The song dates to Russia’s twentieth-century “Time of Troubles” — the period marked by Civil War and foreign interventions that fell during the years 1918-1921. In the midst of widespread political, military, and economic crises Bolshevik leaders routinely enlisted sympathetic artists, writers, and other “cultural workers” to produce propaganda materials that could be used to generate popular support for the Reds’ cause. With the re-capture of Kiev from Polish and Ukrainian troops in June 1920, Red Army commanders found themselves in possession of a small squadron of airplanes left behind by the fleeing Polish troops. The planes would soon be put to use in both training and reconnaissance missions. In the meantime, German and Khait were commissioned to produce a song about the bravery and heroism of pilots that might inspire the ranks and, perhaps, encourage a few individuals to volunteer for flight training. In an attempt to kindle the composers’ own creative efforts, the pair were taken out to the aerodrome where the planes were stored and treated to a series of flights. German and Khait delivered the new song the following day.

In subsequent years, “Ever Higher” (or, “Avia-march,” as it is also known) soared to widespread popularity. Throughout the 1920s, the song was prominently featured at public rallies, military displays, and aviation spectacles. In August 1933 the USSR’s Revolutionary Military Council (Revvoensovet) issued a decree establishing “Ever Higher” as the official anthem of the country’s Military Air Forces (VVS). To this day the song remains one of the most recognized and popular tunes from the Soviet period.

A recording of “Ever Higher” can be downloaded here from “Soviet Music” (“Советская музыка”) an excellent on-line repository containing more than 4,200 (!) audio clips of Soviet-era tunes.

Here’s an English translation of the Russian lyrics:¹

We were born to make fairy tales come true,
To conquer vast distance and space,
Our reason has made steel wings for our hands,
And throbbing engines our hearts have replaced.

[Refrain]:

Ever higher, higher, and higher
We aim the flight of our birds
The tranquility of our borders
Breathes in each propeller.

Throwing our willing planes to the heavens,
Or making unprecedented flights,
We feel our air force is growing stronger,
Our world’s first, proletarian fleet.

[Refrain]

Our keen glance pierces every atom,
And resolution clads every nerve,
Believe us: to every ultimatum
Our air force is prepared to respond

[Refrain]

ScP

1. Adapted from the translation found in James von Geldern and Richard Stites, Mass Culture in Soviet Russia: Tales, Poems, Songs, Movies, Plays, and Folklore, 1917-1953 (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1995), 257-258

The site, called Made in the USSR: Treasures from the Soviet Atlantis, contains over 500 images and photos of items produced in the Soviet Union.

It’s a rather eclectic collection that includes everything from journals and posters to cigarette cases, matchbook covers, and Christmas ornaments. Unfortunately, the images are not accompanied by explanatory text, so folks who aren’t already well-versed in Soviet history and culture may not grasp the significance of what they’re seeing. Still, it’s a terrific idea for a website.

The collection includes more than a few items directly related to aviation. (Several can be found by following the “Early Soviet Stuff” link at the bottom of the home page). My favorite is this one:

It’s a pin for “Dobrolet,” the syndicate established in 1923 to oversee the development of the Soviet civil aviation system. The airplane logo (which also appeared on Dobrolet’s official stationary, rubber stamps, and other items) was designed by Aleksandr Rodchenko. Last time I checked, pins like this were fetching around $500 in Moscow flea markets.

Incidentally, the very first item that shows up in the site’s “Early Soviet Stuff” collection also has a tangential tie to aviation. The item is an early edition of “The Terrible Cockroach” (Тараканище) a poem-story by the famed children’s author Kornei Chukovsky in which the eponymous insect wrecks terror on the animal kingdom. In 1927, the film studio Sovkino made an animated version of “The Terrible Cockroach.” At the end of the Sovkino cartoon an Osoaviakhim airplane arrived and sprayed insecticide on the bug.

ScP

The searchable collection currently contains over 500 images of the Soviet dictator in photographs, posters, painting, cartoons, sculpture, and the applied arts. Each image is accompanied by a (sometimes very) brief description.

It’s a resource well worth visiting.

ScP

I am happy to announce that last night the site went “live.”

It’s called The Russian Front. In addition to offering visitors commentary and articles written by professional historians, The Russian Front is intended to serve as a resource depot for documents, teaching materials, original translations, and the like relating to Russian military and diplomatic history.

Right now you’ll find a word of welcome and a few never-before available translations of important Soviet documents. We’ll have much more in the days and weeks to come as new resources are stockpiled and as my fellow “frontoviki” being adding articles of their own.

If you’re interested in military history, I hope you’ll consider making The Russian Front a regular part of your Internet travels. It promises to be informative, useful, and, we hope, entertaining. At the very least, I guarantee that you’ll find your experiences there far more rewarding than these guys did.

In the months that followed, air shows multiplied across the Continent in places like Brescia, Nice, Monte Carlo, and St. Petersburg, as local aviation enthusiasts sought to duplicate the excitement and success of the French event.

America’s first international air show commenced on 10 January 10 1910 five months after Le Grande Semaine. It was hosted by the Aero Club of California at site just outside of Los Angeles in Dominguez Hills. The Dominguez Hills air show attracted some of the world’s most famous aviators including the first man to cross the English Channel in an airplane, Louis Blériot, the winner of the first cross-country air race, Louis Paulhan, and American favorite son Glenn H. Curtiss, who had claimed the $5,000 Gordon Bennett Trophy Race held at Reims.

Attendance at the Dominguez Hills meet surpassed expectations. Over the course of the ten-day show an estimated 226,000 spectators converged on the airfield, generating more than $137,500 for the event’s sponsors and helping to launch the aviation industry on the West Coast.

The Department of Archives and Digital Collections at California State University, Dominguez Hills has available on-line an excellent assortment of photographs, postcards, slides, news clippings, and programs from the 1910 meet. To view these materials from America’s first air show, visit CSUDH’s 1910 Los Angeles International Aviation Meet Research Collection.

ScP

Just set up a free account, start inputting authors or titles, and you’re on your way. The site draws upon the Library of Congress collection, national Amazon sites, and more than sixty world libraries, to help you identify the specific edition(s) that you own. Once books have been entered into your LibraryThing collection they can be “tagged” by subject area, sorted, and searched.

The site is also a great place to get or give suggestions on what to read next as it enables you to view the contents of other members’ collections and exchange ideas through dedicated groups set-up by other library thingers

You’re allowed to have up to 200 books in your free account. Join as a paid member and you can catalog an unlimited number of books for a small $10 annual fee (Even better is the $25 lifetime membership).

ScP