Over Fields of Fire

Notes

1

Translator’s note — lit. ‘crown’.

2

Translator’s note — Mediaeval warrior heroes comparable with West European knights-errant.

3

Translator’s note — a common designation for people subjected to repression during Stalin’s purges.

4

Translator’s note — Young Communist League.

5

Translator’s note — felt boots.

6

Translator’s note — a famous animal trainer.

7

Country Youth School.

8

Translator’s note — leatherette.

9

Translator’s note — literally ‘little apple’ — a popular song in the Red Navy.

10

Translator’s note — diminutive from ‘Vasiliy’.

11

Translator’s note — abbreviation for Metro Construction.

12

Translator’s note — FZU — Factory-Plant School — a common educational establishment for young industrial workers in the USSR in 1930s.

13

Translator’s note — gumboots.

14

Translator’s note — A historic site in Moscow.

15

Translator’s note — local trade union.

16

Editor’s note — literally, ‘Little Anna’.

17

People’s commissar, or minister.

18

Translator’s note — a set of sports and fitness tests.

19

Translator’s note — a set of tests on primary medical skills.

20

Translator’s note — shooting skills award for civilians.

21

Translator’s note — a recreation park in Moscow.

22

Translator’s note — literally, “Comsomol Crack Worker”.

23

Translator’s note — another diminutive for Anna.

24

Translator’s note — ‘Labour’.

25

Translator’s note — abbreviation of ‘rabochiy correspondent’ or working correspondent — a correspondent who worked at industrial operations.

26

Translator’s note — Russian abbreviation for the Air Force of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army.

27

Translator’s note — a five day period — in the 1930s in the USSR the normal seven-day week was replaced by a five-day week.

28

Translator’s note — a national group in the Northern Caucasus.

29

Editor’s note — The Society of Assistance to Defence, Aviation and Chemical Construction. It was established in 1927 by the merging of the Voluntary Society of Friends of the Air Fleet, Chemical Defense and Industry of the USSR and the Society of the Assistance to Defence. In 1948 it was divided into three Societies — the Voluntary Society of Assistance to the Army, the Voluntary Society of Assistance to the Air Force, and the Voluntary Society of Assistance to the Navy.

30

Translator’s note — Sergeant-Major.

31

Translator’s note — a province in Southern Russia.

32

Translator’s note — a common Russian name for the Baltic countries.

33

Editor’s note — with 31 or 32 personal and 16 shared victories.

34

Editor’s note — a diminutive form of Victor.

35

Translator’s note — diminutive for Louka.

36

Translator’s note — literally, ‘little hawk’ — a common nickname for Soviet fighters.

37

Editor’s note — a pro-Communist organisation for 9-14 year old children in the USSR, similar to the Scout movement.

38

Translator’s note — a penal colony run by the NKVD — People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs.

39

Editor’s note — addressing a person using both their first and second (patronymic) name is a sign of respect in Russia.

40

Editor’s note — a common name for the Great War in the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s.

41

Translator’s note — another diminutive for Vasiliy.

42

Translator’s note — a common nickname for the counter-revolutionary forces during the Civil war in Russia (1918-1922).

43

Translator’s note — abbreviation of Communist University.

44

Translator’s note — Moscow Garment.

45

Translator’s note — Moscow City Council.

46

Translator’s note — another diminutive for Anna.

47

Translator’s note — a trio of judges — a typical court during Stalin’s purges.

48

Editor’s note — Yurka, Yurochka — diminutives for Yuri.

49

Translator’s note — diminutive from Alexey.

50

Translator’s note — died during Stalin’s purges in 1937.

51

Translator’s note — Provincial Comsomol Committee.

52

Translator’s note — the President of the USSR — a notable figure during Stalin’s reign.

53

Translator’s note — diminutive for Vasiliy.

54

Translator’s note — surname of famous Soviet test-pilot brothers in the 1930s.

55

Editor’s note — the highest mark of the five-point system still employed in Russia.

56

Translator’s note — abbreviation for ‘squadron commander’.

57

Translator’s note — between the Volga and Moscow rivers.

58

Translator’s note — a Moscow street.

59

Editor’s note — a common diminutive for Maria.

60

Editor’s note — yet another diminutive for Anna.

61

Translator’s note — the pre-revolutionary name of the city of Kalinin — now Tver’ again.

62

Translator’s note — the scene of fierce beach fighting on the Black Sea coast in the Caucasus during WWII.

63

Translator’s note — a square in Moscow with the three major train stations facing onto it.

64

Translator’s note — large caltrop-like obstacles made of welded railway girders.

65

Translator’s note — Yuri Levitan — a well-known radio announcer during WWII.

