Al Stewart - Roads to Moscow | REACTION 

"The Soviet Army took an oath to die for the homeland. If you were taken prisoner, then they considered it an act of treason and tens of thousands of Russian soldiers were placed into concentration camps in Siberia after the war. " Not true. It was Stailin's paranoia that sent them to the camps. He was afraid that retruned prisoners of war had been compromised. It had nothing to do with them consdiered treasonous.

followed in the next verse by... "Lighting the way to Berlin"

Germany built 1300 Tiger Tanks between 1942 and 1944, them being on fire is not a surprise.

F I had written that line I would die a happy man 🎸

First saw him at uni in 1974 last saw him in Eastbourne last year the man in my opinion is a genius, almost chronicles my life

Rootin 4 Putin ..long live mother Russia 👍

Correction, 26 million.

Hes a true sigma

@@airmark02why bro

So glad somebody else mentioned this! Beautiful and poignant sound.

There is no doubt that the fate of these Russian soldiers was terrible, but it should not be forgotten that Stalin's machine of fear during the war also very negatively impacted civilians, the military of other countries, and government officials from neighboring countries. Two examples would be the execution of over 20,000 Polish army officers and intellectual leaders known as the Katyn Forest Massacre. The belief among historians is that Stalin ordered these executions in an effort to make Poland more easily controlled by Russia after the war if many of its military leaders and influential thinkers were gone. It should be noted that, initially, Stalin's government claimed the Nazis performed these executions. It was not until many decades later, around the fall of the Soviet Union, when the Russian government acknowledged it was responsible for these deaths. The case of Raoul Wallenberg is particularly tragic. Wallenberg was a Swedish government official in Budapest, Hungary during WWII. Wallenberg used the resources available to him to produce passports to protect Jewish residents and safeguarding Jewish people in buildings that Wallenberg claimed were Swedish property and thus not as easy to access by the Nazis. Historians estimate that Wallenberg helped save the lives of many thousands. When the Russsian army retook the city of Budapest from the Nazis, Wallenberg was arrested and accused of being a spy. To this day, there remains conflicting evidence as to what happened to Wallenberg, but historians generally believe most documents support that he was either killed or died while being held in prison by the Russians. What is clear is that Wallenberg was a hero for saving the lives of so many people, yet he ended up likely dying nonetheless for his bravery and Stalin's rampant paranoia.

I love history, and I appreciate the in-depth history of Stalin’s Russia. War is hell, on every side, and in every case.

Specifically, Solzhenitsyn's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich".

Thanks for the replies. Stalin's reign of terror against the people of the Soviet Union began before WWII. For those that may not be aware, prior to the war, Stalin looked to eliminate his self-assesed political competion from the Vladimir Lenin era and further take control by replacing the old guard with politicians loyal to Stalin. "The Great Purges," where many of Stalin's so-called political "enemies" were arrested and put on trial (almost always found guilty or, even worse, agreed to plead guilty after the lives of their families were threatened), ultimately either being executed or sent to The Gulag for horrendous forced labor sentences that many did not survive. Yet, there are also many that may not be familiar with Stalin's war of destruction against the farming population of the USSR, especially in the Ukraine. In an effort to seemingly help Stalin's efforts to build modern industry, there was a belief that the government must have control over the food supply to make sure those building and laboring in factories had enough nourishment to keep working. This led to what is known as Stalin's "collectivization" program, where farmers were eventually forced to join a government controlled massive cooperative. As one might imagine, many farmers were none too pleased by these plans, as while they had been required to provide a percentage of their harvests to the government, anything previously left over was the farmers to keep, trade, or even sell. Many farmers would choose to disobey Stalin's orders to turn over all of their harvests to the government. This intensified the "battle of wills" between the farming population that opposed Stalin and the government. This led to an escalation by the farmers and Stalin's government in response to the farming population's actions. In the most extreme cases, farmers decided to destroy their own crops and slaughter their own animals (keeping in mind that modern refrigeration did not really exist in most rural areas in the USSR at that time), which would turn bad before the animals could be seized by the government. When the food yield being turned in was far less than what was expected and needed, Stalin was told that many farmers were hiding their harvests and killing their own animals. In response, Stalin would had Soviet military troops go into farming towns and villages with the order to forcibly take what food they could find (a process that Stalin referred to as "requisitioning"), even if that meant farmers and their families would starve for lack of food. This led to a horror show where an estimated millions within the farming population would starve to death from famine. Eventually, most of the farmers that did survive would give in and agree to join Stalin's government run farming operation. The "collectivization" program saw what historians believe to be approximately less than 5% of the farming population join at the beginning of the initiative, but that number would swell (according to historians) to well over 90% within 5 years. As Stalin was eliminating what he saw as political threats during the same time, he would go to extraordinary lengths (resulting in the deaths of millions) to gain control over the food supply in the Soviet Union. As mentioned above, everything in the reply happened BEFORE WWII began, so Stalin's approach to dealing with those deemed "traitors," such as Al Stewart references in the song, was well defined prior to Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union.

