Zemlyanka (song)

In November 1941, Alexey Surkov (who became a war correspondent of the Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda newspaper at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War) came under fire from German infantry near the Kashino village along with 258th Rifle Regiment. Having broken through the offensive and crossed the river on thin ice under mortar fire, Surkov found that his overcoat was all cut by shrapnel. After arriving in Ulyashino village, everyone was placed in a zemlyanka. The Chief of Staff fell asleep right at the table, as he had not slept for four days; the others settled down near the stove, someone started playing the accordion.[1] Surkov began to make sketches for the report, but the poem turned out. In February 1942, Konstantin Listov composed the melody to the poem.[2] On March 25, 1942, the song was published in Komsomolskaya Pravda.

The fire is flickering in the narrow stove

Resin oozes from the log like a tear

And the concertina in the bunker

Sings to me of your smile and eyes.

The bushes whispered to me about you

In a snow-white field near Moscow

I want you above all to hear

How sad my living voice is.

You are now very far away

Expanses of snow lie between us

It is so hard for me to come to you

And here there are four steps to death.

Sing concertina, in defiance of the snowstorm.

Call out to that happiness which has lost its way.

I'm warm in the cold bunker,

Because of your inextinguishable love.

(Stalingrad by Antony Beevor (c)1998.

Бьётся в тесной печурке огонь,

На поленьях смола, как слеза.

И поёт мне в землянке гармонь

Про улыбку твою и глаза.

Про тебя мне шептали кусты

В белоснежных полях под Москвой.

Я хочу, чтобы слышала ты,

Как тоскует мой голос живой.

Ты сейчас далеко, далеко,

Между нами снега и снега.

До тебя мне дойти не легко,

А до смерти — четыре шага.

Пой, гармоника, вьюге назло,

Заплутавшее счастье зови.

Мне в холодной землянке тепло

От моей негасимой любви.[3]

The entire poem was mentioned in the 2005 Canadian historical novel, Four Steps to Death, by John Wilson, in which Red Army soldiers sing it on the way from Moscow to Stalingrad (present-day Volgograd). The title of the novel is derived from a line of the poem, "And here there are four steps to death."

The song is part of the repertoire of the Alexandrov Ensemble.

• Yaroslav Alexandrovich Evdokimov[4]
• Mikhail Novokhizhin[2]

• Four Steps to Death

• Wilson, John. Four Steps to Death. Toronto: Kids Can Press, 2005.