66

Translator’s note — abbreviation of ‘Soviet Information Bureau’.

67

Translator’s note — a historical name for the wives of Dekabrists or ‘Decembrists’ — members of the Russian nobility who rebelled against the monarchy in 1825. Most of them went into exile to Siberia and some of their wives followed them.

68

Translator’s note — military commissariat.

69

Editor’s note — winged air force insignia.

70

Translator’s note — during the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 many Soviet pilots fought on the Republican side.

71

Translator’s note — ‘cropduster’ — a somewhat contemptuous nickname for the U-2 biplane, that was used in agricultural operations.

72

Translator’s note — a most typical truck in the USSR back then — a variety of Ford trucks were built under licence.

73

Translator’s note — apparently from the coal shafts numerous in that part of the country.

74

Translator’s note — a small town near Moscow.

75

Translator’s note — volunteers, home guard.

76

Translator’s note — Ivan Konev — one of the top Soviet commanders later in the war.

77

Editor’s note — the most common nickname for German soldiers in Russian military slang.

78

Translator’s note — Party organizer.

79

Translator’s note — Comsomol organizer.

80

Translator’s note — a military rank for political officers.

81

Translator’s note — a common Russian nickname for artillery.

82

Translator’s note — popular Russian nickname for Messerschmitt Me/Bf 109 fighters.

83

Translator’s note — a steppe wind.

84

Editor’s note — here, a nickname for M-13 truck-mounted rocket missile launch systems.

85

Translator’s note — a Soviet Republic in Central Asia, now Turkmenistan.

86

Translator’s note — a Soviet-made light vehicle M-1.

87

Editor’s note — literally, ‘little buddy’.

88

Translator’s note — literally, a ‘stormtrooper’.

89

Translator’s note — a Russian proverb identical to the English “to be born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth”.

90

Editor’s note — a diminutive form of Ilya.

91

Translator’s note — a man from Kuban, a Cossack-populated area in Southern Russia in the Kuban River basin.

92

Translator’s note — a red scarf — a sign of belonging to the Pioneer organization.

93

Translator’s note — head of the teaching unit in USSR schools.

94

Translator’s note — Air Force Training Regiment.

95

Translator’s note — Ilyushin Il-2.

96

Translator’s note — referring to the use of castor oil as a laxative.

97

Translator’s note — a nickname for I-16, originating from the Russian pronunciation of I-shestnadtsat (I-16), literally, ‘a donkey’.

98

Translator’s note — diminutive of Valentin.

99

Translator’s note — a city on the west shore of the Caspian Sea.

100

Translator’s note — a city on the north shore of Caspian in the mouth of the Volga.

101

Translator’s note — of the cockpit windscreen.

102

Translator’s note — a smaller variety of astrakhan — originally from the Kuban Cossack province.

103

Translator’s note — a common epithet for the Soviet airmen adopted by USSR propaganda bodies during WWII.

104

Translator’s note — abbreviation of the Russian words for ‘Trade With Foreigners’, a network of shops with luxury goods for foreigners and people possessing foreign currency and valuables in the pre-war USSR.

105

Translator’s note — a recreation park in Moscow.

106

Translator’s note — a large Cossack settlement.

107

Editor’s note — M. Lermontov (1814-1841) is one of the most recognized Russian poets.

108

Editor’s note — A. Suvorov (1729-1800) — a famed military commander of the pre-Napoleonic era.

109

Editor’s note — ranked fourth in the list of top-scoring Soviet aces of WWII, with 56 personal and 5 or 6 shared air kills.

110

Editor’s note — junior brother, Dmitriy Glinka is ranked seventh in the list of top-scoring Soviet aces of WWII, with 50 personal air kills; elder brother, Boris Glinka, scored 30 personal and 1 shared aerial victories.

111

Translator’s note — a lake in the Far East of Russia; in the summer of 1938 there was a border clash between the Soviet and the Japanese armies there.

112

Translator’s note — a colloquial form of Kirillovich, his patronym.

113

Editor’s note — a diminutive made by transforming the author’s last name to male first name.

114

Translator’s note — a special political section in the Soviet Army’s units largely involved in political control over the servicemen.

115

Translator’s note — osobyi otdel officer.

116

Translator’s note — a diminutive for Pavel.

117

Translator’s note — a suburb of Moscow.

118

Editor’s note — a nickname for German Junkers Ju 87 dive-bombers in Russian military slang.

119

Translator’s note — a common Cossack address to a female from the same stanitsa.

120

Translator’s note — prominent Russian 19th Century democrats.

121

Translator’s note — a famous Russian writer in the late 19th — early 20th centuries.

