How the famous poem "Cranes" by Rasul Gamzatov and the song of Mark Bernes was born

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In North Ossetia, in the village of Dzuarikau, there is an amazing monument. The memorial depicts a grieving mother who watches the birds flying away forever into the sky. The monument was erected in honor of the seven Gazdanov brothers who died during the Great Patriotic War. The history of the song, which has become one of the symbols of the great but sad holiday, Victory Day, is also connected with this memorable place.

The Gazdanov family was friendly and very beautiful. All seven sons grew up, as if by selection, very gifted: the elder Magomed, a born leader, headed the Komsomol movement of the village of Dzuarikau; Dzarakhmet - the most skillful rider, when in the village they saw an incredible miracle - the first tractor, he was the first to saddle the "iron horse"; Hajismel was known as a real artist - he sang, danced and played the violin; the fourth son, Makharbek, became a teacher of the Ossetian language and literature; The merry fellow Sozyrko learned to be a cook, and the athletic and disciplined Shamil became an artillery officer. The youngest in the family was Khasanbek, when the war began, he had just finished school.

All seven sons were the real pride of their parents, everyone also dreamed of becoming fathers, but only Dzarakhmet got married before the war. When he went to war, his wife Lyuba already knew what she was wearing under her heart. Only this child, daughter Mila, remained by the end of the war the only descendant of a large and friendly family. Thanks to her and her relatives, today we know the history of the Gazdanov family.

All the brothers, one by one, went to the front. Even the younger Khasanbek could not stay away: (from the memoirs of Mila Gazdanova)

Khasanbek was killed first, in September 1941, during the defense of the village of Timoshevka, Zaporozhye region. The parents received the first sad news: “Missing”. Khadzhismel and Magomed died near Sevastopol, Dzarakhmat - in Novorossiysk, Sozriko - in Kiev, Makharbek near Moscow. The mother's heart could not stand the third funeral. The father remained in the empty house with his daughter-in-law and little granddaughter.

In 1942, the village was occupied by the Nazis. In the Gazdanovs' house, as the largest and most solid, a commandant's office was set up, evicting a small family in a dugout. Of course, there were informers who said that as many as seven fighters left this house to fight under the red banners, one of whom was an officer. Retreating, the Germans threw a bomb into the house, leaving only ruins from it. For several years the family then huddled with relatives, later the collective farm built a small house for them. However, they tried to ignore the difficulties then. The main thing is that the invaders were driven out. The last surviving son of Shamil was also expected to win. The artilleryman, the commander of a mortar company, fought valiantly, was awarded two Orders of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree. He received his last award in August 1944. In fact, he died on November 23, 1944 in Latvia, but the news of this reached a distant Ossetian village only in the spring of 1945, when the winners were already waiting home.

When another funeral for the Gazdanovs came to the village, the postman refused to carry it. Then the elders, dressed in black clothes, went to inform the father of this. Asakhmat Gazdanov was sitting in the yard with his little granddaughter in his arms. (from the memoirs of Mila Gazdanova)

Almost twenty years have passed since the war, but the tragedy of the Ossetian family continued to live in the souls of the people who knew the Gazdanovs. This story went beyond the limits of a small Ossetian village. In 1963, on the Vladikavkaz-Alagir highway, 30 km west of Vladikavkaz, a monument was erected to the Seven Gazdanov brothers and all the heroes who died in the battles for the Motherland in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Stone Tasso and her seven dead sons remind us of the grief that wars bring to ordinary people.

In 1965, Rasul Gamzatov saw the monument. Shortly before this, the poet visited Hiroshima, at the memorial to the Japanese girl Sadako Sasaki. According to the poet's memoirs, the poem, which was inspired by these, such different stories, he wrote about all the victims of the war - he remembered his loved ones who died on the same fronts as the Gazdanov brothers. The lines, which are known to everyone today, were born in his Avar language. In 1968, the poem "Cranes" translated by Naum Grebnev was published in the magazine "New World":

The issue of the magazine caught the eye of Mark Bernes. Feverishly, in a hurry, he called Naum Grebnev and said that he wanted to make a song out of it. All three of them worked on the revision of the text: the author, the singer and the translator. We decided that the song should be given a universal sound and the address should be expanded. With the changed poem, they turned to Jan Frenkel and asked him to compose music. The composer's business went on for a long time, only two months later he showed Bernes what he had achieved:

For Mark Bernes, this song was the last in his life. The singer was seriously ill, so he was in a hurry, he was afraid not to be in time. On July 8, 1969, his son took him to the studio, where the artist recorded a song from one take. This recording was the last in his life, a month later the great singer died of lung cancer. The song "Cranes" still evokes a sincere response in the heart. She talks not about the horrors of war and exploding shells, but about human grief and memory that can survive any trials.

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