THE VOICE OF RUSSIA IN THE 1941-1945 GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

October last year marked 70 years since Moscow launched its foreign language broadcasting. That was a significant period in the history of Russia and the whole of the world and the most important of them was the Second World War, which claimed millions of lives and eventually, changed the face of the world. In those years Radio Moscow International (that was how "The Voice of Russia" used to be called) became for many the only reliable source to learn the truth about what was going on at the fronts and first of all, how Soviet people were fighting against the Nazi invaders.
In wartime Radio Moscow broadcast in 21 foreign languages, including German. Broadcasting to Germany was of special importance. By that time the German service had acquired considerable experience. The first broadcast to a foreign country from Moscow came on the air on October 29th,1929 and it was in German. In pre-war years Radio Moscow had a large audience in Germany, though after Hitler took power in 1933 the broadcasts were jammed and listening to them was equated to state treason. But the voice of Moscow continued to reach out to the German audience never leaving anybody indifferent. Broadcasts from Moscow were telling about the life in the Soviet Union, international developments, such as the civil war in Spain, and about the anti-fascist movement. Appearing in the programs were German anti-fascists and cultural figures who had left Germany to live in the Soviet Union. After the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union the German service, just as the other services of Radio Moscow, was quick to reorganize its work to adjust to the new conditions. German emigrants appeared on the air ever more often and they were trying to convince the audience that fighting against the Soviet Union would lead nowhere. They called for both passive and open resistance. "Nothing for the foul and bloody war", - was an appeal from the German emigre poet Johannes Becher. Hitler's ruling clique hated Radio Moscow. Speaking in Berlin a month after the war broke out Goebbels said proudly: "Today Radio Moscow will shut up". On that day the Nazis were bombing Moscow and one of the bombs fell into the courtyard of the Radio House, which was then situated in one of Moscow's side-streets.