122

Editor’s note — literally, ‘grey hare’; a nickname for someone with typically Russian looks.

123

Translator’s note — abbreviation for the All-Union Communist Party (of the Bolsheviks).

124

Translator’s note — leading from Vladikavkaz to Tbilisi.

125

Editor’s note — the classic nickname for German Focke Wulf Fw 190 fighters in Russian military slang. Indeed, it has nothing to do with the planes of the ‘Fokker’ design.

126

Translator’s note — a network of special shops organised to supply military servicemen.

127

Translator’s note — home-made liquor or ‘moonshine’.

128

Translator’s note — a city in Siberia.

129

Abbreviation of Mobile Aviation Maintenance Workshop.

130

Translator’s note — a famous Soviet test pilot who died in a flying accident shortly before WWII.

131

Anti-tank bomblets.

132

Editor’s note — a line used to indicate a corresponding auxiliary branch of military service (technician-lieutenant; engineer-rear-admiral; colonel, medical service, etc.).

133

Editor’s note — the normal combat load of ammunition for the rear 12.7-mm machine-gun in an Il-2 was just 250 rounds.

134

School for Junior Aviation Specialists.

135

Translator’s note — a Soviet playwright.

136

Editor’s note — ‘The apple’, a then-famous folk dance.

137

Translator’s note — one of the most famous and emotional wartime poems in the USSR.

138

Editor’s note — this is indeed true: the ratio of losses in Sturmovik pilots and gunners was about 1:5.

139

Editor’s note — a frontier conflict between Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China.

140

Editor’s note — in this area the historic battle of Poltava, between Peter the Great’s army and the Swedish army of Charles XII, took place in 1709.

141

Translator’s note — a deputy commander in political affairs.

142

American B-17 Flying Fortresses flying missions over Eastern Europe sometimes used Poltava.

143

Translator’s note — words of the feminine gender in Russian.

144

Translator’s note — a state-owned collective farm in the USSR.

145

Translator’s note — diminutive form of Vladimir.

146

Translator’s note — a slang word for exemption from military service.

147

Translator’s note — collective farmer.

148

Editor’s note — in Russian, one would say ‘motherland’.

149

Translator’s note — abbreviation for the Workers and Peasants Red Army.

150

Translator’s note — one of the Soviet Marshals executed during Stalin’s purges in 1937.

151

Translator’s note — brigade commander.

152

Translator’s note — one of the senior members of the Soviet Government.

153

Translator’s note — this Army distinguished itself during the Battle of Stalingrad.

154

Translator’s note — a woodland in Byelorussia.

155

Translator’s note — Polish Roman-Catholic churches.

156

Translator’s note — Polish Armed Forces fighting on the Soviet-German Front.

157

Translator’s note — a Polish, Belorussian and American national hero, 1746-1817.

158

Translator’s note — mother of God.

159

Translator’s note — little Miss.

160

Translator’s note — division commander.

161

Editor’s note — another common diminutive for Anna.

162

Editor’s note — see V. Emelyanenko, Red Star against Swastika. The Story of a Soviet Pilot over the Eastern Front published in 2005 by Greenhill Books, London, UK.

163

Translator’s note — Springs.

164

Auxiliary policemen.

165

Translator’s note — now Kostrzyn.

166

Abbreviated from the German word ‘Krankenrevier’ (meaning ‘sick bay’ or ‘dispensary’) this was a barrack for sick concentration camp inmates. Most of the medical personnel were inmates themselves.

167

Translator’s note — comrade.

168

Sergeant.

169

Editor’s note — for many decades, the most popular Soviet newspaper.

170

Editor’s note — ‘Sister of Medicine’ is a term for nurse in the Russian language.

171

Translator’s note — abbreviation of a special security service of the Soviet Army, also nicknamed ‘Death to the Spies’.

172

Translator’s note — ‘quick’ in Ukrainian.

173

Translator’s note — the rebellion of the Red Baltic Fleet naval personnel against the Bolshevik dictatorship ‘for Soviet Power without Communists’ in 1921, thwarted by Red Army troops.

174

Translator’s note — Russian steam-bath.

175

Editor’s note — Russian nickname for grandmother.

176

Translator’s note — Division Commander.

177

Editor’s note — where Order of Suvorov stands for the unit award (as was the practice) and Berlin is an honorary title.

178

Translator’s note — the former riding school of the Tsars in the centre of Moscow.

179

Translator’s note — policeman.

180

Translator’s note — Stalin’s younger son — an Air Force General.

181

Translator’s note — held in 1956, Stalin’s ‘excesses’ were condemned there for the first time.

182

Editor’s note — District Committee.