"The clouds fly gloomly across the border" (Russian: На границе тучи ходят хмуро), better known as "Tri tankista" (Russian: Три танкиста, literally: the Three Tankmen), is a popular Soviet war song written in 1939. The song served as the unofficial anthem of the Soviet, and later Russian, Border Troops and Armored Forces. The song was first performed on film by actor Nikolai Kryuchkov in the film The Tractor Drivers (1939), shortly after the Battle of Khalkhin Gol. [1]
The song refers to the Battle of Lake Khasan, an attempted Japanese incursion into Siberia in 1938. This battle saw, for the first time, with the exception of the Spanish Civil War, the use and victory of armoured forces by the Soviets. Light tanks then were composed of only three crew members: a driver, a loader, and a commander (serving also as a gunner). It was not until the middle of the Second World War that a radio operator was available in Soviet tanks. The song tells the story of how the tank crew valiantly repelled the Japanese with their battle tanks.
The song lyrics were written by Boris Savelyevich Laskin , written to a composition by the Pokrass brothers. [2] .
Russian original [3] | Romanization of Russian | English translation |
---|---|---|
На границе тучи ходят хмуро, | Na granice tuči hodjat hmuro, | The clouds fly gloomly across the border, |
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by Leon Trotsky to oppose the military forces of the new nation's adversaries during the Russian Civil War, especially the various groups collectively known as the White Army. In February 1946, the Red Army was renamed the "Soviet Army" – which in turn became the Russian Army on 7 May 1992, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank from World War II. When introduced, its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was more powerful than many of its contemporaries, and its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against anti-tank weapons. The T-34 had a profound effect on the conflict on the Eastern Front, and had a long-lasting impact on tank design. The tank was praised by multiple German generals when encountered during Operation Barbarossa, although its armour and armament were surpassed later in the war. Its main strength was its cost and production time, meaning that German panzer forces would often fight against Soviet tank forces several times their own size. The T-34 was also a critical part of the mechanized divisions that formed the backbone of the deep battle strategy.
The IS tanks were a series of heavy tanks developed as a successor to the KV-series by the Soviet Union during World War II. The IS acronym is the anglicized initialism of Joseph Stalin. The heavy tanks were designed as a response to the capture of a German Tiger I in 1943. They were mainly designed as breakthrough tanks, firing a heavy high-explosive shell that was useful against entrenchments and bunkers. The IS-2 went into service in April 1944 and was used as a spearhead by the Red Army in the final stage of the Battle of Berlin. The IS-3 served on the Chinese-Soviet border, the Hungarian Revolution, the Prague Spring and on both sides of the Six-Day War. The series eventually culminated in the T-10 heavy tank.
The BT tank was one of a series of Soviet light tanks produced in large numbers between 1932 and 1941. They were lightly armoured, but reasonably well-armed for their time, and had the best mobility of all contemporary tanks. The BT tanks were known by the nickname Betka from the acronym, or by its diminutive Betushka. The successor of the BT tanks was the famous T-34 medium tank, introduced in 1940, which would replace all of the Soviet fast tanks, infantry tanks, and light tanks in service.
The Battles of Khalkhin Gol were the decisive engagements of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese border conflicts involving the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Japan and Manchukuo in 1939. The conflict was named after the river Khalkhin Gol, which passes through the battlefield. In Japan, the decisive battle of the conflict is known as the Nomonhan Incident after Nomonhan, a nearby village on the border between Mongolia and Manchuria. The battles resulted in the defeat of the Japanese Sixth Army.
The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation or simply the Manchurian Operation and sometimes Operation August Storm, began on 9 August 1945 with the Soviet invasion of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo, which was situated in Japanese-occupied Manchuria. It was the largest campaign of the 1945 Soviet–Japanese War, which resumed hostilities between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Empire of Japan after almost six years of peace.
The Battle of Lake Khasan, also known as the Changkufeng Incident in China and Japan, was an attempted military incursion by Manchukuo, a Japanese puppet state, into the territory claimed and controlled by the Soviet Union. That incursion was founded in the Japanese belief that the Soviet Union had misinterpreted the demarcation of the boundary based on the Treaty of Peking between Imperial Russia and Qing China and had subsequently tampered with the demarcation markers. Japanese forces occupied the disputed area but withdrew after heavy fighting and a diplomatic settlement.
The Type 95 Ha-Gō was a light tank used by the Empire of Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War, at the Battles of Khalkhin Gol against the Soviet Union, and in the Second World War. It proved sufficient against infantry but was not effective against other tanks. Approximately 2,300 were produced, making it the most numerous Japanese armoured fighting vehicle of the Second World War.
The Pokrass brothers were Soviet composers and siblings who collaborated with each other:
The "March of the Soviet Tankmen" is a 1939 Soviet military march song composed by the Pokrass brothers and with lyrics by Boris Savelyevich Laskin, whose debut was in the 1939 movie Tractor Drivers, in which the role of Klim Yarko is played by Nikolai Kryuchkov. Later the song was used in World War II short titled "Fascist Jackboots Shall Not Trample Our Motherland" by Ivanov-Vano (1941). Valery Dunaevsky commented that the song "was full of fighting spirit" in his book A Daughter of the "Enemy of the People" (2015).
The 4th Guards Tank Division is a Guards armoured division of the Russian Ground Forces. The division is named after Yuri Andropov.
This article deals with the history and development of tanks of the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation; from their first use after World War I, into the interwar period, during World War II, the Cold War and modern era.
The 36th Rifle Division was a division of the Red Army and then the Soviet Army. The division was formed in 1919 as the 36th Rifle Division and fought in the Russian Civil War and the Sino-Soviet conflict of 1929. In 1937 it became the 36th Motorized Division. The division fought in the Battles of Khalkhin Gol. It was converted into a motor rifle division in 1940 and fought in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in World War II. Postwar, it became a rifle division again before its disbandment in 1956. The division spent almost its entire service in the Soviet Far East.
The Russian Tank Troops is the armored warfare branch of the Russian Ground Forces. They are mainly used in conjunction with the motorized rifle troops in the main areas and perform the following tasks:
At War as at War is a 1969 Soviet World War II film directed by Viktor Tregubovich. The film had 20 million theatre admissions.
The 57th Red Banner Ural-Khingan Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army and the Soviet Army.
Tractor Drivers is a 1939 Soviet romantic comedy drama film directed by Ivan Pyryev.
Indestructible is a 2018 Russian war film directed by Konstantin Maksimov. It was developed under the working title Tankers.
Day of Tankmen is a professional military holiday in Russia and the former Soviet Union, celebrated every second Sunday of September. It celebrates the service and sacrifices of tank crews and commanders in armored formations since the Russian Civil War, when tanks were first used in Russian territory.
The Culture of the Russian Armed Forces is widely varied, but unique amongst the branches of the armed forces, and shared with the other uniformed organizations within Russia. Military culture is the most important component of military life. The major cultural events held by the Russian military are primarily aimed at strengthening esprit de corps as well as advancing the historical traditions of the Armed Forces of Russia. The Ministry of Defence of Russia regularly holds cultural events at various levels. The central cultural institutions of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation are actively working in all military districts.