Anna Timofeeva-Egorova: Over Fields of Fire

Editor’s note — a common diminutive for Maria.

Editor’s note — yet another diminutive for Anna.

Translator’s note — the pre-revolutionary name of the city of Kalinin — now Tver’ again.

Translator’s note — the scene of fierce beach fighting on the Black Sea coast in the Caucasus during WWII.

Translator’s note — a square in Moscow with the three major train stations facing onto it.

Translator’s note — large caltrop-like obstacles made of welded railway girders.

Translator’s note — Yuri Levitan — a well-known radio announcer during WWII.

Translator’s note — abbreviation of ‘Soviet Information Bureau’.

Translator’s note — a historical name for the wives of Dekabrists or ‘Decembrists’ — members of the Russian nobility who rebelled against the monarchy in 1825. Most of them went into exile to Siberia and some of their wives followed them.

Translator’s note — military commissariat.

Editor’s note — winged air force insignia.

Translator’s note — during the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 many Soviet pilots fought on the Republican side.

Translator’s note — ‘cropduster’ — a somewhat contemptuous nickname for the U-2 biplane, that was used in agricultural operations.

Translator’s note — a most typical truck in the USSR back then — a variety of Ford trucks were built under licence.

Translator’s note — apparently from the coal shafts numerous in that part of the country.

Translator’s note — a small town near Moscow.

Translator’s note — volunteers, home guard.

Translator’s note — Ivan Konev — one of the top Soviet commanders later in the war.

Editor’s note — the most common nickname for German soldiers in Russian military slang.

Translator’s note — Party organizer.

Translator’s note — Comsomol organizer.

Translator’s note — a military rank for political officers.

Translator’s note — a common Russian nickname for artillery.

Translator’s note — popular Russian nickname for Messerschmitt Me/Bf 109 fighters.

Translator’s note — a steppe wind.

Editor’s note — here, a nickname for M-13 truck-mounted rocket missile launch systems.

Translator’s note — a Soviet Republic in Central Asia, now Turkmenistan.

Translator’s note — a Soviet-made light vehicle M-1.

Editor’s note — literally, ‘little buddy’.

Translator’s note — literally, a ‘stormtrooper’.

Translator’s note — a Russian proverb identical to the English “to be born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth”.

Editor’s note — a diminutive form of Ilya.

Translator’s note — a man from Kuban, a Cossack-populated area in Southern Russia in the Kuban River basin.

Translator’s note — a red scarf — a sign of belonging to the Pioneer organization.

Translator’s note — head of the teaching unit in USSR schools.

Translator’s note — Air Force Training Regiment.

Translator’s note — Ilyushin Il-2.

Translator’s note — referring to the use of castor oil as a laxative.

Translator’s note — a nickname for I-16, originating from the Russian pronunciation of I-shestnadtsat (I-16), literally, ‘a donkey’.

Translator’s note — diminutive of Valentin.

Translator’s note — a city on the west shore of the Caspian Sea.

Translator’s note — a city on the north shore of Caspian in the mouth of the Volga.

Translator’s note — of the cockpit windscreen.

Translator’s note — a smaller variety of astrakhan — originally from the Kuban Cossack province.

Translator’s note — a common epithet for the Soviet airmen adopted by USSR propaganda bodies during WWII.

Translator’s note — abbreviation of the Russian words for ‘Trade With Foreigners’, a network of shops with luxury goods for foreigners and people possessing foreign currency and valuables in the pre-war USSR.

Translator’s note — a recreation park in Moscow.

Translator’s note — a large Cossack settlement.

Editor’s note — M. Lermontov (1814-1841) is one of the most recognized Russian poets.

Editor’s note — A. Suvorov (1729-1800) — a famed military commander of the pre-Napoleonic era.

Editor’s note — ranked fourth in the list of top-scoring Soviet aces of WWII, with 56 personal and 5 or 6 shared air kills.

Editor’s note — junior brother, Dmitriy Glinka is ranked seventh in the list of top-scoring Soviet aces of WWII, with 50 personal air kills; elder brother, Boris Glinka, scored 30 personal and 1 shared aerial victories.

Translator’s note — a lake in the Far East of Russia; in the summer of 1938 there was a border clash between the Soviet and the Japanese armies there.

Translator’s note — a colloquial form of Kirillovich, his patronym.

Editor’s note — a diminutive made by transforming the author’s last name to male first name.

Translator’s note — a special political section in the Soviet Army’s units largely involved in political control over the servicemen.

Translator’s note — osobyi otdel officer.

Translator’s note — a diminutive for Pavel.

Translator’s note — a suburb of Moscow.

Editor’s note — a nickname for German Junkers Ju 87 dive-bombers in Russian military slang.

Translator’s note — a common Cossack address to a female from the same stanitsa .

Translator’s note — prominent Russian 19th Century democrats.

Translator’s note — a famous Russian writer in the late 19th — early 20th centuries.