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Abstract:

During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet rear not only provided the battlefield with the necessary resources, but also maintained the morale of the army. It was especially important in the most difficult period of the war from its very beginning in June 1941 until the counter-offensive near Moscow in December. It was right at that time that some poets and writers evacuated from Moscow and Leningrad to Chistopol in two steps came together to create an international collection of war poetry called “The Courage”. Twenty authors contributed about 40 works including poems, ballads and a fable. The editor of the poetry collection could be Mikhail Zenkevich, who had gained expertise in making collections of military verse in the wake of the First World War, including both his own ones such as “Tanks’ Ploughland” (1921) and collections of translations by English trench poets. Editing “The Courage” influenced Zenkevich’s own creative work, allowing him to make several non-trivial poems about war, for example, “At Two Thawed Spots” and “In the Stinking Crush...”, as well as to succeed in the field of translations of foreign anti-fascist poetry.

Keywords: War Poetry, Chistopol, Mikhail Zenkevich, evacuation, War Poetry collection.