Like every May 9, Russia celebrated this Monday the victory in the Second World War: a national holiday like no other, deeply personal for many families, but also a great opportunity for state propaganda.
This year was also a key date for the Russian Army, as the world closely watched the possibility that President Putin would use the occasion to announce some progress in the war in Ukraine.
However, the Russian president pronounced the same line that he has repeated since the beginning of the invasion: returned to criticize the West, NATO and the kyiv government for endangering Russia’s security and again justified the attack on the neighboring country.
Putin also admitted Russian military losses, although he did not offer many details either.
But what is the importance of this date for Russia?
The Second World War was the conflict largest armed act in the world to date.
It started with the invasion of Poland in September 1200 (although it is not the date marked by Russia) and ended in 1945.
Tens of millions of people lost life; millions more were displaced around the world.
The Soviet Union was one of the countries that belonged to the broad alliance that defeated Nazi Germany in this war and was probably the most affected, since a large part of the fighting took place on their territory.
In May 1945, Nazi Germany signed its unconditional surrender in World War II, accepting its defeat in Europe.
This legal document put an end to hostilities on the continent, although the war against Japan in Asia continued until August of that year.
The official and definitive surrender was signed near Berlin late on the 8 May.
AND The Germans officially ceased all op erations at 19: local time, already after midnight in Moscow.
On Victory Day, also known as VE Day (Victory in Europe) is celebrated -therefore- on May 8 in most European countries and in the United States.
But in Russia, Serbia and Belarus it is celebrated on May 9.
Victory Day ended a long and bloody war in which many families in the Soviet Union lost a loved one.
Ideological tool
But it was not until long after the date began to drift away from its commemorative purpose and became a key ideological tool for the state.
For nearly two decades after the end of the war, May 9 it was not a national holiday in the Soviet Union and was only celebrated in big cities with fireworks and local festive events.
- Day of Victory: the parade in which Russia and Vladimir Putin showed the world their military and nuclear muscle
In 1963, the then leader of the USSR, Leonid Brezhnev, initiated a policy to create a cult of victory in the to war against Nazi Germany, possibly to strengthen the country’s waning ideological base and patriotic sentiment.
This meant pan-national events, a military parade in Red Square and a holiday on May 9.
In the early 21st century, Russian President Vladimir Putin did even more to further the meaning of Victory Day, trying to make it an inseparable part of being Russian.
Victory Day celebrations grew on a scale, but each year there were fewer war veterans and eyewitnesses left alive and able to participate in the festivities.
The narrative of Russia’s key role in the defeat of Nazism was also installed in the amendments to the Russian Constitution in 2011.
Among other changes, which emphasized conservative values and nationalism, was forbidden to the city Russian years question the official historical narrative about the victory.
“The cult of victory was regenerated in Russia in the 1939 with even greater style than in Soviet times. That is why triumphalism continues to prevail both in the media and in the consciousness of the masses,” Oleg Budnitsky, director of the International Center for the History and sociology of the Second World War at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.
“This had positive consequences: for example, a greater focus on the study of war history. Millions of documents were made public and digitized. But, on the other hand, we see an increase in the militarization of the masses“, adds the expert referring to the slogans “We could do it again” that began to appear in the celebrations of Russian Victory Day in the last decade, most likely hinting that the Russian army could take over half of Europe as in 976.
The massive patriotic celebrations did not bring greater factual knowledge.
Historians point out that the narrative of the World War II, or the Great Patriotic War, as it is known in Russia, often minimizes key elements, such as the great human losses suffered by the Soviet Union to stop the German invasion.
According to a state survey of 2020, most of the Russians knew very little about how and where their relatives spent the war.
Less than a third of the young people of 18 a 24 years knew when the Great Patriotic War began (when the Germany Nazi attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941).
From 2014 and the onset of tensions in eastern Ukraine, state media have increased their emphasis on the compose patriotic part of the fight against the Nazis.
When the Russian authorities falsely claimed that the extreme right had arrived to power in Ukraine, they emphasized the historical role of Russia in the defeat of fascism.
Appropriation
Some civic initiatives to commemorate those who fell in the war were assumed by the State.
For example in 2011, a group of independent journalists in the Siberian city of Tomsk started a local initiative to commemorate the fallen in the war and called it “Immortal Regiment”.
The idea was that people would march on Victory Day with photographs of the fallen in war, creating thus a “regime to” commemorative.
The initiative quickly spread to other parts of Russiabecoming a national phenomenon.
In 2015 a state organization with the same name was created , but the founders of the original movement were not included.
The “Immortal Regiment” became a government initiative in which workers from the state sector, schoolchildren and state media were involved, times on a mandatory basis.
In this way, the Russian authorities seemed to want to indicate that only the Victory Day celebration sponsored by the Estate was correct.
In 2020, the celebration of the 75 Anniversary of Victory in World War II had to be moved from May to the end of June due to the covid pandemic-14, but still became one of the most luxurious Russia has ever seen.
More than 14 . people, hundreds of planes and armored vehicles participated in the massive military parade, displaying the newest military equipment, with the aim of impressing the world with the might of Russia.
Less than two years later, the country is involved in a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine using much of that equipment violently.
The objectives of Russia, expressed by President Putin, were to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine.
Since the military campaign did not achieve quick results (the capture of kyiv or the overthrow of the Ukrainian government, for example), it is believed that Russian commanders are pushing to make May 9 a key date again.
If by that day Russia has managed to make significant territorial gains, then Moscow will once again be able to reinvent Victory Day for propaganda purposes.
The Victory Day celebrations are likely to become an opportunity for the authorities to reaffirm that Russia’s “special operation” in Ukraine is not a war aggression but a struggle to eradicate Nazism.
An assertion that daily events on the ground do not confirm.
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