Russia commemorates victory in World War II; key pillar of Putin’s government

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia dressed up with patriotic airs Thursday for Victory Day, a celebration of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II that President Vladimir Putin has made a pillar of his 25 years of power and a justification for its offensive in Ukraine.

Although 79 years after Berlin fell to the Red Army there are few living veterans of what Russia calls the Great Patriotic War, the victory over Nazi Germany remains the most important and revered symbol of the country’s power and a key piece of its National identity.

Thursday’s celebrations in Russia, led by Putin, who this week began his fifth term in office, remember that war sacrifice and have become its most important secular holiday.

“Victory Day unites all generations,” Putin said in a speech during the parade in Red Square, celebrated on the coldest May 9 in decades as a few flakes of snow fell. “We move forward wielding our centuries-old traditions and are confident that together we will ensure a free and secure future for Russia.”

As the battalions passed by and military equipment – ​​both new and old – rumbled over the cobblestones of the square, the sky briefly cleared to reveal military planes crossing in the sky, some of which left contrails. with the white, red and blue colors of the Russian flag.

He praised the troops fighting in Ukraine for their bravery and criticized the West, which he accused of “stoking regional conflicts, interethnic and interreligious discord, and attempting to contain sovereign and independent centers of global development.”

Amid tensions between Russia and the West soaring to their highest level since the Civil War over the conflict in Ukraine, Putin delivered another grim reminder of Russia’s nuclear capabilities.

“Russia will do anything to avoid global confrontation, but it will not allow anyone to threaten us,” he said.

Nuclear-capable Yars ICBMs were also displayed at the parade, reinforcing their message.

The Soviet Union lost about 27 million people in the war, an estimate many historians consider conservative, and virtually every family lost members.

Nazi troops took over much of the western Soviet Union when they invaded in June 1941, before being forced to retreat to Berlin itself, where Soviet troops raised the hammer and sickle flag of the USSR over the shattered capital. . The United States, the United Kingdom, France and other allies commemorate the end of the war in Europe on May 8.

The immense suffering and sacrifice in cities like Stalingrad, Kursk, and Putin’s native Leningrad — now St. Petersburg — continues to serve as a powerful symbol of the country’s ability to prevail against seemingly overwhelming challenges.

Since coming to power on the last day of 1999, Putin has made May 9 an important piece of his political agenda, with displays of military strength. Columns of tanks and missiles pass through Red Square and squadrons of fighter jets fly overhead while decorated veterans watch the parade. Many wear the black and orange ribbon of St. George, traditionally associated with Victory Day.

About 9,000 soldiers, including a thousand who fought in Ukraine, participated in Thursday’s parade.

Although the ambassadors of the United States and the United Kingdom did not attend, Putin was accompanied by other dignitaries and presidents of several former Soviet nations and a few other Moscow allies, such as the leaders of Cuba, Guinea-Bissau and Laos.

Putin, 71, often talks about his family’s history and shares memories of his father, who fought on the front lines during the Nazi siege of the city and was seriously wounded.

Putin says his father, also named Vladimir, came home from a military hospital during the war to find workers trying to take his wife, Maria, who had been mistakenly presumed dead from starvation. But her husband claimed that she was not dead, just unconscious, weakened by hunger. His first child, Viktor, died during the siege when he was 3 years old. More than a million Leningrad residents died during the 872-day blockade, most of them from starvation.

For years, Putin carried a photo of his father at Victory Day marches, as did others honoring war veteran relatives, in a procession known as the “Immortal Regiment.”

Those demonstrations were suspended during the coronavirus pandemic and then for security reasons after the start of fighting in Ukraine.

As part of its efforts to revalidate the Soviet legacy and thwart any attempts to challenge it, Russia has introduced laws that criminalize the “rehabilitation of Nazism,” including punishing the “desecration” of monuments or challenging the Kremlin’s versions of the history of Nazism. World War II.

When he sent troops to Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Putin cited World War II in an attempt to justify his actions, which kyiv and its Western allies called an unprovoked war of aggression. Putin said Moscow’s main goal was the “denazification” of Ukraine, and falsely described the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish and lost relatives in the Holocaust, as neo-Nazis.

Putin attempted to show Ukraine’s veneration of some of its nationalist leaders, who cooperated with the Nazis in World War II, as an indication that kyiv was sympathetic to the Nazis. He frequently made unfounded references to Ukrainian nationalists such as Stepan Bandera, murdered by a Soviet spy in Munich in 1959, as justification for Russian military actions in Ukraine.

Many observers see Putin’s emphasis on World War II as part of his efforts to regain the influence and prestige of the USSR and employ Soviet practices.

“It is the constant identification with the USSR as the victor of Nazism and the lack of any other solid legitimacy that forced the Kremlin to declare denazification as the goal of the war,” Nikolay Epplee said in a commentary for the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

The Russian leadership, he noted, has “retained itself in a vision of the world limited by the Soviet past.”