By http://www.omsk.aif.ru/
Twins Yura and Jeanna Smirnov can thank the poem 'Wait for Me' by Simonov for their birth. The miraculous story happened in the Azerbaijani city of Salyan 73 years ago.
A page from a notebook. A corner of the page had a review of Simonov’s poem 'Wait for Me'. And a message to his wife: “It has got me right to the heart, and I decided to send you the poem and tell you with the words of Simonov 'Wait for Me'. At the end was a postscript: “And can you, Chizhik, wait? March 3, 1942, Salyan.”
The letter was written by Lieutenant Senior Nikolai Smirnov in a hospital to his wife Lyuba. He was a pilot of the 249th striker air regiment of the 217th striker air division.
To prove love
Lyubov Lvovna had been evacuated to Novosibirsk at that moment. The hospital her husband was stationed in was located in Salyan. Having read the letter of her husband and the poem of Simonov, the woman decided to prove her feelings to her husband, pay him a visit and tell him personally that she could wait. The distance did not scare her. The road took two weeks, going by railway, lifts in cars, a barge on the Caspian Sea… They spent only two days together. After returning to Novosibirsk, Lyuba understood that she was pregnant. She told the good news to her husband, to which he asked her to take care of herself and call the baby Yura if it was male or Jeanna if it was female.
After treatment, Nikolai returned to his regiment and continued the fight.
The Battle of the Caucasus is one of the most significant battles of the Great Patriotic War. The combat there was horrifying, aviation was used in mountainous areas. On November 7, 1942, pilot Smirnov did not return from a mission. His plane was not found. Some time later, Lyubov Lvovna received an invoice that her husband was missing. The young woman was so shocked that she gave birth prematurely. Twins, a boy and a girl, were born on January 19, 1943. Yura and Jeanna. The children who would probably never have been born if it were not for Simonov’s famous lines 'Wait For Me'.
They became medics
Yuri Nikolayevich keeps the memory about his father throughout all life. The letter, the invoice, the service review, some photos, and a response from the Central Archive of the Russian Defense Ministry about the fate and death of Lieutenant Senior Nikolai Smirnov. Yuri Nikolayevich does not remember anything about the war. The 1940s were reflected in his memory only from stories of his mother and grandmother.
“We were settled in a small house,” says Yuri Smirnov, “Mother said that when Jeanna and I were born, there was no space in the house, so in order to free the path to the street, our prams had to be kept lifted. We were born small, prematurely born, we were often ill, but with the help that families of deceased war pilots were given, we made it out somehow. Our mother’s health really went downhill after the birth, her eyesight worsened, tuberculosis was diagnosed some time later. Father’s brothers-in-arms helped us – mom was sent to Borovoye for treatment, almost all Soviet medics were there at that time. Jeanna and I, when we grew up, chose medical professions. Jeanna became a nurse, I became a doctor. I have always been concerned about my father’s fate, I addressed different archives. Only in 1999 did I file a request to the Tyukalinsky Draft Office, I received a report that set the record straight about father’s death. That is how the fate of our family was interlaced with the fate of the whole country. We are two children of the military epoch, we always acknowledge it with pride.
Yura and Jeanna Smirnov can thank a letter from a hospital in Azerbaijan for their birthBy http://www.omsk.aif.ru/Twins Yura and Jeanna Smirnov can thank the poem 'Wait for Me' by Simonov for their birth. The miraculous story happened in the Azerbaijani city of Salyan 73 years ago.A page from a notebook. A corner of the page had a review of Simonov’s poem 'Wait for Me'. And a message to his wife: “It has got me right to the heart, and I decided to send you the poem and tell you with the words of Simonov 'Wait for Me'. At the end was a postscript: “And can you, Chizhik, wait? March 3, 1942, Salyan.”The letter was written by Lieutenant Senior Nikolai Smirnov in a hospital to his wife Lyuba. He was a pilot of the 249th striker air regiment of the 217th striker air divisi
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