibles.

This novel is beautifully written. There are enough poignant moments in this book which will make your eyes well up, but you will also chuckle at Betsy's forwardness and high spirits.

It reminded me of my dearest friend Anne who was also born in 1926. Unlike Betsy she came from a more privileged background and had chosen a different profession. I knew her for over 20 years, and she was not just my friend but my family. She was open-minded and highly intelligent. A devoted Monarchist, she voted Lib Dem, and was generous to the extreme, supporting many charities and helping friends. I think she would have enjoyed this book very much.


Many thanks to Legend Press for sending me the copy of the book for the purposes of reviewing.

Slightly digressing from the book - when styling the book for a blog photo, I have spread around a few of the post cards from my collection. The post card with a young smiley Princess Elizabeth was tucked into an old book on the British monarchy I bought in a charity shop. The card was posted in November 1929 and reads "Dear aunty, I left my oil painting on the bed, please bring it along Sunday. Don't be late. Love to Gran, Mickey" I'd love to know who Mickey was, and what was that about the oil painting. Fascinating.

My review is part of the Blog tour. You can see all the stops of the tour below.

Mummies galore

Meresamun, the singer

A couple of days ago Eddie and I were browsing the shelves of the "pre-loved" DVDs in Poundland, our favourite place to shop for snacks and plastic tat treasures. I have spotted all three The Mummy movies (the original ones, not the latest film with Tom Cruise which I haven't seen).
I couldn't resist buying them, to revisit my youth and introduce my child to the pleasures of the trashy horror.

We have watched all the Goosebumps on Netflix, and of course, the Goosebumps film. While enjoying the scary parts, Eddie tends to sit next to me, just in case, and if I need to pop in to the kitchen to brew a cup of tea, he would pause the film and wait for me.

We watched The Mummy, hiding behind the big cushions when the scarabs were taking over, but quite often giggled too and said Eww, that's gross!
Eddie thought it was the best film ever.

After watching this masterpiece, I thought it might be a good idea to visit The Ashmolean and see the real Egyptian mummies. Earlier this year we went to the National History Museum and saw some of the glorious sarcophagi.

Temple singer Meresamun, The Ashmolean Musuem

Sasha had a day of activities with Barnardo's, so Eddie and I hopped on the bus to Oxford and enjoyed our time together, just the two of us.

The Ashmolean Museum is a splendid place to visit, and there is so much to see and learn. It is the most visited British museum outside London. Several years ago, it has reopened its Ancient Egyptian collections.

You can argue that displaying the human remains to the public is not ethical, but at the same time the museums spend vast sums of money to preserve them for the eternity. I'm in two minds about seeing mummies in the museums.

They are, of course, an incredible study of culture and history, but they are also dead bodies.
In one of the rooms, you can see a mummy of a two-year-old child. Though it happened thousands of years ago, the death of a child is a tragedy.
Next to it there is a glass installation created by Angela Palmer. The scans made on the little mummy have revealed that the child had a twisted hip and a deformed skull. The artist was so touched by these facts that she visited Hawara, the place where the little mite lived his short life. She brought back with her a handful of sand to place next to the mummified remains.
It feels poignant but also reverential.

The mummy of the 2-year-old boy from Hawara

We loved the Pharaoh Taharqa's shrine, which was once a huge temple. There is a statue of Taharqa inside. We looked for his name written in hieroglyphs outside the shrine, inside the frame called a cartouche.

Pharaoh Taharqa

Pharaoh Taharqa

As canopic jars with preserved organs feature quite prominently in the Mummy film, I pointed them out to Eddie in the museum.

This is the Ram of Amun, he is keeping Pharaoh Taharq safe.

If you've seen The Mummy, you might remember how scared The Mummy was of the cat. Ancient Egyptians revered cats and mummified them as well, so that they could live in the afterlife too.
Seeing this mummy of the cat brought back memories of my childhood and visits to the Pushkin Musuem of Fine Arts in Moscow, where you can find a mummified cat as well.

mummified cat

This is a sarcophagus of Ptahhotep, steward of the treasury.

Ptahhotep, steward of the treasury

We only studied the Ancient Egypt collections and didn't venture beyond that.
I wanted Eddie to learn something from ancient history, while his memory is still fresh after watching the film.

As you enter the Egyptian rooms, you can find a little chest of drawers with activities for children. We picked two of them - Ancient Egyptian Survival Guide (what you need to know to journey safely through life and into the afterlife) and Ancient Egyptian Animal Adventure (which invites you to find amazing and magical animals in ancient Egypt). They are cleverly done, and make a visit to the museum more fun.

One of my favourite pieces in the Ancient Egypt collections is this delicate spoon.

I also admired the Mummy with perky boobs, which is on display as you leave the Egyptian collections and move onto the Fayum mummies of the Coptic period.

It was better not to cram as much as possible in one day, and not visit the other ancient worlds. We came home and looked at the book An Egyptian Pyramid.
And that was our foray into culture for the moment. We are ready to watch The Mummy Returns.

