The Power of Poetry: “Read Pushkin Until Victory!”

Pictured (L-R): Sculptor Evgeny Vuchetich, Marshal Chuikov, and Sergei Balashov at Chuikov’s apartment on Granovsky Street in Moscow. During the Battle of Stalingrad, Balashov became the first artist to perform for Chuikov’s 62nd Army, encouraging the troops with powerful recitations of patriotic poetry by Pushkin, Lermontov, and Mayakovsky.

During the Battle of Stalingrad, when survival often seemed to depend only on artillery, ammunition, and sheer endurance, something quieter also sustained the soldiers along the Volga—the familiar cadence of poetry. Read Pushkin until victory! was more than a phrase associated with Marshal Chuikov; it reflected a belief that culture mattered just as much as courage. This was a war fought not only for land, but for identity. In that setting, poetry became a steadying presence, reminding soldiers of their language, their history, and the homeland they were determined to defend.

In 2019, Volgograd Municipal Television shared a feature highlighting a gathering between schoolchildren and veterans of the Battle of Stalingrad. During this meeting, students learned how Pushkin’s works inspired soldiers at the front:

“In 1941, soldiers leaving for the front in Moscow marched past a monument to Pushkin. The poems of the great Russian poet inspired the soldiers. In 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, Marshal Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov issued the order: ‘Read Pushkin until victory!’ Pushkin's words resounded on the front lines, in the trenches before the offensive, and in hospitals. Despite the country's enormous military expenditures and the acute paper shortage, over 4 million copies of the great poet's books were published during the war!”

Poetry became more than literature for the soldiers of the Red Army fighting in the Great Patriotic War—it became a source of strength, identity, and spiritual resistance. In the trenches of Stalingrad, in dugouts along the Volga, and on the march toward Berlin, soldiers recited verses from Russia’s great literary canon to sustain morale and reaffirm what they were fighting to defend.

Among the most frequently quoted poets was Alexander Pushkin, widely regarded as the father of modern Russian literature. His poetry symbolized not only artistic excellence but the enduring spirit of Russian language and culture. Lines of poetry were repeated in moments of exhaustion and danger, reminding soldiers that they were heirs to a rich intellectual and cultural tradition that no invading army could destroy.

Pictured: Marshal Chuikov’s book of Pushkin’s poems on display in the Chuikov House-Museum of Silver Ponds (Serebryanye Prudy). For Vasily Ivanovich, Pushkin was Russia’s greatest poet.

The Nazi invasion was not solely a military campaign; it carried a racial and ideological vision that sought the destruction, subjugation, or displacement of entire populations. The German armies advanced into Soviet territory like locusts—leaving ruin in their wake, intent not only on conquest but on erasure. Cultural eradication accompanied military aggression. Libraries were burned, monuments damaged, museums looted, and educators targeted. The assault was directed as much at memory and identity as at land itself.

Poetry readings occurred in various forms. Political officers, Komsomol organizers, and visiting artists sometimes organized formal recitations. At other times, soldiers themselves would recall verses from memory. Poetry by Pushkin, Lermontov, Mayakovsky, and others was recited in hospitals, before attacks, and during rare moments of rest. These works evoked themes of homeland, sacrifice, courage, and destiny—ideas that resonated deeply amid existential struggle.

For many soldiers, poetry bridged past and present. It connected them to their families, their schooling, and a prewar world that seemed distant yet worth defending. The preservation of culture was inseparable from the defense of territory. By speaking Pushkin’s lines aloud, soldiers reaffirmed that their language and heritage could not be silenced. In this way, literature functioned as both morale support and moral anchor. The recitation of poetry in the midst of destruction testified to the resilience of cultural identity. Even when cities burned and lives were shattered, the rhythms of familiar verse reminded soldiers that the ideals embodied in their literature—beauty, dignity, endurance—remained alive.

Pictured: Sergei Balashov, date unknown.

The first actor to read Pushkin’s poems to Red Army soldiers in Stalingrad was Sergei Mikhailovich Balashov. Born in 1903, he began participating in amateur theatrical productions before studying at the Perm Drama Studio and launching his professional career in 1923 as a dramatic actor. Balashov performed in theaters in Perm, Vyatka, Ufa, and Tyumen, as well as at the Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater, and from 1931 onward devoted himself primarily to stage performance as a recitalist and variety artist. About his efforts in Stalingrad and beyond, Nikolai Krivenko shared the following:

“During the war, Sergei Mikhailovich gave over a thousand concerts in combat units and formations, and his name was constantly featured in front-line newspapers. He performed in the most unusual conditions: dugouts, camouflaged airfields, on cruisers and destroyers of the Northern Fleet, and in the compartments of Hero of the Soviet Union N. Lunin's submarine. ‘The Germans possessed excellent military equipment,’ wrote Marshal V. I. Chuikov, ‘but they had no weapons against what Balashov had.’”

Pictured: an article from the Novgorodskaya Pravda newspaper celebrating Sergei Balashov’s 60^th birthday and his 40^th year in his stage career (dated 14 March 1963).

The story of Sergei Balashov standing before exhausted soldiers in dugouts and on battered riverbanks captures something essential about the Great Patriotic War. Weapons and strategy determined battles, but culture sustained the spirit. As Chuikov himself observed, the enemy possessed formidable military equipment—yet they had no defense against what Balashov carried with him: the living voice of Pushkin and the unbroken continuity of Russian language and tradition. In the darkest hours, poetry affirmed that even amid devastation, a people’s heritage could not be destroyed. Victory would come not only through arms, but through the steadfast preservation of identity, memory, and the enduring power of words.