Pictured: Marshal Chuikov speaking during a memorial service for veterans of the Great Patriotic War at Nikopol, Ukraine, 1970s (Marshal of Aviation Sudets is behind, to the left)
From Smena, № 11, 1979:
“In the fourth and fifth issues of the Smena magazine for this year, chapters were published in the documentary book by Ivan Paderin Burns of War. The story, written at the call of memory and heart about the writer's fighting friends of Stalingrad, caused a wide flow of readers' letters. The relatives of the victims, servicemen, war veterans write to us. Today we publish several responses from our mail…
‘With great pleasure I read the essays by the front-line writer Ivan Paderin Burns of War published in the Smena magazine. From beginning to end, these essays are permeated with the author's feelings for the fate of people in whose hearts the pain from the "burns of war" has not yet faded away. It is precisely for this reason that they make every effort to ensure that future generations will be delivered from those difficult trials, fell on the fate of their fathers.
Talking about the exploits of his fighting friends in the days of the war, about their lives in peacetime, the writer does not hide his anxious thoughts caused by, softly speaking, cold-bloodedness and lack of respectful attention to war veterans on the part of some young people working in the service sector. Indeed, how bitter and insulted a veteran is when they say to him: Wait, wait in line ... Everyone fought...
Yes, millions of people fought, and the memory of them cannot fade away, but must grow in the minds of young people, whose welfare and happiness would be unthinkable without the efforts of those millions of ordinary soldiers who won victory and lasting peace on earth.
Keeping loyalty to his father's courage, the young man does not lose, but acquires the right to be a worthy citizen of the Soviet country. The call of memory is loyalty to the traditions of older generations. Oblivion is a pain in the hearts of veterans. I think the conversation on this topic should be continued not only on the pages of magazines, but also at the Komsomol meetings. These conversations will be invaluable to the new generation.’
Marshal of the Soviet Union
V. I. Chuikov
Translated by Igor Musienko