Popular ‘Smuglyanka’ Song in the Prologue of the Spasskaya Tower Festival Show

Unfolding beneath the walls of the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces, the one and only show of the 2020 Spasskaya Tower Festival started with the prologue featuring the Central Band of the Border Guard Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. The ensemble performed the popular ‘Smuglyanka’ song (music by A. Novikov, lyrics by Y. Shvedov), declaring the theme of the thirteenth production: ‘75 Years Since the War End’. Like a scarlet thread it runs through the whole evening show.

Part of the Spasskaya Tower Festival show, the WWII Soviet fighter Lavochkin La-5 became the very link binding together the show’s prologue and its grand finale featuring an audio snippet from ‘Only ‘Old Men’ Are Going Into Battle’, popular and dear to the heart of every Russian movie. The organizers carried out the reconstruction of the iconic military aircraft especially for the Festival of 2020, the year of the 75th anniversary of the Great Victory. The fighter’s fuselage bears the image of a stave referring to the movie where the singing squadron was flying the La-5s. Ivan Kozhedub, Soviet World War II fighter ace, also flying an La-5 knocked down 62 enemy aircrafts. This year honours the 100th anniversary since the hero’s birthday.

From 1942 to 1944 saw the production of 9920 ‘Lavochkins’ of various modifications. By the end of the War the La-5s were used both as an attack plane and a light bomber. For designing La-5 Semyon Lavochkin was awarded the Hero of the Social Labour and his second Stalin Award.