[Note: On 4/2/07 I removed the Cyrillic characters "Аэро-стихи" from the title above after discovering that they made it impossible to locate or link to the text of the post using the built-in site search engine. You should now have access to the translation and original text.]

From the very beginning of their Campaign to Build the Red Air Fleet in the spring of 1923, Bolshevik Party officials oversaw the creation of propagandistic media aimed at inspiring citizens to join the voluntary society “Friends of the Air Fleet” (ODVF) and to contribute money toward the construction of airplanes. Posters, of course, played an important part of the state’s campaign but so, too, did written works including short stories, rhymes, and poems.

Most of the literary texts created to support ODVF have long since been forgotten, even by Russians. Very few (if any!) have been published in English translation. Nevertheless, these items are important for what they reveal about Soviet leaders’ intent and visions regarding the USSR’s emerging aviation culture.

The poem “Aero-verses” is a characteristic example. It was first published in 1925 by the short-lived journal Give Us Motors. High art it ain’t. But it reflects well two of the principal themes associated with ODVF’s initial campaign: that citizens should replace their faith in God with faith in technology, and that citizens’ should recognize as their duty participation in building aviation.

Here’s the English translation, followed by the Russian original:

“Aero-verses” (1925)

We no longer consider ourselves worthless dust.
Who taught us the narcotic of faith?
Skyward we launch the aero-squadron.
Our religion is the airplane.

Hey, wake up you blind and deaf ones,
Attend to the path of life,
We wrest power from the hands of nature
In establishing the air fleet.

Look upward, friend of the air fleet,
Let pride constrain your thoughts
That aerial flock is, after all your work.
The propellers were fastened by your dues.

Higher, comrade, lift your head.
Eyes wider with an intense glance,
See how they splendidly fly,
The steel children of the laboring mass.

Listen, the propeller whirling,
The aero ever higher climbs.
Adroitly moving through the sky,
Friends, it is our airplane.

*****

“Аэро-стихи”

[Даешь мотор, но. 5 (1925), ст. 30]

Довольно считать себя никчемною пылью.
Чему научил нас религии дурман?
В небо запустим аэро-эскадрилью.
Наша религия–аэроплан.

Эй, проснитесь, слепцы, глухие,
Слушайте жизни ход,
Вырвем власть из рук стихи,
Создавая воздушный флот.

Вверх гляди, друг воздухо-флота,
Гордостью мысли свои стреножь,
В стае воздушной твоя, ведь, работа,
Винтиком ввернут твой членский грош.

Выше, товарищ голову.
Шире зрачки напряженных глаз,
Видишь, как летят здорово,
Дети стальные трудящихся масс.

Слышишь, пропеллeр дыжится,
Аэро выше гляди берет.
Ловко по воздуху движется,
Наш, друзья, самолет.

*****

ScP