Day of remembrance and mourning

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The day of remembrance and mourning is in Russia ( Russian День памяти и скорби ), Belarus ( Belarusian Дзень усенароднай памяці ахвяр Вялікай Айчыннай вайны ) and the Ukraine ( Ukrainian День скорботи і вшанування пам'яті жертв війни ) annually on June 22 taking place, non-work day commemoration of the beginning of the German-Soviet war 1941 to 1945 and the around 27 million Soviet dead of this war.

In Russia, President Yeltsin's Decree No. 857 of June 8, 1996 made the day a day of remembrance: in memory of June 22, 1941, the first day of the attack by the Wehrmacht and its allied troops on the Soviet Union and thus at the beginning of the “Great Patriotic War”, to its victims and at the same time to the victims of all other wars “for the freedom and independence of the fatherland”. In this respect, it is similar to the German National Day of Mourning . The same happened in Ukraine with Decree No. 1245/2000 of November 17, 2000 of President Kuchma .

Memorial rites

On the Day of Mourning and Remembrance, families in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine go to cemeteries to quietly commemorate the war dead and candles of remembrance are lit. Candles of remembrance are also placed in public spaces. Russian state television commemorates the beginning of the war in detail. The national flag is lowered to half mast. Nationally wreaths at war memorials and the honor cemeteries laid down in Moscow at the tomb of the unknown soldier at the Kremlin wall by the tips of the government and parliament (President Putin , Prime Minister Mishustin , Federation Council Chairman Matvienko , Duma Chairman Volodin ) and representatives of veterans associations . There are memorial services, also with the participation of German church representatives, and monument dedications - as in 2017 at the Vienna Central Cemetery - for the Soviet prisoners of war who fell between 1941 and 1945 .

Importance and evaluation

In spite of all this, the day of remembrance and mourning is overshadowed by the culture of remembrance in Russia on May 9, the day of victory in 1945. This is staged politically and socially as a reason to be proud and communicated to the outside world. On the other hand, the memory of June 22, 1941 suffers on the one hand from the catastrophic initial defeats of the Soviet Army and the extremely high losses of soldiers and civilians during the entire German-Soviet War (according to current estimates, approx 27 million people, including approx. 11 million soldiers and approx. 16 million civilians, or approx. 14% of the pre-war population; the latest estimates put a number of up to 42 million Soviet war dead in the area; no other country had during the Second More soldiers and civilians lost during the Second World War), on the other hand, under the question of the extent to which Stalin with his leadership, the murder of a large part of the generals and the officer corps in the Great Terror 1937-1938, his expansion policy pursued with the Hitler-Stalin Pact , his outside - and defense policy 1939 to 1941 as well as the terror of the lock unit the NKVD contributed to these initial defeats and losses.

In Germany, June 22nd, "a day of world history" ( Matthias Platzeck ), is, despite a speech by then Foreign Minister Steinmeier on the 75th anniversary of the German Bundestag on June 22nd, 2016, one of the "blank spots in your own Memorial culture ", a" street survey about the significance of June 22nd would reveal general ignorance in this country ". The day has never received special attention and is still not present in the political calendar.

Miscellaneous

The Soviet leadership deliberately set the start of the Soviet operation Bagration , which led to the break-up of Army Group Center , on June 22, 1944, exactly three years after the start of the attack.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ О ДНЕ ПАМЯТИ И СКОРБИ . In: businesspravo . Retrieved June 28, 2017.
  2. ↑ Commemorative speech: The day the war began . In: Münchner Leerstellen , June 22, 2017. Retrieved June 23, 2017.
  3. ↑ Ulrich Heyden 1,418 candles - as many days as the war . In: Friday , June 22nd, 2017. Retrieved on June 28th, 2017.
  4. ↑ Dr. Ekaterina Machotina The Great Patriotic War in the culture of remembrance . In: Dekoder , June 22, 2017. Accessed June 23, 2017.
  5. ↑ Laying a wreath in the pouring rain: Putin and Medvedev in memory of the beginning of the war . In: Sputnik , June 22, 2017. Retrieved June 23, 2017.
  6. ↑ Day of mourning, day of reconciliation, day of hope . In: Evangelical Church in the Rhineland , June 22, 2016. Retrieved June 23, 2017.
  7. ^ Vienna: Memorial dedicated to Soviet prisoners of war . In: Sputnik , June 22, 2017. Retrieved June 23, 2017.
  8. ↑ Peter Jahn 27 million . In: Die Zeit , June 14, 2007. Retrieved June 27, 2017.
  9. ↑ Dr. Ekaterina Machotina The Great Patriotic War in the culture of remembrance . In: Dekoder , June 22, 2017. Retrieved June 27, 2017.
  10. ↑ June 1941 - The deep cut ( Memento from September 14, 2017 in the Internet Archive ). In: German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst . Retrieved June 28, 2017.
  11. ↑ Dr. Jekatarina Machotina June 22nd / 75 years of Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union . In: russlandkontrovers.de German-Russian Forum e. V. , June 21, 2016. Accessed June 27, 2017.
  12. ↑ Speech by the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on the 75th anniversary of Germany's attack on the Soviet Union in front of the German Bundestag on June 22, 2016 in Berlin . In: Die Bundesregierung , June 22, 2016. Retrieved June 28, 2017.
  13. ↑ Matthias Platzeck German culture of remembrance has serious gaps . In: Der Tagesspiegel , June 22, 2016. Retrieved June 28, 2017.
  14. ↑ Dr. Jekatarina Machotina June 22nd / 75 years of Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union . In: russlandkontrovers.de German-Russian Forum e. V. , June 21, 2016. Accessed June 27, 2017.
  15. ↑ Ulrich Heyden 1,418 candles - as many days as the war . In: Friday , June 22nd, 2017. Retrieved on June 28th, 2017.
  16. ↑ Erhard Eppler The crimes are white spots . In: taz.de , June 22, 2016. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  17. ↑ Why Stalin did not end the war in 1944 . In: Die Welt , June 25, 2014. Retrieved June 28, 2017.