LONG LIVE THE RED ARMY!

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 141, 6 March 1942, Page 9

LONG LIVE THE RED ARMY!

First Broadcast In N.Z. By Soviet Citizen

O mark the 24th Anniversary of the Red Army (February 23) the Commercial Broadcasting Service prepared a special programme originating from 2ZB, of which the highlight was a message to Russia in Russian by a Soviet citizen, Mr. Arseny Lissienko. This, the first broadcast in New Zealand by a Russian citizen, was followed by a translation of the greeting in English by Miss Inna Lissienko, and then a six-teen-minute talk for New Zealand listeners. Greeting to Russia Here is a free translation by Miss Lissienko of the greeting sent by her father to her fellow-countrymen. He spoke for approximately one minute, Dear Brothers; Heroic defenders of our beloved Fatherland; Glorious ‘warriors of our Red Army, To-day a small group of Soviet citizens in distant allied New Zealand has the happiness of greeting you over the air, across the oceans and seas. We send you our feelings of limitless devotion, love, respect, and pride for your heroic feats, for your severe blows to the Fascist hordes that have dared to invade our country. Together with the freedom-lov-ing and allied New Zealand we express our firm assurance of the final destruction of Hitlerism and Fascism. Long live U.S.S.R. and its heroic Red Army! Long live the leader of the peoples of U.S.S.R.-Comrade Stalin! Long live the unity of the freedomloving peoples of Britain, United States and U.S.S.R. who rose to fight Fascism. The enemy will be destroyed. Victory will be ours. Address to New Zealand The address to New Zealand was too long to quote in full, but we quote some of the more typical passages from it, taking a little liberty with Miss Lissienko’s English: "To-morrow, the 23rd February, is Red Army Day-a day celebrated by all the peoples of the U.S.S.R. Twentyfour years ago, just as in our own times,

the German army stood at the approaches to Leningrad, occupied the Ukraine, reached the Don, and even occupied part of the Caucasus. Twentyfour years ago the Soviet Union faced a most difficult military and political being formed from the separate units of armed workers-the so called Red Guard. And meanwhile Soviet Russia, short of clothes, boots and food, its transport disorganised and its economy destroyed, was surrounded by a ring of enemies. And among these enemies there moved an inexorable German military machine occupying one region after another, shooting anybody who dared to resist, and taking away the last supplies of food from the starving population. . . . Now this inexorable German machine is on the same road, but it has forgotten one thing. In 1918 there was in its way only a half-organ-ised, half-starved, and internally-dis-turbed young Soviet Republic. To-day it is met by a buttress of the mighty Union of Soviet Republics with its completed and perfectly trained Red Army... Questions And Answers "Why has the resistance of a number of armies in Western Europe collapsed with such rapidity while the army of the Soviet Union in spite of the gloomiest forecasts by military authorities, has not only withstood but has itself begun to defeat the so-called unconquerable German army? Why haven’t the Germans taken Moscow and Leningrad when they have been at the very gates of these two cities? Why have they started to run backwards?

"The answer involves a short walk back into history. In 1918 the units of the Red Army had different calibre rifles, bad equipment, insufficient military specialists who could be depended on, But the civil wars raging on all the borders of the Republic made the young Red Army into a_ perfect military machine. By the end of the civil wars the Red Army contained over five million warriors made strong and united on the field of battle. When these wars began it had about 30,000 officers of the old Tsarist army acting as specialists. By the end of the war it had formed its own cadres of officers who now number over 130,000, and many of these are known all over the world to-day-Voro-shilov, Timoshenko and Budenny were all heroes of the civil wars and the reorganisers of the present military machine. .... "The staff of the Red Army is to-day deeply-read in military history and theory. It is entirely free of what might be called a Maginot ideology. In addition, the extremely high spirit of selfsacrifice, love of its Socialist fatherland, and its blood ties with the masses of the people have given the Red Army an internal friendship and unity which explains its high morale, The warrior of the Red Army knows what he is fighting for. He knows also that he is fighting not only for his own country and his own people but for all those people in the world who are seeking to destroy Fascism. .... : "Long live the brotherly fighting unity of Britain, U.S.S.R.. and U.S.A. Long live the great family of people of the U.S.S.R. Long live the great and heroic Red Army!"