Radio House, where the broadcasting departments of
Radio Moscow were
But the bomb did not explode. After that the broadcasting services were temporarily transferred to another building. But the broadcasts never stopped, even for a minute. "Listening to Radio Moscow was particularly important during the Second World War, because Radio Moscow offered important information for our struggle against fascism and war, - wrote Rolf Agsten, a resident of the German city of Erfurt, many years later. - That was a "voice of truth". Reports about the activity of the "Free Germany" National Committee aroused great interest. The programs called for struggle". Rolf Agsten went on to say that under the influence of Radio Moscow programs several students of an Erfurt school set up a Resistance group in summer 1943.
As the war broke out, Radio Moscow expanded its service considerably and bulletins of the Soviet news agency were listened to in the occupied countries in Europe and in Nazi Germany's allied nations - Italy and Japan. April 1942 marked the beginning of broadcasting in Japanese. Though Radio Moscow employees knew that at the time reception of foreign programs was a severely punishable offence, they hoped that their efforts would not be in vain. Here is how it was recalled by Stepan Kolmykov, one of the founding fathers of the Japanese service: "We were starting the broadcasting at a difficult time but we were full of enthusiasm knowing that the work we were doing was very important, for it helped bring closer the victory. Working side by side with me was editor Abukov, who later on became a well-known expert on Japan. And the first announcer was Muhensyan, a Japanese, whose real name remained unknown. It was a wonderful person, of a working-class family, who had been persecuted at home for taking part in the trade unions and had to emigrate to the Soviet Union…."
As for whether they could listen to Radio Moscow in Japan during the Second World War became clear many years later, after the restoration of diplomatic ties between the Soviet Union and Japan in 1956, when the first letters to the Japanese service began to arrive. As it turned out, even in those hard times there were people in Japan, who listened to Radio Moscow, among them - puplisher Nagata Kodzi. "I wanted so much to listen to a program from Moscow in Japanese, - Nagata Kodzi recalled. And one day I did manage to pick up a program, it was soon after May 1st, 1942, and it was as if I was listening to something from another world. I learned about the international situation, the struggle against fascism. From that day on, I listened to Radio Moscow regularly and organized a small group of listeners from my friends. So we learned about the Battle of Stalingrad, the Battle of Kursk and the victory over fascism". There is evidence that Radio Moscow's Japanese service was listened to and recorded by officers of the imperial army both in Japan and in the occupied Manchuria region. The archives of the Japanese service have preserved the recordings of two famous Japanese women, who worked for the radio. Those were the prominent actress Okada Yeshiko and Katayama Yashu - daughter of an outstanding figure within Comintern, the founder of the Communist party of Japan. Here is what they said about the work of the Japanese service in wartime:
- What we were aiming at, was to tell the truth about the Soviet Union, its policy, its people, - Katayama Yashu says. - And we did our best to provide an unbiased coverage of the situation at the fronts…..
Archive recording RA                            
In the years of the Second World War broadcasts from Moscow acquired huge popularity in Italy. The Italian audience wanted to know the truth about the situation at the front, the fate of soldiers of the Italian expeditionary corps, fighting in Russia. After the Battle of Stalingrad Radio Moscow launched a series of programs exposing the lies of Hitler's propaganda and telling the truth about the Battle, which marked a turning-point in the war and reversed the tide of war towards the Soviet Union and its allies.
From the very first days it was set up the Italian service of Radio Moscow offered regular programs with the participation of emigre leaders of the Italian Communist party Palmiro Togliatti and Ruggero Grieco. Commenting on July 27th,1941 on Mussolini's statement that Italy was also at war with the Soviet Union, Togliatti angrily unmasked the criminal adventure of the Nazi regime. He said Italy would be neither strong nor respected until its people shook off the yoke of fascism. Hence, Togliatti concluded, every Italian, who loved his country, could not but wish victory to the Russian people. Ruggero Grieco, speaking under the pseudonym of Garlanidi, broadcast from Moscow during the most difficult years of the Great Patriotic War. On his return home after the war he wrote a book - "The Heroic Defense of Moscow", telling about the horrendous days of October 1941, when the enemy came so close to the Russian capital. "On the night from the 15th to the 16th of October, - Ruggero Grieco wrote, - there came an order to move the broadcasting service from Moscow to Kuibyshev. Only a small number of staff were to stay on. I was the only Italian to stay in the Moscow offices. October 16th was a day not to be forgotten, for it was a day full of sorrow. The silence in the Radio House was overpowering. In the evening, after listening to radio intercept from Rome, which was confident that Moscow was on the point of falling, I went to the studio and as I seated myself by the microphone I felt an upsurge of energy: "This is Radio Moscow!"
That Moscow held out and that the Nazis suffered their first crushing defeat near Moscow soon afterwards reached Italian listeners of Radio Moscow, Italian Resistance guerrillas, workers of Turin's and Milan's plants occupied by the Germans. Programs from Moscow were recorded, printed on hectograph and distributed among the anti-fascist underground. People in Italy were learning the truth about the situation in their own country and about fascism.
Many of those who worked for Radio Moscow in wartime can be called legendary personalities. One of them was Louis Chekini of Argentina, the founder of the Spanish service. In December 1929, when the Spanish service started, Chekini performed the duties of a translator, an announcer and a correspondent, all in one person. He worked 17 hours a day without any days off. And his work in wartime was as intensive. There is a recording of Louis Chekini's reminiscences of the time. When asked what left the deepest trace in his memory Chekini said that it was May 9th, 1945, - Victory Day.
People believed in victory, Louis Chekini says, they knew that the day they were fighting for on the fronts and behind the frontlines would come. The news about the surrender of Nazi Germany was on the air every five minutes in the Radio House. It was on in many languages of the world. And Moscow residents came out into the streets to celebrate. Louis Chekini remembers the happy faces of people and the tears of happiness, as the song goes, in their eyes.
Louis Chekini is dead now. But his work is continued by other legends of Radio Moscow International, among them Eleonora Yankovsky, who was born in New York in 1917. In 1936 her family returned to Russia and two years later Eleonora came to work for the English service as a translator. A remarkable woman and a highly-skilled style editor, Eleonora continues to work for the radio at the same time teaching and giving instructions to her younger colleagues.
Archive recording RA
Leonid Sigan came to work for the Polish service in 1943, when he was 20. On January 17th, 1945 he had the honour to read out an order to Soviet troops to liberate Warsaw. Leonid Sigan worked as a correspondent and as an announcer and for many years was a special radio and television correspondent in Poland. Up to the present Leonid Sigan is the editor-in-chief of the Voice of Russia's Polish service. Every year, on V-Daythe Voice of Russia receives veterans of Radio Moscow International, participants in the Great Patriotic War. And on the 3rd floor there is a memorial plaque bearing the names of those who fell defending their Motherland and the rest of the world against fascism. Eternal glory to the heroes!

Copyright © 2000 The Voice of Russia