The Straggler: Distant Voices

‘TOVARISHCHI! Grazhdanye! Bratya i syostri! Boitsy nashei armii i flota! K’vam obrashschayus ya, druzya moi . . .”

One listens in fascination to the man’s recorded voice, then goes to one’s books. Edvard Radzinsky: “On July 3 Stalin at last made his long-awaited appeal to the people: ‘Comrades! Citizens! Brothers and sisters! Warriors of the army and the fleet! I call upon you, my friends . . . ‘” That was eleven days after Hitler’s attack on the USSR in 1941; days that Stalin, according to Molotov, spent in a state of “paralysis.” The Wehrmacht had easily punched through Stalin’s forward defenses and was deep in Russian territory.

About the Author

John Derbyshire

Mr. Derbyshire is a former contributing editor of National Review.

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‘TOVARISHCHI! Grazhdanye! Bratya i syostri! Boitsy nashei armii i flota! K’vam obrashschayus ya, druzya moi . . .”

One listens in fascination to the man’s recorded voice, then goes to one’s books. Edvard Radzinsky: “On July 3 Stalin at last made his long-awaited appeal to the people: ‘Comrades! Citizens! Brothers and sisters! Warriors of the army and the fleet! I call upon you, my friends . . . ‘” That was eleven days after Hitler’s attack on the USSR in 1941; days that Stalin, according to Molotov, spent in a state of “paralysis.” The Wehrmacht had easily punched through Stalin’s forward defenses and was deep in Russian territory.