THE STORY OF FRONTOVIK ANATOLY D. SMIRNOV
about 3 hours ago
Good day, Commanders!
As a game deeply rooted in World War II, KARDS is built on a profound respect for its history. Preserving and sharing this legacy is a mission we take seriously—one that many of our players also embrace. Here is a deeply personal story of a Soviet soldier, Anatoly D. Smirnov.
Anatoly D. Smirnov during the war
Smirnov was born in 1922 to the east of Moscow in the Kostroma Oblast. He joined the Red Army in 1943 and took part in the battle of Kursk with one of the Airborne Divisions. After Kursk he was transferred to a different unit and with it he fought for Warsaw and then Berlin. He was awarded the Order of glory 3rd Class when he saved his commander, who was wounded in battle.
After the war Smirnov didn’t want to speak of the war, he told his family that stories of death, fear and suffering were nothing to get excited about. Once he told his grandson Sergey:
“Imagine you can hardly see the sky because of aircraft and you hear nothing but the awful din of their engines.”
Smirnov resented being called a war hero. He said that the heroes were those who never returned home.
Every Victory Day anniversary on the 9 May, Anatoly D. Smirnov would put on his best suit and place his medals on his chest. He took part in the parade in the town where he lived and placed flowers on the monument of the fallen. Then he returned home and locked himself alone in the kitchen. There he would drink and remember the comrades he had lost. No one disturbed him on this day, out of respect for him and his painful memories. Sergey’s grandmother told him that as the day progressed she would hear her husband speak with the dead, cry and ask them for forgiveness.
His memories from the war made the Victory Day the hardest day of the year and at the same time a way for him to deal with his trauma.
We thank Sergey Kurkov for sharing his story about his grandfather. This is just one story of people in a world at war, whose history is represented in KARDS.
If you have a story of a family member we at 1939 Games would welcome more true life stories like this. Contact us through social media.
