we had our Lord, Russia, “Mickey” and “Samir”… Stories of the October War from old clippings

 

egyptian mickey

“At a time when farmers were ready to sacrifice everything, we would find the grocers who were trying to take advantage of the situation and report them to the Department of Supply Investigation who arrested them.” – Attiyat Hijazi Saoudi, Farmer from the village of Ad Dalatun in Menofia Governorate. 

We are accustomed to dealing with the October War, the 50th anniversary of which we are commemorating this year in Egypt, in terms of military and political battles and with an economical and geographical lens, only mentioning societal solidarity in passing. This is often represented by a scene of men sitting in a traditional Cairene coffeehouse during Ramadan shouting “God is great! (Allahu Akbar)” as they listen happily to the armed forces’ first statement being broadcast at two in the afternoon, without delving in to the details about the daily lives and personal stories of the people. 

So, was it really as ideal as this scene leads us to believe? And how did workers, farmers and children see what happened in October of 1973?

“In the battle we had with us Our Lord, and Russia”

In December of 1973, the Egyptian Leftist “Al-Taliaa” Magazine published a story with the title: “In the Face of the Major and Minor Imperialists… The People’s View on the 6th of October War… Real Accounts from Workers and Farmers”, which the writer Mohammed Sayed Rayan displayed in his book: “The Culture in 1973 – The People’s Narrative of the October War.”

And as we notice in the farmer Attiyat’s account, most people were making sacrifices. But that did not prevent the presence of some petty exploiters, including some grocers and food merchants, who profited from people’s basic necessities in times of crisis. 

In the testimony of the daily worker Attiya Abd El-Moneim, we see a depiction of the coalition alliance supporting Egypt: “During the war we learned of the kindness of the Arab countries and their assistance with everything: cutting off oil to the friends of Israel, The Soviet Union and China, and supporting us with weapons, food, meat and everything we needed.” This perspective changed with the peace treaty by its rewriting of the story and by considering the October War a purely Egyptian war, ignoring the Syrian front, Arab aid and military support provided by the Eastern Bloc. 

This is also what construction worker, Mahfouz Mohammed Hussein (Mit Ghamr Center), clarifies, who considers the reasons for The Crossing* (of Suez) to be “The Egyptian soldier’s message, divine providence and Russian weapons” and that “all Arabs were with us and Russia was with us. The U.S. were our arch enemies and we were enraged by them and by their supporters.”

And this illustrates the severity of the shock experienced by a big part of Egypt’s population, six months after the issue of Al-Taliaa Magazine, with the visit of Nixon, President of “Great Imperialist” America, which supports Israel, to Egypt in June of 1974. Sadat celebrated his visit with festive and folksy* receptions in several Egyptian governorates, applying the theory of electric shocks, which he considered a remedy for both the country’s problems and the people.  

The farmer at Zefta Center, Sheikh Mohammed Azab, speaks about the mix that formed during Sadat’s first years, between the rising Islamic trend and cooperation with the Soviet Union, from which Sadat later distanced himself. The Sheikh expresses his enthusiasm for the war, which we would not have deserved to live through had it not occurred. “During the war we had Our Lord, and we had Russia, its loyalty and its weapons. Every day during the war we were as happy as could be, we lacked nothing.”

And farmer Mohamed Saqr speaks about a new spirit that was aroused after the war, and the desire for it to continue, which the movie “Al-Rasasa la tazalu fe gaibi” (ُThe Bullet is Still in my Pocket) speaks about. The bullet was still in the pocket of the fighting people, and they could use it against the corrupt and opportunists. “There were grocers trying to take advantage of the situation, but we could no longer keep shut about things like we used to before the war. So we reported them and they were taken for prosecution at the military court.” This was a spirit that later died down with the winds of the Infitah (Sadat’s Open Market Policy), corruption, emigration and the widening of class differences. 

Yousef Idris in “Mickey” and Yousef Sibai in “Samir”

As for children’s magazines in Egypt, the most famous being “Mickey” and “Samir”, they offered content different from what one would expect of children’s magazines. In the issue from the 25th of October 1973, “Mickey” published a feature under the title “Words in Battle”, containing writings of the battle from the most prominent Egyptian writers. Naguib Mahfouz says under the headline “Return of the Spirit”: “The spirit of Egypt surges forward unpredictably, expands and soars, and takes form in the soldier, after it had been embodied in the heart of one of its virtuous children. In an instant, it took form in the spirits of the great martyrs, made its decision, and struck its blow.”