The cranes...

In the early hours of 22 June 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union. This was the largest military operation in history, codenamed Operation Barbarossa. Over 3 million Axis powers, 3500 tanks and 600-700,000 horses were employed in the operation along a 2,900 kilometre front. This was part of Hitler's master plan to extent the lebensraum or living space for his superior race and exterminate the sub-human Slavs, or turn them into slaves.
The Soviet Union was unprepared, as Stalin has refused to believe the warnings regarding the forthcoming invasion.
This huge operation has opened up the Eastern Front which would witness the most ferocious battles and most horrific atrocities, as well as turn into the biggest graveyard for both the German armed forces and the Soviet armed forces and civilians.
Thus the Great Patriotic War started. It would take four long years and enormous losses and suffering before the war ended on 9 May1945.
The atrocities against the civilians in the German-occupied areas are well known. Whole villages were massacred and civilian hostages were routinely killed. According to the data in Wikipedia, at least 20 million Soviet civilians were killed, with the largest number of civilian deaths being in Leningrad at 1.2 million citizens.

According to Geoffrey A. Hosking, "The full demographic loss to the Soviet peoples was even greater: since a high proportion of those killed were young men of child-begetting age, the postwar Soviet population was 45 to 50 million smaller than post-1939 projections would have led one to expect."The Eastern Front was the largest and bloodiest theatre of World War II. It is generally accepted as being the deadliest conflict in human history, with over 30 million killed as a result.^[7] The German armed forces suffered 80% of its military deaths in the Eastern Front...
It was by far the deadliest single theatre of war in World War II, with over 10 million military deaths on the Soviet side (out of which 3.6 million died in German captivity
The combined damage consisted of complete or partial destruction of 1,710 cities and towns, 70,000 villages/hamlets, 2,508 church buildings, 31,850 industrial establishments, 40,000 miles of railroad, 4,100 railroad stations, 40,000 hospitals, 84,000 schools, and 43,000 public libraries; leaving 25 million homeless. 
(see Wikipeadia, Eastern Front)

There is hardly any family in the ex-Soviet Union which hasn't been affected by the war.
My paternal grandfather died fighting in the Great Patriotic War. My Mum's father was lost in the Kursk battle, and nobody knew what happened to him. My grandma's husband served in the Navy, and was wounded, when his ship was blown up by the Nazis. He survived holding onto a floating mine for more than 8 hours before he was rescued. He didn't like to talk about the war.
The villages were my parents were born don't exist any more. My Mum and Dad grew up without their fathers.
When I was growing up, the 9th of May has always been celebrated "with tears in eyes" (as the famous song goes). This is a day of remembrance of all the sacrifice and losses.

On the 9th of May this year Russia was celebrating the 70th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany. The Moscow Victory Day Parade took place in the Red Square.
Most Western leaders stayed away from the parade because of the Russian involvement in the civil war in the Ukraine.
I am not going to start a discussion on the Ukrainian situation, I will only mention that you shouldn't believe everything written in the Western media, as the amount of propaganda is staggering. I read both Russian and Ukrainian sites and forums for the news, I have relatives in both countries, and it saddens me how easily the Western media manipulates the facts. Russia is far from innocent, of course, but the Ukraine is killing its own citizens to the applause and support from the West. Just ask the question "Qui Prodest?"

By avoiding the parade, the Western leaders have also conveniently forgotten about the part of the Soviet Union in the II World War. By not attending they didn't boycott Putin, they boycotted the common people like my grandparents who were killed in the war and scorned millions of the military and civilian deaths.

Photo credit:Photo Credit: candleshoe via Compfight cc  

In the 1960s the Dagestani poet Rasul Gamsatov has written a haunting poem The Cranes. It was later translated into Russian and turned into a song in 1969. It has become one of the most popular and loved war ballads. I wanted to add a video of the song to my blog post, but wasn't sure regarding all the copyright issues, so if you would like to listen to this beautiful song, listen to Zhuravli on Youtube (version sung by Dmitri Khvorostovsky). It is such a beautiful tribute to all the fallen soldiers who saved the world from the Nazis.
This poignant song always leaves me in tears.

It seems to me at times that the soldiers
Who didn't come back from the bloodied fields,
Didn't get buried in the earth
But have turned instead into the white cranes.

From those distant times to this day
They have been flying and calling to us.
Isn't it because of that so often and with such sadness
We stop talking and gaze in the skies.

The weary herd of cranes is flying, flying in the sky
Flying in the mist as the day is ending.
There is a small gap in their ranks,
Could that be a place meant for me?

The day will come, and together with the herd of cranes
I'll float in the blue grey haze,
Calling from the sky, like a bird,
To all of you, whom I left behind on the earth.

It seems to me at times that the soldiers
Who didn't come back from the blooded fields,
Didn't get buried in the earth
But have turned instead into the white cranes.