“Just Don’t Tell Mother”
As with any other superpower - or even regional power - Russia has seen its fair share of wars.
Since 1945, Russian (or, at least, Soviet) troops have been deployed in Europe, Africa, Georgia, and Cuba. Russian submarines have even been sighted by the Philippines’ navy near the South China Sea.
Three almost entirely unrelated wars, however, stand out in Russia’s history for a reason you wouldn’t particularly expect: music. Specifically, one particular song.
Afghan officers thank Soviet soldiers for support against the Mujahideen, now Taliban, in 1980. Source: RussiaBeyond
Fearing the expansion of growing US influence on its southern border, and an inability to fulfill support for a semi-friendly government in Kabul, Russia invaded Afghanistan in 1979. The nine-year war that followed depleted Soviet finances and badly damaged its military, once again lending credence to Afghanistan’s nickname as “The Graveyard of Empires”. However, a song with the (English) title of “Hello Sister” emerged in which a - presumably - Russian soldier named Vladimir Andriyuk sang the content of the letters he wrote to home. The song was later re-named to the only request the Andriyuk made to his sister: Just Don’t Tell Mother I’m In Afghanistan.
The song (and hyperlinked video above) do not detail anything particularly graphic - mainly describing asking about how “the snow has probably covered the roads at home” and providing vague descriptions of battles from previous days. Curiously, the lyrics also describe “Stars falling in Kandahar’s sky” which, considering the red star insignia of the USSR, seems to be a striking foreshadowing of Russian history after 1989.
Even more curiously, the song’s message appears to have outlived the Soviet Union itself.
By 1994, only 3 years after the formal dissolution of the USSR, the satellite states - such as Romania, Ukraine, and Central Asian nations - gained their independence. Even during the Cold War, these countries were considered to be “tied to” Russia, rather than a part of Russia itself. When Chechnya, which had at no point been considered a satellite state, attempted to declare independence, the response from Moscow was brutal, and emerged in the shape of the First Chechen War.
1994 was not only the first war in Chechnya - but also the first re-emergence of Andriyuk’s song, now titled Just Don’t Tell Mother I’m In Chechnya. The lyrics hadn’t changed much - other than to re-adapt location names and other details from how conflict had changed between Afghanistan and Chechnya. The 1994 version is perhaps the most famous rendition of the song.
While Russia’s invasion of Georgia didn’t produce a new version of the song - likely because of the conflict’s short length of only five days - it did not seem, at least for a while, that the 2022 invasion of Ukraine would produce one either. And, officially speaking, there still isn’t one.
An unknown Russian soldier plays a guitar, singing Just Don’t Tell Mother I’m in Bakhmut, high up on the balcony in what appears to be the remains of a skyscraper. Source: YouTube
And then, on December 15th, 2023, footage emerged of a Russian soldier - nearly unnoticeable in his camoflauge uniform, if it weren’t for the brown guitar in his hands - emerged on what appears to be a balcony several stories high. While the camera pans across the devastated landscape, the soldier sings an all too familiar ballad, whose lyrics translate to Just Don’t Tell Mother I’m In Bakhmut, in reference to the city in eastern Ukraine, signaling the song’s longevity across 50 years, three generations, and three different wars.
