We have a lot of holidays in our country, but the greatest national holiday is Victory Day. The Great Patriotic War ended on this day in 1945.On that day, we celebrate the end of the war and remember the people who died for Russia.
In 2015 we shall celebrate the anniversary of Victory Day. 70 years ago our soldiers gained(выиграли) a victory. Mass Media has devoted many articles and programmes to this great and important event. Most of our people suffered(страдали) from war hardships( лишения), among them were our women. They tried to defend their children from hunger, cold, and other sufferings. They worried about their husbands who were defending our Motherland from the enemy. Women had to work very hard at plants and factories to help the front. Many women fought against the fascists at the fronts or in partisans’ brigades.
Every Soviet citizen did his best to make his own contribution to overcome (преодолеть) the enemy.
My story is about one of the Soviet woman. This is PRASKOVIA EREMEEVNA.
When the war broke out there were 300 houses in Alekseevka. In every house women wept and cried parting with their children, husbands and fathers. 968 men went to the front. The heaviest lot fall on PRASKOVIA EREMEEVNA. She had 9 sons and every one of military age. All her sons went to the war. She knew her sons – in an hour of danger everyone would stand to defend his country without sparing(умеренный, бережливый) his blood of life.
She was a very king woman., but she could be demanding( требовательная) and severe(строгая). So her children knew her caress(ласки) and her will(желание). She was a woman of high morals. Her comprassion(выдержка) and sympathy was known to everybody who needed help, advice or action. All her life she worked hard. She looked after cattle. She worked in the kitchen garden, she made meals, she washed for all her family, she mended(штопала) their clothes, she looked after her grandchildren – and there were many of them. And she found time to visit her children see if everything went on all right with them. They would say «Mom, do not worry we are grown-up people, we be able to cope with everything ourselves». «You are, but in case…» she would say.
When they all had a family reunion(воссоединение) on great holidays she would tell them be always together, to help one another. She tried not to think about death.
-God gave us our life for joy(веселье) and happiness. We do not have to angry him by wishing to die. When the time comes, He would call on us himself.
And then came a war. It was a famous song being sang everywhere during the first days:
Rise the great country,
Rise for the deadly(dedli) fight
Rise for the fight with damned(dэm) black power,
With damned fascist enemy…
Together with their compatrioats(кемрэтриот)(соотечественники) the brothers of Volodichkins went to the front. Their mother saw them off(провожала) one by one. Standing at the outskirts (окраина) of the village she would stare(смотрела пристально) into the distance, whispering(шептала) her farewell(прощальные ) words. She wound(ваунд)подниматься pray(молитва) to God that her sons might come back safe(невредимые) or woundered(раненные) or disabled(слепые0 – but alive! At night she would ask god to take her life – but let her sons live. Crossing herself she wound say loudly and distinctly(отчетливо):
She gave life to them, 9 sons. They gave their lives for the sake their Motherland, its independence and safety. Could anything be more greater than their heroic deed?
Glory to you, PRASKOVIA EREMEEVNA!
Glory forever to you and your sons!
The monument to PRASKOVIA EREMEEVNA has been erected(возвышается) at the very start of the street where the Volodichkins - PRASKOVIA EREMEEVNA and her husband and 9 sons lived. The street carried the name of Krasnoarmeyskaya, now it is named after brothers Volodichkins. There is a durable 5-wall cottage (добротный 5-стенник) stands on its place now, where the whole left part is occupied by the Memorial Room. A great writer of our time, Nobel Price – Winner, Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn wrote: «It is so bitter to lose so many sons, but isn’t it no less bitter for a mother to lose an only one!»(горько потерять столько сыновей – но и какая мать единственного потеряла!»)
Guests from other countries left many warm words there. The great truth about Great Soldiers’Mother from the Volga village Alekseevka day by day envelopes the Earth.(великая почесть о солдатской матери охватывает земной шар).
At the same time, the doctor of philosophy Piotr Petrishchev wrote: «To PRASKOVIA VOLODICHKINA mother of 9 sons, who stood up for freedom of our Motherland!»
« Everything passed. The greatness, and the pain of the Past. Bygone war Feverish twitight… But again,and again, and again we come back to them. We are reading again bitter pages of 70 war years. We have seen many things That we hadn’t seen before .» (злобный полусвет).
Now forever after, on the memory about the Great Soldiers’ Mother is our sacred thing. It remains invariable till the Mankind exists.
Konstantin Simonov wrote the poem “Wait for me, and I’ll come back” at the worst period of the war: the German army was just 30 km from Moscow, Leningrad was under siege, three million Soviet soldiers had been taken prisoner. The situation looked hopeless but the lines of the poem are full of optimism and confidence that we’ll win the victory. I’d like to recite you some lines of the poem. This poem is devoted to his wife Valentina Serova, but Ithink it is devoted not only V.S. but all women of the war, including PRASKOVIA VOLODICHKINA.
To Valentina Serova
Wait for me, and I'll come back!
Wait with all you've got! Wait, when dreary yellow rains
Tell you, you should not. Wait when snow is falling fast,
Wait when summer's hot,
Wait when yesterdays are past,
Others are forgot.
Wait, when from that far-off place,
Letters don't arrive.
Wait, when those with whom you wait
Doubt if I'm alive.)
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