Man of Fear

By DeafSoldier

When I hear his name, it strikes fear in me.
The memories of the bloody purges,
The gruesome demands of the Five Year Plans,
Incentive to live beat our urges,
To delay from our sacred duty.

When the Facist Germans gunned their way in,
They told me to fight for the Motherland.
"Fight, young peasant. Fight for Comrade Stalin!
Fight for the glory of the Motherland!"

They forced me into the drab uniform.
My leather boots did not have any soles.
Everyone was missing some equipment.
My leather boots are full of tiny holes.

None of us can fight, none of us complains,
We don't have a choice to what we can do.
If we complain about our leader,
Then it's off to the gulag, forever,
As an enemy to the Motherland.

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Published on Tuesday, February 25, 2014. Filed under: "Poetry"

Author's Note:

This happened to many Soviet soldiers.

Comments on "Man of Fear"

A former member wrote: Ja man for sure. That's something most people don't realise. It was like that with the Germans too. Most didn't even realise what they were doing. But the media teaches us to view them in a certain way and it's not actually fair. I'm not defending them but we should think about the circumstances that they were in and what led up to the war and not only view it from one side. Know what I mean?
On Monday, March 24, 2014, DeafSoldier (38) wrote:

Yeah, I totally know what you mean. Stalin ruled by fear, which is why so many Soviet soldiers died. It was either the Germans' bullets or their own.