Today the Russian Exhibition Center within the framework of the XXV Moscow International Book Fair held a presentation of the book of the famous journalist and TV presenter Sergey Brilyov “Forgotten Allies in World War II” (Moscow, 2012). The book was presented to readers and journalists on the exhibition place of publishing house “Olma Media Group”, which had published S. Brilyov’s work.

The author of the book pointed out that this book was not about the great powers that were traditionally considered as the victors in World War II, but it was about the smallest states, who had also participated in the war, and who had also made a great contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany.

S. Brilyov said that “of course, the losses of the small allies against our losses look like trifle, and I do not for a second lower the Soviet Union’s role in the fight against fascism, but if you look at the statistics, for example, New Zealanders at that time lost every fifty taking into account a tiny population of New Zealand. They secured the victory in all corners of the world and they fought for us. Having used them up, we just “threw” them later on; I apologize for the contemporary expression. But what to do with it now? I believe this is the part of the war history which deserves to be registered at least. And it is up to everyone to admire it or not.”

The international journalist called paradox the fact that the allies in the war were very different states, which went to the battle with different purposes, but most of them fought having the best intentions – not necessarily for the Soviet Union, but against the common enemy. “I was surprised by the nature of why such different countries fought together. But we have done our best over the past 65 years to quarrel with each other”- the speaker shrugged his shoulders.

“The book is based largely on a chain of occasions - S. Brilyov continued - which caused the discoveries”. Until recently a part of the materials published in the book was restricted and the documents were declassified in the author’s presence. Journalistic relations, of course, played a role in the declassifying as S. Brilyov is a well-known journalist, a member of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy and the Deputy Director of the state TV channel “Russia”, what is also S. Brilyov; archivists willingly opened archives for him, as well as secret documents, taking off the stamp of secrecy. Thus, S. Brilyov managed to unearth the details of the biographies of individual soldiers of Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean and Oceania and the independent Tuva at that time.

Stories about the Cubans, the Hondurans, the Ethiopians, the Swazis, the New Zealanders, and the Uruguayans were told at the presentation, but because of the fact that these topics were geographically far away from the audience, of course, the talk turned to a closer ally – the Tuvinians and Tuva. And the author's speech about the glorious history of the small republic in the centre of Asia was sufficiently large and emotional.

In addition, Sergey Brilyov raised the problem of the Russians’ awareness about their own country, the features of its history, the uniqueness of the territorial and cultural diversity. And this problem immediately became obvious when the leader of the ceremony, turning to the Tuvinian topic, said that “Tuva and Mongolia are indeed very close notions. It is difficult to separate them. Why did Stalin include Tuva in the Soviet Union, and did not Mongolia? The Mongolia, he almost gave to China at that time”.

To this question, the journalist, having shot a look at the faces of the gathered people, correctly offered with a smile not to start heated geopolitical disputes that could be heard by the citizens of Mongolia according to the Murphy’s Law and they could think of something wrong. Therefore, he offered to talk only about Tuva as “It deserves a special mention”. And in fact, a sufficiently large paragraph in the book was devoted to Tuva.

 

In S. Brilyov’ opinion, this “tiny republic is squeezed in the mountains between Mongolia and Russia, partially China. There lived 200,000 people altogether during the war. But the fact is that almost all overcoats of the Red Army were made of the Tuvinian wool. Also, the amount of lamb and beef which were sent by the independent Tuva for the front needs was such that the pre-war number of livestock was only restored two years ago. The republic really accomplished a tremendous feat”.

The author especially mentioned the fact that Tuva mobilized all its forces, including human to take part in the war of the Soviet Union against Germany despite all the repressions committed in the republic by the party activities, who copied all the worst Stalinist methods. “After the mass repressions against shamans and lamas, if to show good judgment, the people would have had to hate the Soviets, but instead of it, in 1941-1942, the Soviet Embassy in Kyzyl was in the siege of the residential population, who asked for going to the Soviet-German front”.

Brilyov told about visiting the Tuvinian republic archive and what documents he had seen.

He also shared his desire to have restored historical justice as all the flags of the anti-Hitler coalition are shown on the square in Poklonnaya Hill every holiday on May 8-9, but there is no flag of the Tuvinian People's Republic. “By the way, the flags are shown very precisely and historically accurately, for example, they do not show the flag of the People's Republic of China (red with asterisks) but show the one that is associated with Taiwan, because such flag existed at that time”. “And saying the least, Tuva absolutely deserved it by the total mobilization. It was hard to find such a total and voluntary mobilization even in the remotes of Russia” – the author emphasized.

The power of how deep Tuva fell in the author’s soul was clear from the text of the preface, which had been written for the publication by the Head of the Russian Geographical Society Sergey Shoygu. It also described the background of the emergence of Sergey Brilyov in Tuva in 2009 and the most famous Tuvinian’s impressions of the journalist’s work.

The editorial review of the book regarding the section devoted to Tuva you can read in the next issue of our magazine. We will be grateful if our fellow scientists and readers decide to write a response or a review of this publication.