What we know as the Second World War, had different perceptions in different parts of the planet. For the peoples that made up the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or shorter said, the Soviet Union, and in particular for the Russian people, it has another name the Great Patriotic War.

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For that people it was a struggle for life, for survival. More than 20 million Soviets gave their lives to free their land from the German invasion, which became an offensive that led the Red Army (as the army of that country was known) to the city of Berlin itself, leading to the defeat of Hitler, the German army and therefore the defeat of fascism. May 9 is known as the Victory Day and for the Russian people it is a celebration of rigor, because there is not a single person in Russia who has not lost a relative in that war. That day all the fallen are remembered and a special homage is paid to the relatives who participated in this titanic struggle. And they are convinced that the only way to get the world away from tragedies as frightening as war is to remember what that terror was like. An idea that I share and of which I echo.

The Soviet cinema was one of those in charge of keeping memories alive and denouncing the horrors of war. Within this cinema they highlighted musical compositions that became part of the history of all the Russian people. Some compositions were made for the cinema, others were songs born on the battle fronts and that reached the big screen, but all achieved deep roots in that part of the world.

Катюша (Katyusha)

Undoubtedly the most popular song among the so-called "war songs". The music was composed in 1938 by Matvéi Blánter with lyrics by Mikhail Isakovski.
Katyusha is an affectionate way of calling Katya and this is, in turn, the diminutive of Yekaterina. And the song refers to a girl who waits for her boyfriend who is on the war front. But this song also stood out in the military field because that name was given to one of the most important weapons of the Red Army, the multiple rocket launcher Katyusha.

Apple trees and pear trees went into blooming,
River mists began a floating flow,
She came out and went ashore, Katyusha!
On the lofty bank, on the steeply shore.

She came out and sang she song about
Her young friend, the bluish eagle from steppe
All about the one she dearly loved,
The one whose letters she treasured and kept.

Hey, a song, the song of the young girl,
Fly and go after the bright Sun,
Find a soldier on the distant borderlands
Say hello from Katya waiting long for him.

Let him remember the young and simple maiden,
Let him hear the song she now sings,
Let him protect his Motherland for sure,
And their love Katyusha will protect.

Смуглянка (Smuglyanka – Dark Maiden)

This song was written in 1940, with lyrics by Yakov Shvedov and music by Anatoliy Grigorevich Novikov, but it was not until 1944 that it became popular. At the beginning it was considered a bit frivolous, but towards the end of the war more romantic songs became more popular and there came the success of it.

Once at the summer, at the dawn,
I looked in a neighboring garden and saw that
A swarthy girl, a Moldavian girl,
is gathering vine there.

I am blushing, I am turning white
and I want to say
"Let's meet the summer dawns
on the bank of a river!"

A green maple is bushy, its leafs are carved,
I am in love and I am embarrassed before you.
The maple is green, the maple is bushy,
Very bushy, carved!

And the swarthy girl, a Moldavian girl,
answered to guy:
"We are gathering our
Moldavian partisan detachment.

Now partisans left
dear home early.
A way to partisans in
a thick forest waits you!"

And the swarthy girl, a Moldavian girl,
went in a forest on a small path
And I decided that it is a pity
that she didn't call me with her.

I often thought about the swarthy girl
a Moldavian girl, at the nights
And suddenly I met her
in my partisan detachment!

Тёмная ночь (Temnaya noch – Dark night)

This is a love song, of a soldier who sings to his beloved who awaits him at home, with his son. This was composed by Nikita Bogoslovsky with lyrics by Vladimir Agatov.

Dark is the night, only bullets that whine o'er the steppe,
Just the cold wind that hums in the wires, stars that twinkle so dimly.
On this dark night, darling, I know that you cannot sleep,
By the cradle, a tear glints your cheek, in the lamplight so homely.

How I adore the depths of your tender dark eyes –
Depths I’d explore if I were to be near my Venus!
Dark is the night, that holds back the golden sunrise,
And that gloomy, mysterious steppe that lies sprawled out between us.

I trust in you, in my darling, my sweetheart, my wife –
And to know that you’re true, on this night, saves me from deadly weapons...
Gladly, for me, in this knowledge I daunt deadly strife
I know I can rely on your love, no matter what happens.

Death, where’s thy sting, when I know there’s an angel that keeps
Wearing my ring, now the chaos is whirling round me…
Knowing you’re there, by the cradle, my sweetheart who weeps –
And your tear lets me know that your love will always surround me.

Последний бой (Posledni boi – The final battle)

This song of Mikhail Nozhkin, unlike the previous ones which deal with the theme of love during the war, gets into the theme of the fight, of the combat itself, with an optimistic air.

For so long, for so long
We have not rested
We crawled through half of Europe on our bellies
And tomorrow, tomorrow, finally,
The final battle.

Just a little, just a tiny bit more
The final battle it's the hardest
And to Russia I want to come home
It's been a while since I have seen my mother.
And to Russia I want to come home
It's been a while since I have seen my mother.

It's the fourth year we get no rest from these Fritzes (Germans)
The fourth year of salty sweat
And the river of blood
And I used to love a girl
very strongly
And I wish I can touch the motherland with my hand

Just a little, just a tiny bit more
The final battle it's the hardest
And to Russia I want to come home
It's been a while since I have seen my mother.
And to Russia I want to come home
It's been a while since I have seen my mother.

Last time we get together to fight
In the melee,
Last time we will be able to serve Russia
And to (no translation I can think off directly) die for the country I love
it's not scary at all
Though everyone still
hopes to live.

Just a little, just a tiny bit more
The final battle it's the hardest
And to Russia I want to come home
It's been a while since I have seen my mother.
And to Russia I want to come home
It's been a while since I have seen my mother.

День Победы (Den pobedi – Day of Victory)

Let me better quote Wikipedia, which says:

The song refers to the Victory Day (9 May) celebration and differs from most of these by its cheerful intonations of a marching song and by the fact that it was composed some thirty years after the war. In the words of Vladimir Shainsky, a veteran composer, "the song seemed to have turned back the time. Although written three decades after the war, it now seems that it was this song that helped us to gain the victory".

Day of victory, how far it was from us all,
Like in extinct campfire burns out the coal.
There were miles, burned, in dust and soot-
To bring this day as near, as we could.

This Day of Victory
Of gunpowder smell it comprise,
This Celebration
With a grey hair on it's sides.
This elation
With the tears in the eyes.
Day of Victory! Day of Victory! Day of Victory!

Near Martin furnaces days and nights
Our Country didn't shut it's eyes.
Days and nights we fought hard and we stood-
To bring this day as near as we could.

This day of Victory...

Hello, Mama, I'm back, but not all of us...
If only we could bare foot run through the wet grass!
Half of Europe we marched, half of all the Land-
To bring this day as close as we can.

This day of Victory...

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^Fuente

Happy Victory Day!