"...ended up being sent to Siberia for little or no reason." It was Stalin's paranoia that the POWs were compromised and posed a potential threat to their mother land.

And occasionally into the early 80s. Took me decades to find this song again, as i didn't know the artist nor the song title. It blew me away even in my preteens.

Yes it was. And this is the song that interested me in Al. Such an incredible song!

Progressive rock WIOQ fm in Philly. I was drawn to his unique voice and clarity of story. Still my favorite.

I worked at a college radio station (KTRU) when this was released and the album was in our heavy rotation. Whenever RTM came on, the phones were jammed with "What was that?" calls.

Yeah..i remember hearing it on KLOL 101 in Houston Tx...CRASH was the disc jockey backten.Awesome !, love Al ! 😊

The live version is better than the original.

Yes.

He was "huge" to us, in his time. For awhile he was, except for Fleetwood Mac, the one person I listened to on repeat for at least a year or more. Brilliance!!!

For people from his era, he is in our blood. He's... a real part of... Us!

Just came to say that😊

My apologies, it wasn't PW it was Laurence Joubert.

Thankyou for this, wonderful times the 70's!!!

Some great names there. Tim Renwick for a start. Then Francis Monkman from Sky, Roger Taylor from Queen, Rick Wakeman from Yes and his solo albums. And I think Krysia Kocjan was one in the band, Shot in the Dark, who was the band Al recorded 24 Parrots with. He in turn produced their self titled album, Shot In The Dark. A great album, a little like Fleetwood Mac.

Jimmy Page has also played on a record of Al Stewart.

One of the best storytelling songs ever rivaling Gordon Lightfoot’s Canadian Railroad Trilogy!

Contrary to what i was taught by American educational propaganda about WW2 it was Russia who defeated the Nazi's.

@airmark02 It was the Allies and Russia that defeated the Nazis. The Russian winter was largely responsible for slowing down the German Eastern offensive into Russia. Russia put up a defense early but were out manned and out supplied (armaments). In addition, the Yugoslav, Albanian, and French partisans and the Polish Resistance were starting to take back their small areas in their respective countries in Central and Western Europe . The Russian partisans were also wreaking havoc with Germany's advance. The Battle of Normandy was the final nail in the coffin of Hitler's stronghold in Western Europe. Then there is North Africa where in 1943, the Allies ((including Germany exiles) captured 250,000 Italian and German soldiers. Hitler was already sending German troops in to support Mussolini's dwindling armies. This affected Hitler's military. If it wasn't for the Allies, Hitler would have had the manpower to reach Moscow and farther East. This is in no way a rebuke of Russia's defenses. They made the best of what they had and were able to slow down the German offensive. If Stalin thought he was really going to be able to stop Hitler with Russian defenses on his own, he would not have joined the Allies in June 1941in trying to defeat Hitler. He (Stalin) knew he did not have the forces to stop Hitler on his own then and could buy time if the Allies could take the heat off him to give his factories time to catch up to Germany's troop, aircraft, and ground artillery numbers. The Battle of Stalingrad was Russia's great hour as by then Stalin had enough men and weaponry to stymie and push Hitler back away from the Front. It was also Hitler's poor decision to try to conduct a multi-front offensive. He even wrote about the foolishness of doing such in Mein Kampf. Why he didn't heed his own words is still the subject of historians. Unfortunately, France's contributions in World War 2 are also diminished by some people even today.

