Russians remember World War II with a victory of their mind

Eighty miles from Moscow, Park echoes to the sound of explosions and shooting.

As thick gray smoke rabbits rise in the air, the Red Army clicks through a bridge and fights to control a small island. More Soviet soldiers arrive by boat from the lake.

Once on the island, they destroy the swastika and replace it with the hammer and the sickle of the Soviet Union. Victory.

A large crowd is watching from the shore safety. What they are witnesses is a historical resumption of one of the last battles for Berlin in 1945. This led to the surrender of Nazi Germany and what Moscow still calls the big victory.

The battle for Berlin, which unfolds in front of me in Dubna, is one of the many events in Russia for the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory in World War II.

The anniversary receives great attention in a country where the national idea is built much about the term Russia as Victor and Victim.

“I’m here because my grandfather fights in this war,” one of the viewers, Katya, tells me.

“He disappeared near Berlin. Much later, we realized that he had been killed in January 1945.”

Eighty years of Katya’s son fights in Ukraine.

“My son is at war now. He is in the” special military operation, “she tells me.” He voluntarily tried to expel him from it. But he hasn’t listened to anyone since a child.

“I’m my own king,” he told me. “Go, then, if you are a king,” I replied. He and his friend went together. His friend was killed. “

Katya’s family history is the story of different generations that fight on the front line.

But in many different circumstances.

In 1941, Germany of Hitler invaded the Soviet Union to try to conquer the largest country in the world and to secure world domination. Soviet soldiers (Katya’s grandfather among them) fought to liberate their country from the Nazis. The victory for Moscow came with enormous human costs: more than 27 million Soviet citizens were killed in what was known here as the Great Fatherland or the Great Patriotic War.

But in 2022, Russia began a large -scale invasion of its neighbor. What the Kremlin still calls a “special military operation” is widely regarded as an attempt at forced Ukraine back into the geopolitical orbit of Russia. In March 2022, the UN General Assembly predominantly adopted a resolution condemning Russia’s “aggression”.

Nevertheless, the Russian authorities represented the war in Ukraine as a continuation of World War II. The official story here creates a parallel reality, in which Russia again fights Nazism and fascism, in Ukraine and throughout Europe. Russia, the country that invaded Ukraine, presents itself as a victim of external aggression.

“Historically and sociological victory in the Great Patriotic War has always been a cornerstone of the Russian united consciousness,” Novaya Gazeta Columnist Andrei Kolesnikov explains: “Because so far there is no adhesive: only this event. It has always been so, since the time of Brezhnev.

“But what is happening now is something special. Now the Great Patriotic War is represented as only the first step in our constant war with the West, against Euro Fascism. The special military operation as a continuation of the Great Patriotic War: this is something new.”

In Russia, television plays a key role in the spread of the official message that Europe cannot be trusted then and cannot be trusted now. Recently, on Russian television, I saw a documentary entitled “Europe against Russia. Hitler of the Crusaders”. It was about how European countries cooperated with the Nazis during World War II.

There is no mention of the pact of non -aggression since 1939 between Hitler and Stalin: under his secret protocol Germany and the USSR have carved the spheres of influence in Eastern Europe.

Last month, a Russian television presenter launched a tirade against German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, an unwavering supporter of military support for Ukraine. The host of the talk show called the German leader a “Nazi fraud” for commentary on Russia. Turning directly to the Chancellor, the anchor said the Russians “hold you and your comrades responsible for the murder of 27 million Soviet citizens.”

Iconography is at the heart of ideology. In the town of Khimki, near Moscow, a recently opened monument depicts a soldier of the Red Army side by side with a Russian fighting in Ukraine. Photos of framing Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine are placed under the two fighter figures.

The inscription reads: “By maintaining the past, we protect the future!”

Wars have passed and present: collected in bronze.

At the beginning of Victory Day, Russia was strewn with reminders of the big victory. Last month, a Soyuz rocket decorated to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, detonated by the cosmodrome Baikonur.

Back to Earth, at a maternity hospital in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, newborn babies are dressed in miniature hats and nails of the Red Army.

On its channel, the hospital, the hospital, explained that babies for babies served “as a reminder of generations, the courage of the defenders of the Fatherland and of how even the smallest Russian citizen is part of a great history.”

In Moscow, the Russian word for “Pobeda” – is everywhere: on giant billboards, on posters in the windows of the shops, even glued to the side of the road breakdowns. Underground, the special “Victory Trains” on the Moscow subway were thrown away with images from World War II and the words: “Be proud!” and “Remember!”

The tanks roll on the main street of Moscow, Tverskaya, rehearsals for the parade on the big May 9 in Red Square. In Soviet times, after 1945, the military parades on Victory Day were rare. Under Vladimir Putin, they have become a key element of Russia’s most receiving national holiday – a day not only for remembering the victims of World War II, but also of showing the Russian military force and uniting people around the idea of ​​Russia as an invincible nation.

The USSR was indeed victorious in the Great Patriotic War. But eighty years on, and despite the confident pronouncements of Russian officials, the victory escapes Moscow in Ukraine. The Kremlin’s Special Military Operation was expected to last for several days, a maximum of several weeks. After more than three years of war – and huge casualties from both sides – it is not yet clear how and when the fighting will end.

The Kremlin says 29 world leaders, including China XI Jinping, will attend the Victory Day parade. According to Moscow, Serbian President Alexandar Vucic and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fiko will visit Russia for memory. Providing security to the military parade and guests of Red Square is already a top priority for the Kremlin. Moreover, after two consecutive nights, the Ukrainian drone attacks aimed at Moscow.

Back in the bottom, the German resistance fell apart and the Red Army was in full control. The recovery is over.

Some viewers here believe that the official depiction of Russia as a besieged fortress threatened by the West.

“Both Britain and America have betrayed us and threatened us,” Lydia tells me. “But we are sustainable. You can’t beat Russia.”

When I talk to 98-year-old Fyodor Melnikov, he does not go into politics. The military show caused painful memories of him. Fidor’s brother was killed in the Great Patriotic War.

“War is a terrifying thing,” Fidor tells me. “People should be able to live freely. Let them work, let them live their lives, let them die naturally.”

Fidor wrote a poem about his late brother, about war. He recites it for me. In translation, it sounds like this:

“Uniforms I have never wore,

A battle I have never seen.

But in my mind I see

My brother goes to war.

The only thing you told me

Before he went, it was:

“Live, little brother, be fine.”

I’ll win home. “

On Friday, along with all of Russia, Fyodor Melnikov will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the big victory of 1945.

But it will be a day for memorization: friends and family who never returned.

A day to recognize the price of war.