Military letters "triangles": history

The times of the Great Patriotic War have long been in history. There are fewer and fewer people today who remember these terrible years. But the echo of the war does not subside. On the battlefields there are still unexploded shells, and in family archives there are military letters-triangles and postcards, as a memory of the heroism of our fathers and grandfathers.

Front post

Even at the beginning of the war, the government of the USSR paid special attention to the connection of front-line soldiers with their relatives. But the only way to do this in the early 40's was mail. It was believed that a letter from home at times increases the combat strength of a soldier. Therefore, a mail message was organized. Machines for the transport of correspondence were forbidden to use for other purposes. The mail wagons had the same priority as the wagons with ammunition. Therefore, they were allowed to cling to any of the compositions, so that military letters-triangles from the front would reach the addressees.

All correspondence to the front and to the rear was free of charge. The only exceptions were parcels. But not always letters came on time. There were cases when triangles came in ten and twenty years after the end of the war.

A variation of correspondence

In connection with the great need for letters, the national economy began to widely issue envelopes, postcards and blanks for letters. They had a colorful decoration of patriotic character. On postcards, for example, caricatures were printed on the Germans and they were signed with beautiful slogans: "I shoot so that neither the bullet is in the German", "Death to the German invaders".

But before the front, these blanks almost did not reach. And there was not always enough paper for letters. Therefore, military letters-triangles became widespread. How to fold them knew even a child, since there were practically no envelopes at that time.

The newspapers and leaflets fell on the soldiers, which raised morale and told about the news that happened in the rear and on other fronts. But this information was always meager and not regular, since the war time required caution. Yes, and the message was not always all excellent, because the postal cars were often ambushed and looted.

Letters of a triangular shape

Today it may be unclear why the military letters-triangles were sent. This form seems meaningless and not practical. As the practice of the war years has shown, this is absolutely not the case. The uncomplicated form allowed to refuse envelopes and send free letters to any city of the Motherland.

Every soldier sent home a military letter in a triangle. How to fold it knew even a novice in military affairs. To do this, a rectangular piece of paper diagonally formed from right to left, and then in half - from left to right. Since the sheets were rectangular, a narrow strip always remained below. It served as a kind of valve, which was refueled inside a triangle with pre-bent corners.

The letters were not sealed and did not require stamps. On the front side, addresses were written, and the back was left blank. All the rest of the sheet space was used up in small handwriting so that as much information about himself as possible could be communicated to relatives, since letters were not sent often.

"Proven censorship"

Since the time was military, the letters could fall into the hands of the enemy. In order to not reveal secrets with them, censorship checked military letters-triangles. Then it becomes clear why they did not get stuck, but simply wrapped in a special way. So it was easier to read them, so as not to damage the paper, and with it valuable information for the relatives.

There were times when soldiers accidentally could describe the location of their situation, the number of troops or plans for further maneuvers. Such information was carefully drawn in black paint so that no one could read it.

To circumvent censorship and hint to relatives about their state or place of stay, the soldiers invested in the letters a little tips. There are cases when relatives came with triangles with twigs of wormwood, which hinted at a bitter life in the field. As a hint, clippings from newspaper leaflets were also used.

The letters approved for dispatch were stamped "Verified by the censorship", which allowed further sending it to the addressee.

The special meaning of the letter-triangle

In the war years with the address of delivery, there were almost always problems. First, people in the rear often moved, fleeing from fighting. Secondly, the military units also did not stand still. Thirdly, the addressees often died or went missing. In such cases military letters-triangles became a kind of signal of joyful or sad news. History knows a lot of cases when they came with a delay much later than the official "funeral". This gave hope to the family that the soldier was alive and well and would soon return home.

In the event that the addressee was killed in the war, the delivery address was crossed out, and the letter was returned back. This was equated with a funeral that could never have come. It is for this reason that they never returned letters whose addressee moved to an unknown address or hospital, and to which post office they did not know.

Today in museums are stored various unreached military letters-triangles. Their photos serve as a source of studying the history of the Great Patriotic War, since the sheets of paper themselves have become dilapidated and can be destroyed by frequent contact.

Subjects of letters

Since there was strict censorship at the front, military letters-triangles had a special style. The fighters seldom described sad details about themselves. They were brave and expressed great optimism about the speedy end of the war.

In response, they asked to tell about their relatives, news that happened at home. Often, soldiers expressed concern about the health of relatives. The tone of almost all the letters is solemn. And the messages themselves are full of sincerity, which is read in every word.

Today we know, if the soldiers did not know how to make a military letter-triangle, we would not have learned what a war actually was. After all, it's not a secret for anyone that the official data did not always coincide with real events.