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Russia Profile
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May 6, 2005
The Meaning of Victory
By Olga Nikitina and Andrei Zolotov

A Constant Feeling Through Decades of Change

For Nadezhda Popova, one of the few women ever to have been awarded the country’s highest military honor Hero of the Soviet Union, May 9, 1945 was not only Victory Day, but also the day of her engagement. The deputy squadron commander of the legendary 46th regiment of female night-bomber pilots, she was in Berlin when the war ended. She and her future husband, also a pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union, left a simple piece of graffiti on the walls of the Reichstag: «Nadya Popova from the Donbas. S. Kharlamov. Saratov.»

“It was as if we put our signatures there to register our marriage,” recalled Popova, who is now 84. “That was the day that he proposed we stay together forever.”

For war veterans, May 9 is a very important, intimate holiday whether or not it was the day they got engaged.

But as Russia is gearing up to throw a grand celebration for the 60th anniversary of the victory, it is important to assess its meaning for both post-war generations, including the post-Soviet youth, and for the government, which is clearly adding an ideological component that is important for Russia’s nascent post-1991 national identity, to this popular holiday and day of rememberance for the more than 25 million who died.

Celebrations this year are also special because of the unprecedented international debate, particularly with the heads of the Baltic states, who view May 9 not as a holiday marking their “liberation” from the Nazis, but a day marking their “occupation” by the Soviet Union. Hence the alarm expressed in Russia today about attempts to “revise” the history of World War II and diminish the role of the Soviet army and people in the defeat of Germany.

“The upcoming 60th anniversary of the great victory is a holiday for the strength and dignity of our country, a day of sacred memory and pride for its people,” President Vladimir Putin said in February.

Always Revered

The unique nature of Victory Day, which was only declared an official holiday in the mid-1960s, among other Soviet-era holidays is that in a nation that sustained such incredible losses in what we call the “Great Patriotic War,” in a country where this war struck virtually every family in one way or another, May 9 was – and remains – the only official holiday with a real, non-political meaning for almost everybody.

That, in turn, has been used by successive Soviet leaders as a means to develop legitimacy – first for Stalin, then for the Communist Party and system, and for the government today – in the eyes of the people, for whom it was the moment of unity regardless of, and often despite, their attitude to the regime in power at the time.

“The victory in the Great Patriotic War is one of the few milestones of our history that is unanimously accepted by the entire people of Russia as an event of paramount importance, disregarding one’s confessional, partisan or ethnic belonging,” said Metropolitan Adrian, head of the Russian Orthodox Old Believers’ Church – the largest of the groups that split from the Russian Orthodox Church as a result of reforms in the 17th century. He spoke at a recent high-profile conference dedicated to the victory anniversary and organized by the Russian Orthodox Church, with whom his church has often had strained relations. “It was not the Soviet power, but the common calamity and common historical destiny that fostered the unity to turn back fascism,” he said, going as far as describing the victory as an “icon of unity of the Russian people” – a very strong statement for an Old Believer.

Not the First

An understanding of the meaning of the concept of the “Great Patriotic War” is also vital to an understanding of the feelings most Russians have towards the day. This war, as Russians see it, began on June 22, 1941, when Germany attacked the Soviet Union, and ended with the defeat of Nazi Germany. It did not begin with the German attack on Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, which was swiftly followed by the Soviet Union’s annexation of Eastern Poland (usually described in Soviet historiography as the re-unification of Eastern and Western Belarus) and the subsequent annexation of the Baltic States. And it ended on May 9, 1945, when the capitulation was signed in Berlin-Karlshorst, thus not including the war against Japan in the Far East, which the Soviet Union entered afterwards.

Although the name is a reference to the Patriotic War of 1812, when Russia repelled Napoleon, the later usage also includes the campaigns through Central and Eastern Europe, which is not the case with regard to Russia’s European campaign of 1813 and 1814, which ended with tsarist troups in Paris.

The controversial episodes of the World War II era, as far as the Soviet Union is concerned – the “Winter War” with Finland in 1939 and 1940 and the annexation of then Eastern Poland and the Baltic states – is left outside the conception of the Great Patriotic War, thus leaving it in Russian minds as an entirely just war, in which the Soviet Union was the victim of aggression, sufferered greatly and fought tenaciously, and ultimately emerged as the victor – with some reluctant help from its allies.

