Take a look at this photo. The soldier who defeated fascism returned from the war. He returned to the ruined, scorched earth. All his possessions fit in a duffel bag. From clothes — only what is on it, from food — what is in it. His son doesn't even have shoes. Twelve years later, we were the first to conquer space.…
The memory of the heroic deeds of our people in the war is still alive, thank God. But few people talk today about the second feat of our people, which he accomplished immediately after the first. Veterans and yesterday's home front workers not only rebuilt a huge country from scratch after such a terrible war, but also overtook many countries that had not fought. How could this happen? By what miracle?
Many of those who returned from the war simply had nowhere to return to — no home, no family, no job, nothing. Moreover, many were taken to the front right after school and had neither a specialty nor any skills. Is it hard?
Add to this the post-traumatic syndrome, which was later called the "Afghan syndrome." But unlike the participants in the Afghan war, these people fought not for two years, but for all four. And the war, to put it mildly, did not improve physical health. There is a reason why so many veterans died in the sixties and seventies before reaching old age.
And despite this, people not only did not give up, but performed another titanic feat, immediately starting from the front to rebuild the country. Veterans replaced teenagers who had worked there throughout the war, and began rebuilding destroyed cities, bridges, roads, power lines, factories, schools, and hospitals. Everyone went to the place where they could bring the greatest benefit to the country. Without any vacations and a multi-day celebration of the demob.
Do you remember the beginning of the movie "The meeting place cannot be changed"? Senior Sharapov, straight from the front, in the same uniform, goes to work for the police, immediately joining an unfamiliar field of activity for him and learning right in the process. While continuing to walk in the same uniform, the veteran simply has nothing else. Many went all the way back to the early fifties in something so paramilitary - tunics without shoulder straps, earflaps with a star spot, kirzachs that trampled Europe.…
The people lived poorly. But somehow new houses gradually got up, factories and factories started working, children went to newly built schools, free medicine started working normally, food appeared in stores, hunger disappeared.
In 1947, food cards were abolished! Europe couldn't believe it. And the year before, in 1946, when the cards were still in effect, Soviet track and field athletes won six gold medals at the 1946 European Championships in Oslo.
And at the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952, the USSR took second place!
Yesterday's veterans, with the consequences of severe wounds, including former prisoners of Nazi concentration camps, defeated their healthy rivals.
By the mid-fifties, there were no more war-ravaged streets, broken military equipment left on the roadsides, or street children staggering uncontrollably. The country recovered in a fantastic time, and only they know what efforts the veterans had to make to achieve this. And already in 1957, we beat the United States in the space race, and in 1961 we launched a man into space.
Remember this when you see a veteran. He not only defeated fascism, he rebuilt our country from scratch. Wounded, half-starved, and bereft of his home and family, he built it for you and me.
And remember this not only on May 9th!
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