On The Nameless Height (song)
Encyclopedia
On The Nameless Height is a Soviet song about World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The text was written by Mikhail Matusovskiy in 1963 and music by Veniamin Basner
Veniamin Basner
Veniamin Efimovich Basner was a Russian composer, born at Yaroslavl on 1 January 1925, who died in St Petersburg on 3 September 1996. He was recognized by the Soviet Union as a People's Artist of Russia and a State prize-winner. An asteroid called 4267 Basner, discovered in 1971, was named in his...

. The song was based on the real history and is about three soldiers, fifteen friends of whom died in the battlefield. The height concerned the one located near the Rubezhenka settlement in the Kuibyshev Region, Kaluga Oblast
Kaluga Oblast
Kaluga Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kaluga.-Geography:Kaluga Oblast is located in the central part of the East European Plain. The Smolensk Highland lays in the western and north-western part of the oblast, while the Central Russian Highland -...

 while the soldiers, mentioned in song, were a part of Soviet 139th infantry division.

Background

In August, 1943 the 139th Rifle Division
139th Rifle Division
The 139th Rifle Division was a infantry division of the Red Army, formed three times during World War II, in 1939 and twice in 1941.Its First Formation was established at Kozelsk in September 1939, on the basis of a regiment of the 81st Rifle Division. It fought in the Winter War with Finland. It...

 was increased newly arrived draftees-volunteers. Eighteen newly arrived factory workers from Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk is the third-largest city in Russia, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the largest city of Siberia, with a population of 1,473,737 . It is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast as well as of the Siberian Federal District...

 were given a task to occupy unnoticed a height behind enemy lines in the vicinity of today's settlement Rubezhonka in Kaluga Oblast
Kaluga Oblast
Kaluga Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kaluga.-Geography:Kaluga Oblast is located in the central part of the East European Plain. The Smolensk Highland lays in the western and north-western part of the oblast, while the Central Russian Highland -...

. Headed by the Second Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 Yevgeniy Proshin, they were given the deadline for their mission for September 14. Their call sign was Luna. Upon completion of the task Luna gave a positive SITREP for a successful mission. However, soon they were spotted by a German patrol which led to the encirclement of the element and its elimination. No real evaluation of the mission was recorded. Despite the lyrics which say about the three survivors, there were only two in fact: Sergeant Vlasov, Konstantin and Private Lapin, Gerasim. Their lives were miraculously spared when they were knocked unconscious. Sergeant Vlasov was captured as a prisoner, but later was able to escape to partisans
Soviet partisans
The Soviet partisans were members of a resistance movement which fought a guerrilla war against the Axis occupation of the Soviet Union during World War II....

; Private Lapin was found among the dead by the advancing elements of Soviet Armed Forces.

Here is the list of the soldiers that were lost in that mission: Nikolai Danilenko, Dmitriy Yaruta, Yemelyan Belokonov, Petr Panin, Dmitriy Shliakhov, Roman Zakomoldin, Nikolai Galenkin, Timofei Kasabiyev, Gavriil Vorobyov, Aleksandr Artamonov, Dmitriy Lipovitser, Boris Kigel, Daniil Denisov, Petr Romanov, Ivan Kulikov.

Translated sample of lyrics

A grove's been smoking under the mountain
And already the sunset was ablaze
There was the three of them remaining
Out of the other eighteen guys
How many of them, good friends of ours
Were left to lie in the darkness there
Nearby the settlement "Unknown"
Atop the height that has no name

There was a rocket up and shinig
Then falling down like a faded star
Who only once has seen it happened
He won't forget till he die
He won't forget it, will not forget it
The fierce attacks that happened there
Nearby the settlement "Unknown"
Atop the height that has no name

Over us the "Messeri
Messerschmidt
*For the Danish politician - see Morten Messerschmidt*For the German physician and explorer of Siberia - see Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt*For the German aircraft designer and manufacturer - see Willy Messerschmitt...

" have been circling
They were well seen as in a broad day...
But only closer we have grown
Under the crossing artillery hell.
No matter how difficult it was
You were committed to your dream
Nearby the settlement "Unknown"
Atop the height that has no name

External links

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