Here we may notice Mahfouz’s abstaining from his usual caution in regard to praising Presidents and glorifying leaders, and his inspiration by Tawfiq Al-Hakim’s concept of the “all-in-one” from his novel “Return of the Spirit” despite him being one of the people punished by Sadat for signing the intellectuals’ statement rejecting the state of neither peace nor war. However, his positive view of the war shifted his stance, and despite his criticism against the negative aspects of Sadat’s era, he considered the October War to be one of his good deeds. He later supported the peace treaty with Israel, which was opposed by many other intellectuals. 

Yousef Idris writes with the same excitement under the title “Salvation”: “With one stroke of will, our dignity and humanity was restored. I did not know that any one person could, when he gathers his devotion, contain within it the wants of an entire nation, the history of a people and the capacity of a civilization… But the legend Anwar Al-Sadat made me change my beliefs.”, and this praise even goes so far as to say “with him, our people crossed beyond humiliation and wretchedness, beyond pettiness and anguish.”

And then Idris swung to the other extreme when the peace treaty was signed, which led to the publication of his book “Searching for Sadat”, which was a violent and unobjective assault on Sadat and the October War. He writes: “How did Ariel Sharon, with his petty forces, ever manage to bring – likely from Israel itself – these amounts of cranes, trucks and automated equipment from Israel and construct a barrier in less than 24 hours after deciding to “cross” the canal, and in the midst of a brutal war? If he didn’t bring them, if all this equipment was there from the start, then it would be the height of this ludicrous tragedy: It would mean that Sharon, or the Israeli army, already knew that the 1973 War would happen, that the second and third Egyptian armies would cross the canal successfully, and that the response to this crossing would be by way of this barrier.” This was then accusing Sadat of treason in the face of The Breach of the Bar Lev Line, and an assertion that the October War was an agreed-upon charade.   

However, the Islamic writer Ahmed Bahjat, in the same piece, expresses the prevailing idea of the religious right: the connection between the defeat and atheism, and that triumph comes by returning to religion: “Faith in God has returned to us our country and honor.”. This is the same idea that Sheikh Al-Shaarawi expressed when he prostrated in gratitude to the defeat of June 1967, because triumph cannot occur while we are “in the arms of Communism”. 

There are various depictions of the battle in “Mickey” Magazine. The cover of the October 25th issue features Sadat saluting the warriors on the battlefield, whereas the cover of the first November issue shows “Mickey” wearing a student uniform, a worker’s outfit and a farmer’s overall, all carrying the word “Victory”.

Men who do not know the impossible… in “Samir” Magazine

As for the more Egyptian “Samir” Magazine, they were interested in the war-spirit even before the battle on the 6th of October. In their 7th of October issue, which was not in direct response to the beginning of the war, the magazine published a comic strip called “Men who do not know the Impossible in the face of the Just Cause”, written by Hussein Qadri and illustrated by Afaat Hosny, about guerilla operations. 

And in the 21st of October issue, it carried the title “Victory Equals an Entire Life”, featuring an illustration depicting Samir wearing the Al-Azhar uniform, praying for victory for Egypt during Laylat al-Qadr*, and a comic strip titled “Samir and the Civil Defense”. The issue announces some gifts to be included in the coming issue which will be published during Eid Al-Fitr: “An airplane, a plastic slingshot and pencil tops”, which are all gifts that are linked to the atmosphere of war and air strikes. The October 28th issue carries the title “Egypt Who is on My Mind and in My Mouth. Which I Love With all my soul and my blood”, which includes a story from Yousef Sibai with illustrations by Gamal Qutb, called “The Road of Return” which takes place during the 1948 war. 

Fifty years has passed since the October War, and talk about military plans, battles, air defense and the Bar Lev Line has repeated itself over and over again. But we can still find new and exciting details in small human stories, in old newspaper and magazine clippings, whether it be from “Mickey”, “Hawaa*” or from “Kawakeb*”.

published at raseef22

arabic

Translated by magazineshoebox@gmail.com