Especially the live version from the album

And Northwest Passage by Stan Rogers!!

Just for more historical context about the sheer will to survive by the Russian people, the Nazi army surrounded the city of Stalingrad for over 5 months. The Nazi army surrounded the city of Moscow for over 3 months. The Nazi army surrounded the city of Leningrad for NINE HUNDRED DAYS (September 1941-January 1944). To give you some comparison in American history, during the American Civil War, the Union's (states supporting the federal government) surrounding of the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi lasted FORTY SEVEN DAYS before the Confederacy (states trying to break free from the federal government) surrendered. Additional points: The Nazis had become so entrenched in not allowing the Russians to break through at Stalingrad that the Russian military command gave the order to its officers to tell their soldiers to "advance or die," because if a Russian soldier attempted to turn to flee the battle, his commanding officer was ordered to immediately shoot him. When the Russians finally did break through at Stalingrad, the German military commander felt his best choice was to surrender (leading to the capture or death of approximately 250,000 soldiers), which truly devastated the Nazis chances. It's estimated that there were approximately 4.5 million casualties (wounded and killed) during "Operation Barbarossa" with the much higher percentage being Russian soldiers.

Wiki breaks it down pretty well... "Each verse of the song covers a different phase of the campaign, starting with the invasion by German troops that commenced on 22 June 1941. First comes the attack, the catastrophic destruction of Soviet Air Force aircraft at their aerodromes by the Luftwaffe, and the initial efforts by Soviet soldiers to escape the advancing Nazi horde. The next portion of the song relates the Russian retreat through Ukraine during the summer and fall of 1941, including the fall of Smolensk, culminating in the approach of the Nazi armies to Moscow during Operation Typhoon. Stewart next describes the onset of winter, with snow and mud proving insurmountable obstacles for the Germans in the Battle of Moscow, following which they were forced to retreat. The German soldiers are portrayed as walking "in the footsteps of Napoleon", referencing the French Emperor's ill-fated invasion of Russia in 1812. Next, the song turns to the activities of the Soviet partisans, who waged their own war against the Germans behind German lines. It then references the great Battle of Stalingrad, the turning point of the Second World War for Germany, which led to the destruction of the German Sixth Army and ultimately sealed the fate of the Nazis in the conflict. Two broken Tiger tanks are depicted, flames flickering from their open hatches to signify the destruction of the German armored forces at Kursk and other places during 1943 and 44, and the increasing hopelessness of their military situation. The song moves on to the Soviet invasion of Germany itself, during which the Germans are able to offer little effective resistance. It speaks of "old men and children" being sent to stop them, but who are unable to do so. Then comes the Battle of Berlin, following which the Germans realize that their "dream" of world domination is over-together with Hitler's reign of terror. Finally, the song turns to its protagonist, who is eagerly anticipating his return to Russia after four years of fighting. When he crosses the border, however, he is detained by the MGB when they learn that he had been captured by the Germans earlier in the war-even though he was released after only one day. He is separated from his companions and sent to the Gulag, where the song ends as he contemplates the "forever" expanse of the "steely Russian skies" above his camp."

There is a quite old (50 years) and comprehensive (26 part) documentary series originally aired by the BBC called "The World At War." I recall it being shown on PBS in America during the late 1970s/early 1980s when I was a small kid. It should be available for free online by searching "the world at war internet archive" on Google. Several of the episodes directly relate to topics in the song reviewed here.

@@Coowallsky Your breakdown was great, thanks.

Good choice!

I ADORE midnight rocks!