Baksan (song)

In the summer of 1942, German troops launched an offensive in the North Caucasus . They managed to penetrate into the highlands of the Main Caucasian Range and, in particular, to hoist Nazi flags at the highest point in Europe - the top of Mount Elbrus . Heavy fighting took place in the Baksan Gorge , where the well-trained mountain shooters of the Edelweiss division were opposed by small but maneuverable units of Soviet military skiers. The commander of one of these units was Lieutenant Andrei Gryaznov , a young athlete from Dnepropetrovsk . In addition to defensive operations, his unit was to collect intelligence for the 897th Mountain Rifle Regiment ^[1] .

On New Year's day of 1942 ^[1] (according to other sources - in the very first days of 1943 ^{[2] [3]} ) an order was received from the headquarters, according to which it was necessary to collect data on the location of the German army firing points in the upper part of the Baksan Gorge. To fulfill this order, Gryaznov, together with Lieutenant Lyubov Korotaeva, climbed a ridge located at a three-kilometer height connecting the peaks of the Maly Kogutai and Donguz-Orun mountains - they climbed at night, and they reached the ridge in the morning. After they mapped information on the location of German units and equipment, Gryaznov suggested leaving a message for future climbers on the crest. They put a note in a grenade , having previously removed the fuse from it, and then overlaid it with stones ^[1] . In a note dated January 3, 1943, it was written: “On the days when the enemy ran under the blows of the Red Army, we went up here without ropes and tents, in fur coats and felt boots, along the harsh walls of Donguz-Orun to show the way for the advancing troops” ^{[2] [3]} . There were also such words: “Guys, we are now fighting with the Nazis. It’s hard for us. We recall the bonfires that burned here during the ascent, the songs around the bonfires and our happy pre-war life ... We wish you to be even happier than we were ” ^[1] .

At the beginning of 1943, Gryaznov and Korotaeva became part of a group of experienced climbers who were instructed to remove German standards from the peaks of Elbrus and hoist Soviet flags there. On the way to the foot of Elbrus, the expedition members stopped in one of the villages near Terskol . Lyubov Korotaeva recalled: “At night, despite the difficult transition, we did not want to sleep. We went out onto the veranda, from where a wonderful panorama opened. All the mountains were flooded with moonlight. The crest was also visible, where we left a grenade. Andrei quietly whistled something, and then sang: “Do you remember the grenade and the note in it, on the rocky crest for the coming days?” ” ^[1] .

These lines, sung by the composer Boris Terentyev ’s popular at the time “Let the Days Pass” motive, marked the birth of a new song. Gradually, the climbers on Mount Elbrus added new lines to it - thus, in addition to Gryaznov and Korotaeva, their comrades became their companions Nikolai Persiyaninov , Boris Grachev, Alexey Nemchinov, Georgy Sulakvelidze and Nikolai Morenets ^[1] (sometimes only Gryaznova is included in the number of authors , Korotaev and Persiyaninov ^{[4] [5]} ).

The task of removing German standards and installing Soviet flags on the peaks of Elbrus was successfully completed - on February 13, 1943, a detachment led by Nikolai Gusak ascended to the western peak ( 5642 m ), and four days later, on February 17, to the eastern peak ( 5621 m ) a group led by Alexander Gusev , which included all of these songwriters ^[4] . Gusev subsequently recalled: “Gryaznov uttered the first poetic line, someone added a second. And so the song developed, which became very popular among military climbers ” ^[6] .

In 1954, when a group led by Anatoly Sevostyanov climbed Donguz-Orun, one of the climbersArnold Simonik - found a grenade on the crest (according to him, “green, ordinary ours, it seems RGD , without a shrapnel shirt”) with a note left by Andrei Gryaznov and Lyubov Korotaeva ^{[7] [8]} . Subsequently, Simonik became a famous climber, a repeated winner of the championships of the USSR, and in 1959 - the champion of the country ^[9] . In the late 1960s, meeting with Korotaeva at one of the anniversary events, he handed her a grenade as an expensive relic reminiscent of the history of the creation of this song ^{[7] [1]} .

The fate of climbers - songwriters - was different. Nikolai Persiyaninov (1912-1945) was a scout, platoon commander in the 2nd Proskurov Airborne Division , died in battle on April 3, 1945 ^{[3] [10]} . Andrei Gryaznov (1920-1949) after the war worked as head of the geological party in the mountains ; died in 1949, trying to help a geologist who failed under ice ^[11] . Subsequently, one of the peaks of the Kyrgyz ridge ^[12] , located in the area of ​​the Alaarchinsky spur (height - 4421 m ) ^[11], was named after him. Lyubov Korotaeva (1918-2000) after the war received a Ph.D. in chemical sciences, worked as an assistant professor at the Patrice Lumumba University of Peoples' Friendship ^[3] . Georgy Sulakvelidze (1913-1983) became a doctor of geographical sciences, professor, led the Elbrus expedition, on the basis of which the High Mountain Geophysical Institute headed by him was created ^[13] . Nikolay Morenets (1922-1998) graduated from the , worked as the head of the department of public education of the Sumy region . In 1943, he wrote another famous song - “Barberry bush” ^{[4] [14]} .

• Poems and sheet music on a-pesni.org
• Elbrus War Songbook , Horizon , 1968, No. 2
• The song “Baksanskaya” performed by Yuri Vizbor on YouTube (for comparison, the tango “Let the days pass” performed by Maya Kristalinskaya )