Eternal memory to all veterans and heroes of the Great Patriotic War and to all innocent victims
By Augustin Sokolovski, Doctor of Theology, priest
This year, people of good will and the Russian Orthodox Church commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory. For the Church, as the People of God, wandering in history, this historical remembrance takes on biblical contours. On the eightieth anniversary of the Victory, the sacred number forty is multiplied by two and becomes a double duty of remembrance and thanksgiving.
The Church thanks God for preserving our Motherland, this Earthly City, which, having overcome the incredible hardships and trials of the Great Patriotic War, stood firm, and was preserved for future prosperity. At the same time, the Church thanks God for the heroism and self-sacrifice of all those who participated in the nationwide feat. On Victory Day, May 9, the Church prays for all the many victims of the War, and especially remembers the fallen soldiers, deceased veterans, home front workers and all those involved in the common cause. The Church remembers all our fellow citizens who lived in that incredibly difficult, tragic and heroic time. “For the memory and remission of sins of all who have departed from this age, in the Orthodox faith: our ancestors, our grandmothers and grandfathers, our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, our sisters, our sons and our daughters; for all who have fallen asleep in the hope of resurrection and eternal life,” this is how the Church begins its prayer at the beginning of the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, the rite of which is distinguished by its special solemnity. These initial prayers are part of the rite of preparation for the eucharistic liturgy, called the offering in the language of Orthodox worship, or, in Greek, the proskomedia. In liturgical prayers, the dead are most often called the departed, that is, literally, those who have fallen asleep, or are in a temporary sleep.
Initially, memorial days were introduced by the Church so that it could remember all those who no one else can remember and for whom no one else can pray. This is the meaning of universal, that is, obligatory, memorial remembrances. For the understanding of the Western reader, we note that in Western Christianity these Orthodox memorial days correspond to November 2, when the memory of all souls is celebrated. There are only two such universal obligatory memorial days: on Saturday nine days before Lent and on Saturday nine days before the Feast of All Saints in Orthodoxy, that is, on Saturday before Pentecost. There is always a special symbolism in biblical and liturgical numbers. These are two Universal Memorial Saturdays of commemoration in Orthodoxy.
There are also days of remembrance of fallen and deceased soldiers in the liturgical calendar. There are few such days, and they can be forgotten over time. Because human memory, even grateful memory, is unfortunately short.
The day of remembrance of the soldiers who took part in the Battle of Kulikovo Field, which took place on September 8, 1380, was originally St Demetrius Saturday. It is celebrated on the Saturday before the day of remembrance of the Holy Great Martyr Dmitry (October 26, or November 8, according to the modern Gregorian calendar). Hence its name. This is approximately the fortieth day after the historical date of the Battle of Kulikovo.
Let us recall that Kulikovo Field is in the southeast of the modern Tula region in the upper reaches of the Don River. Here, for the first time in history, the Russian army was able not only to resist, but also to defeat the army of the Mongol conquerors. This event is considered the beginning of the liberation of the Russian land from the Mongol yoke. It is comparable to the Iberian Reconquista.
It is quite remarkable that in the history of Christianity there were only two civilizations and two peoples, Russian and Iberian, Spanish, respectively, who were able to gain freedom after a long period of domination by Islamic conquerors.
It is remarkable that «both Reconquistas» took place in the West and East of Europe respectively and, having begun at completely different times, ended almost simultaneously. The completion of the Reconquista grew into the discovery of the New World for the Iberians, and Russia began to spread far to the East, to the very edge of the Eurasian continent right up to Russian America. In our time of general discord and confusion of nations (cf. Luke 21:25), it is very important to remember such amazing communities of historical destinies.
But let’s return to the commemoration. St Demetrius Saturday is named after the Holy Great Martyr Demetrius. According to his life, Saint Demetrius suffered for his faith in Christ as the governor of Thessaloniki around 306. In popular piety, he is considered the patron saint of pious rulers and Orthodox soldiers.
Such details are important for understanding the essence of church commemorations. They help us find the keys to a proper theological understanding of the memory of the victorious and sorrowful events of modern times.
In the image of St Demetrius Memorial Saturday and so that the commemoration of the heroes and participants of the Great Patriotic War would continue for centuries and acquire the contours of prayerful remembrance, the Church, by the definition of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, decided to hold a special annual commemoration of deceased soldiers on Victory Day, May 9. We remember “the soldiers and all who gave their lives for the faith, the Fatherland and the people, and all who died in suffering,” the synodal definition says.
This was decided in the autumn of 1994, when many of the now deceased veterans were still alive. This decision, making the holiday a day of remembrance, was worldly wise and, at the same time, prophetic. The Church, as a Community of Interpreters, has a collective, in the language of theology, catholic or conciliar ability to look at the world and the course of events in history through the eyes of God.
Everything in the world is temporary, and every bright celebration eventually becomes a remembrance of those who were involved in it. Moreover, this decision to make Victory Day a remembrance would have been made much earlier if the Church in the Soviet Union had not been subjected to pressure from those in power and atheist ideology. The Church believes that through the prayers of the saints, especially those who lived in recent times and were partly our contemporary, she has gained freedom for the revival of Faith.
