War-Scorched Letters or Triangles of Fate

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

When the current generation sees letters from the front, folded into triangles, young people are often surprised at their unusual shape. But 70 years ago, this form of writing did not surprise anyone - it was then that they were the most valuable that the postman could bring, because the "triangles" were news from a loved one.

Triangle letters were the standard form of correspondence between soldiers during World War II. With their help, communication was maintained between soldiers fighting at the front and their relatives. The triangles indicated that the soldier was alive, but terrible news could also come - such letters often replaced the "funeral". Where did the unusual form of letters come from? During the war, letters from soldiers from the front were delivered to their families free of charge. However, in the very first weeks of the war, postal workers were faced with the fact that there were simply not enough envelopes.

This is how the triangle letters appeared, the soldiers simply folded their letter several times, while on the clean outer side they wrote the recipient's address and the sender's name. For such letters, not only ordinary sheets of paper were used, with which there were also interruptions, but also pages torn from booklets, paper from packs of cigarettes, newspapers (the text was written in the margins) and any material at hand. The content of such letters was mostly standard - the soldiers wrote about their love for their families, sometimes drew pictures for their young children, and promised to return home after the war.

Such letters had another advantage. After all, it was easy for the NKVD censors to check them, who looked through all the correspondence. That is why the letters were not sealed. The censors checked the letters to see if they contained any statements against the system or any references to classified information, such as the location and movement of military units.

Despite all the terrible stories about the NKVD, the censors, as a rule, treated the letters very humanely (if, of course, they did not contain frank criticism of the authorities).

Usually, everything "superfluous" was mercilessly smeared with black ink, and the letter itself was sent. News from the front was very rarely wrapped back. Today, thousands of such letters have survived, which were once sent by tens of millions during the war. Basically, they can be found in private collections and among eyewitnesses of the war, who carefully keep the pieces of paper that have turned yellow from time to time.

On May 9, 2010, to mark the 65th anniversary of the victory in Russia, war veterans were sent a set of triangular letters specially printed for the occasion. They, like 70 years ago, can be sent without a stamp or stamp anywhere within Russia. And finally, these letters were immortalized in songs, of which the most famous is perhaps Mark Bernes's "Field Mail".

Remembering the events of the war, it is worth remembering the fate military pilot-heroine Marina Raskova, whose photographs at one time did not leave the front pages of Soviet newspapers.