Pointed video post – ‘Последний бой’ by Э.С.Т.

Legendary Russian heavy metal band Э.С.Т. (Electro Shock Therapy, fronted by the late great Jan Sagadeev) made this contribution to the 2006 compilation album Мы Победили!, which featured covers of Soviet-era songs from or about World War II, each performed by a different folk, folk-rock, anarcho-punk, ska or metal band. ‘The Last Battle’, originally a 1971 song by composer-poet Mikhail Nozhkin, takes the perspective of a common soldier on the Eastern Front, who wants this battle to be over and done with so he can go home. Sadly, it doesn’t seem as though the last battle is quite over yet: under Yatsenyuk there are still racists, fascists and corporate plutocrats plundering the lands and people which were once on the Eastern Front. Respect to the Eastern Ukrainians and to the Crimean self-defence militias who are still fighting that last battle, and here’s hoping that history may one day finally bury the plague of the radical right once and for all.