The victory in May of 1945 also serves as one of the main foundations for Russia’s claims to international status – a topic that has only become more sensitive following the loss of parts of the “empire” at the beginning of the 1990s.

Yet the historical and ideological concepts only serve as background to the main meaning of the May 9th holyday in the Russian hearts – that of a day of rememberance or, as a popular Soviet song put it – “It’s a holiday with tear-filled eyes.” Hence, the seemingly endless lines of people laying flowers at war memorials around the country on May 9th every year – demonstrations arguably much more telling about the holiday’s meaning than the official parades that have been held on jubilee years in Red Square over the decades. Also, because the Russian Orthodox Church, which is extremely reluctant to implement any changes in its liturgical life – decreed in 1995 to make May 9th a rememberance day in its calendar and mandated memorial services in all of its 26,000 parishes worldwide.

“Our country won this war with huge losses – much greater than those of the allies or of the German army,” said Yevgeny Alyokhin, 28, an actor. “The Russian people achieved this victory not thanks to, but despite the fact that, for example, Stalin exterminated the best, most brilliant military commanders right before the war broke out.”

Far gone are the days when many Russians attributed the victory to the merits of the “Generalissimo” or, when he fell out of favor during the Nikita Khru-shchev era, to the “leading and guiding role of the Communist Party,” as late Soviet textbooks taught. But disappointment with the Soviet regime has not led to the devaluation of Victory Day. On the contrary, the disillusionment with the rest of the country’s 20th-century history, including the disintegration of the Soviet Union, has made the heroic deeds of simple Russians during the war even more distinct, and made the memory sacred for so many.

“On Victory Day, we celebrate our people’s victory over fascism,” Alyokhin said. “The war was won by the united Russian people, and not by the state, the Communist party or even by distinguished generals.”

A People’s Holiday

It would be fair to say that Alyokhin’s take on the Great Patriotic War is shared today by most Russians, and resonates closely with Leo Tolstoy’s concept of the “spirit of history,” which he formulated in War and Peace in relation to the 1812 Patriotic War: History is made not by one, even distinguished person, but by people and peoples.

Many observers today lament that the reverence for the war and its heroes is evaporating among the very young, post-Soviet Russians. But some Soviet-era traditions, such as going to a war memorial as part of wedding-day celebrations, have clearly taken root and are unlikely to disappear in the near future.

“Of course, it’s a tradition [to do so], but I take such things seriously,” said Anton Zharov, a 26-year-old engineering student who came with his bride, Natasha, to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, near the Kremlin, in March. “What is the connection between the joyful event for us today and the death, the horror of war? Why is this fire burning? To honor those, thanks to whom World War II was finished and we didn’t remain under the Germans. To people who gave their lives for others.”

Other Sides

Yet for Zharov and many of his age, the loss of life in that war is not limited to their compatriots. Anton recalled that when he and Natasha went to Germany to visit a friend, he showed them a book with nothing but photos of German cities ruined by allied bombings.

“That was a shock for me,” Zharov said. “I also realized how many peaceful Germans died in those bombings.”

According to a recent survey by the Levada Center public opinion research company, half of the country’s population is in favor of building a monument in Russia to commemorate the victims of World War II on both sides.

Few people realize today that Victory Day was only established as an official holiday in 1965, a year when a Victory Day parade was held on Red square, and repeated on jubilee years in addition to the Nov. 7 and May 1 parades held annually in Soviet times.

Historian Mikhail Narinsky, the head of the Department of Foreign Policy at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), said that after the famous Victory Parade on June 24, 1945, during which the images of Marshal Georgy Zhukov leading the parade of army columns on a white horse and of Russian soldiers throwing the captured military banners of German units on the ground in from of the Lenin Mausoleum were burned into the minds of the people and the pages of history, Zhukov fell out of favor with Stalin, who refused to celebrate Victory Day on a grand scale again.

“[Stalin] was still afraid of competition from military leaders,” Narinsky said. He added that Leonid Brezhnev, who himself was a war veteran, enjoyed the holiday and contributed to the growth of its importance in official propaganda, including issuing a medal for the veterans on the 10th anniversary of the Victory every decade.

Today, Narinsky said, May 9th remains the most significant date in Russian history that is also a watermark for Western democracies.

“So Victory Day now is an important element of legitimizing the existing regime and ruling order,” he said.