Cavalier of the gold star

Over the course of World War 2 the Soviet Union suffered a horrendous number of casualties.   Millions of people were killed or maimed, towns and cities were left in ruin, and many veterans were left without work or a purpose.  It is estimated that a quarter of the countries capital resources were destroyed, and agricultural and industrial output dropped below prewar levels {Soviet Reconstruction}.  To pull the country back together the Russian people would have to work together in a serious effort to repair a crippled country.

  The Cavalier of the Gold Star was a Russian story written by Semyon Babaevsky in 1948.  The story gained huge popularity among the Russian people and was turned into a movie as well as an operetta.  To someone who isn’t a Russian from the time period this story would seem extremely boring as not much happens and there is no conflict, but the Russian people post World War 2 loved it as it showed the successful reintegration of Russian troops into society and dealt with an issue that all Russian’s of the time period could relate to which is the reconstruction of their society.

The Cavalier of the Gold Star follows a Russian veteran named Sergei who creates a 5 year plan for reconstruction of a town.  Throughout the story Sergei embodies the image of a productive veteran reintegrating into society.  This showed a positive example to the Russian people which were dealing with the reintegration of soldiers at the time.  Sergei begins the successful creation of a 5 year plan to rebuild infrastructure and it is evident in all the scenes that the workers are happy.  This is of note because the Russian people would have been dealing with this specific issue at the time.  By showing the workers as productive and happy it would give the Russian people a much needed boost in moral.