The Bible Book of Genesis tells how the brothers sold the righteous Joseph to the nomads. They handed him over to the Egyptians. On an unjust charge, he ended up in prison. «But the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison,» says the Scripture (Gen. 39:21). In the 20th century, something similar happened to the Russian Church. But with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Stalin, whom his parents once named after the biblical Joseph, and although he himself hardly came to faith, remembered the Church for the sake of saving the Fatherland. In the fall of 1943, the Russian Church was able to elect a Patriarch. The existence of the Orthodox Church in the eyes of the state became legal. Such are the inscrutable ways of God in history (Rom. 11:33).
According to the liturgical charter of the Orthodox Church, commemoration is not only possible at a memorial service, panikhida or litany, held at a cemetery, but is also necessary when the Church gathers in the temple at the liturgy to pray for all those who lived and died. The Church fervently commemorates all those whom we knew and whom we did not know, whom we sympathize with, whom we grieve for, but also those whom we never knew, about whom, sometimes, we never heard in life, but on whose intercession and boldness before God we hope, for these people need to be commemorated together with the righteous. «With the saints give rest, O Christ, to the souls of Thy servants,» is the Church’s key prayer for the dead. It is a true hymn of Christian hope.
“Let us also pray for those who have been mown down by war, those who have been caught in earthquakes, killed by robbers or burned by fire; for those who have become prey to wild animals, birds, wild monsters or anything that lives in the sea; for those who have disappeared without a trace; for those who have been struck by lightning, caught in the cold in the mountains, on the road, in the desert or alone; for those who have been carried away by sorrow or joy; for those who have suffered, in good days and in misfortunes, in prison or in camps, for those who have been killed on the road, or whom hail, snow, torrential rains, rocks or earth have surrounded and covered and who have fallen suddenly; for those who have been poisoned or suffocated; for those who have received all kinds of injuries and wounds,” the Liturgy of Basil the Great continues its prayer. Reading the memoirs of Andrei Platonov, Viktor Astafyev and other front-line soldiers, we remember how great the malice of the Nazi invaders was and how many people they killed not by force of arms, but by treachery, cruelty, driven by hateful hostility. The Church prays for all the innocently killed.
The Lord Jesus «lives forever and has a permanent priesthood. Therefore, he is also able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them» (Heb. 7:24–25). This means that the memory of all those whom no one else remembers – their names and faces, their eyes and smiles, their bodies and memories, their joys and sorrows, their disappointments and successes, their biography and life – is remembered by the Lord Jesus. By His prayer He grants them his redeeming grace. We, remembering those whom no one remembers, join in this life-giving power. Grace is communion, grace is communication. The Church believes that the Lord will never let go of those whom he himself loved.
«Let us pray for people of all ages: the old, the young, those in the prime of life, teenagers, children, those who have not seen the light of day, men and women; “Those whom we have not mentioned because we do not know them or have forgotten them, or because they are too many, remember them all, O God, You who know the name and age of each one,” the prayer continues. This prayer of the Church is supported by divine Scripture. “And I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the heaven and the earth fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life,” the Book of Revelation says (cf. Rev. 20:11–13). Remembering the slogan that once seemed simply sorrowful, but now, when we have come to faith in Christ, has turned out to be deeply biblical, we repeat the words: “No one is forgotten, and nothing is forgotten.” No one is forgotten and nothing is forgotten before the merciful God.
The expression «Eternal Memory» has several meanings. It sounds different in different circumstances. So, it is the memory of relatives and friends about the departed, which will continue from generation to generation. Descendants will remember their ancestor, or ancestors. This memory will be very long, but after many generations it will still end. For nothing lasts forever under the sun.
In relation to heroes and veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the wish for eternal memory goes beyond the boundaries of a particular clan or family and becomes universal for all compatriots and people of good will. They will be remembered with gratitude. The human sea of remembering will never dry up. Because the community of memory will always make up for personal or family oblivion, eternal memory is overcoming the human tendency to forget.
Another meaning of the phrase «Eternal Memory» refers to the realm of the sacred. Although the heroic and the sacred often come into contact; to avoid turning Christianity into a civil religion, the Church tries not to identify these two spheres. As our contemporary, philosopher Giorgio Agamben (born 1942) writes, contrary to popular opinion, the etymology of the concept of «religious» is not, to connect the secular and the sacred, the human and the divine, but to separate them correctly and consistently. After all, the secular and everyday are valuable in themselves, and one comes to God by free will and in love for Jesus.
Finally, and this is the main thing, eternal memory is eternal life, real and full, it is life in Christ Jesus before God forever and ever.
Therefore, on Victory Day, and on all days of this jubilee year, when we celebrate the eightieth anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War, the Church asks God for eternal memory.
Eternal memory to all our relatives and friends, to all those we remember and forget, to all heroes of the Great Patriotic War, to all innocent victims, our dear brothers and sisters, eternal memory, Immortal Angelic Regiment!
