Victory Day 2015

This year marked the seventieth anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany by the western allies and the Soviet Union.

It is a shame that in the build up to Victory Day the differences between Russia and certain western countries were not put to one side.  Instead, the occasion was politicised, and from my point of view the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the president of the United States and European heads of government.  On such a significant anniversary those countries (including my own) should have sent their representatives to Moscow to pay tribute to the millions of men and women who died in the fight against Nazism.  It is only right and proper to recognise the massive role that the Soviet Union played in the final destruction of the Third Reich.  There would not have been such a victory without the Soviet Union.  This is a fact that many in the west tend to downplay, or ignore completely.  There are many who still think that America, or Britain, won the war.  Of course, the western allies made their own significant contributions and aided the Soviet Union with arms through the Arctic convoys, but the fact still remains:  the bulk of the fighting was done on the Eastern Front:  around Leningrad, outside Moscow, in Stalingrad, across the marshes of Belorussia, and finally, to the German capital, Berlin.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties_of_the_Soviet_Union

The Victory Day Parade in Moscow - 9th May, 2015

A student of mine remarked that he didn't like the idea of showing so much current military hardware in the parades.  He said that such an occasion should only really focus on the memory of those who lost their lives and not with such an overt display of Russian military power.  He had a point.  It's not a time of celebration.  But, I do feel that the military parades across the Russian Federation were important in that they gave an opportunity for serving soldiers, sailors and airmen to honour their family members and predecessors.  

Victory Day banner above Nevsky Prospekt

Saint Petersburg held their parade on Palace Square in the morning.  In the late afternoon I went to watch the Eternal March (around Vosstaniya Square and Nevsky Prospekt):  a street parade of veterans, cadets, reenactors in period costume and ordinary people carrying placards with pictures of relatives who lived (and died) during the Great Patriotic War.

    

This was my second time at this event in Saint Petersburg.  Unlike last year, the sun was shining.  Like last year, I felt moved and returned home in a sombre mood, thinking of the tragic loss of human life.