Celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Great Victory on 9 May 2020 had to be accompanied by a specifically triumphant ceremonial parade and the Immortal Regiment mass march. Due to pandemic, the Russian president postponed all the celebrations for an indefinite period of time. This is the first time over the whole post-war period when the Red Square will remain empty during the Victory Day. But our hearts will not be empty – they will be overwhelmed with devotion.
In this special issue of “Russian Mind” magazine we recall the great exploit of our fathers and grandfathers who shed blood for us on the fronts. With this, heroism shown by our mothers and grandmothers who worked long and hard under the “Everything for the front!” slogan, will also be never forgotten.
It is impossible to hold tears when thinking of ordinary civil population who had no time or failed to evacuate themselves and suffered from death-dealing yoke of Nazi aggressors. Many of them moved to forests. Thanks to their valiance, a mass partisan army reached the exact enemy rear.
Terrible statistics also speaks for itself: the occupied areas accounted to almost 14 million innocent war victims among civilians. My grandmother Katya was one of them. This is why the revisionist campaign built up here, in Europe, is especially offensive to me.
On the quiet of criticism of the Soviet regime, the heroic victory of our people itself got to be negated. The facts which were obvious for people surviving the war, – including Germans, – turned to be abominably blemished and inverted.
Whether we like it or not, a strain of memory was put on Russia. When the banners previously owned by defeated Hitlerian hordes were thrown down exactly in Moscow, on the Red Square, the German Army was still holding several fortified tactical localities at the French Atlantic coast, Denmark and the most part of Norway, parts of Greece and the Netherlands. So, actually the victory of the Western coalition was theoretical rather than real.
Here and now they tell us that it was their victory, not ours. Well, let us not give up again!
Victor Loupan
