day of the victory

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Neon sign for May 9 in front of the White House , the seat of government in Moscow (2009)
Saint George's ribbon - symbol of Victory Day and Russian national awareness

The Day of Victory ( Russian День Победы , scientific. Transliteration Den 'Pobedy ) is a public holiday on May 9 in Armenia , Azerbaijan , Belarus , Georgia , Guernsey , Jersey , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Moldavia , Russia and Serbia , as well as on 8. May in France ( Fête de la Victoire ), the Czech Republic and Slovakia . The Ukraine intends on May 8 of war victims. This holiday was introduced in the Soviet Union in 1965 to commemorate the day of victory over the German Reich in World War II and thus the end of the " Great Patriotic War ". After an intermediate phase of historical processing, May 9th became the most important holiday of the year in the Russian Federation after 1995.

In addition, May 8, 1945 stands as VE Day ( Victory in Europe Day ) or Liberation Day for the end of World War II in Europe . The date difference is historical.

history

The German commanders-in-chief of the army and navy , Keitel and von Friedeburg , and Stumpff for the air force , signed on the night of May 8th to 9th, 1945 in the Soviet headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst (Pioneer School I of the Wehrmacht , today the German-Russian Museum ) the ratifying document of the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht . The last signature was placed on the document on May 9 at 12:16 a.m. local time (German summer time ; 1:16 a.m. Moscow time ). That is why the celebrations for the end of the “Great Patriotic War” on May 9th continue to this day in Russia and in the other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

As early as 1947, Stalin's day was reduced to a normal working day. On his birthday in December 1948, many war invalids were taken to institutions, which meant that the consequences of the war were no longer seen daily in the cities. The day remained a silent day of remembrance until 1965. The Slavist Nina Tumarkin analyzed the change of the day in Brezhnev's time as a necessity for the system, due to the creeping devaluation of the Lenin cult: a cult of the “Great Patriotic War” was supposed to replace the October Revolution as the legitimation myth of the one-party state. Monuments were erected nationwide and the culture of remembrance sacralized .

In 1975, by resolution of the Central Committee of the SED, Victory Day was also celebrated as a public holiday in the GDR based on the Soviet model . In this way, the milestone anniversary (30th anniversary) of the unconditional surrender was commemorated, although Liberation Day had been abolished as a non-working holiday since 1967.

After 1985 historical facts came to light which, for example, questioned the previously celebrated “saving the freedom of Europe” and other narratives. Monuments were toppled. After the respective military parade was abolished on November 7th, there were no more parades in Russia from 1991 to 1995 either. In 1995 a parade was held again for the first time, but without the demonstration of military technology. It stayed that way until 2008.

The constitutional amendment , surprisingly initiated by President Putin in January 2020 , contains a section dealing with the “defense of the truth about the war”; Representing a deviation from the official view of history thus becomes a violation of the Basic Law.

Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic , all military parades on the 75th anniversary have been canceled or postponed, except for the one in the Belarusian capital Minsk, which took place regularly.

German Democratic Republic

On the 30th anniversary of the war's end in 1975, May 9 from was once Central Committee of the SED declared a non-working holiday, otherwise as in the Federal Republic of Germany on May 8, the day of the liberation of the German people from Hitler fascism the day of liberation thought , which was introduced as a public holiday in 1950 by a resolution of the People's Chamber and particularly emphasized the importance of the Red Army at the end of the war in Germany, while the contribution of the western allies to it received less attention. In 1967, with the introduction of the five-day week, the day became a working day again along with other public holidays . In 1985, on the 40th anniversary, May 8th was again celebrated as a real public holiday; see. Holidays in the GDR .

Germany

Since 2008, the Berlin VVN-BdA has been organizing public festivals in Berlin-Treptow near the Soviet memorial on May 9th together with various anti-fascist groups . Wreaths are laid at the memorial and visitors climb the base of the statue to leave flowers to commemorate the fallen.

There are guided tours of the memorial and a German-Russian cultural program with various musical performances. In 2010, visitors from Russia traveled on a day trip and the celebration was broadcast live on Russian television via satellite. The event was hardly mentioned in the German media.

Russian Federation

Veterans celebrate in Gorky Park

From the first day of his reign, Vladimir Putin brought back Soviet symbols. What was new was that a president spoke about the victims of his own family. Victory Day should become a symbol of unity, especially after Putin's scary Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Starting with the 60th anniversary in 2005, the festivities resumed, with the Soviet symbolism of the red star increasingly being replaced by the colors of the Russian flag and the Saint George ribbon . The wearing of the black and orange ribbon has become widespread in Russia as a sign of sympathy for the event.

The tradition of the military parade was also resumed, albeit on a smaller scale for the time being than in Soviet times. It ran from the northern ring road and Tverskaya Street , meets at Mayakovskaya Square and leads down the Tverskaya to Red Square . On May 9, 2008, tanks, fighter jets and ICBMs of the Topol-M type appeared there for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union .

After the parade, the festivities continue in Gorky Park , which is also used all year round as a leisure and entertainment center. Groups of veterans from the various front lines of the war meet there, are catered for, are available for discussions and celebrate. A live music program will also be presented on two stages. With the arrival of spring, the park is richly decorated with flowers, and with various funfair offers, the festival has also developed into an attraction for young families.

65th anniversary

May 9, 2010 in Red Square

On May 9, 2010, the 65th anniversary of Victory was celebrated in Moscow. For the first time, armed forces from France, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States took part in the parade on Red Square. Former republics of the Soviet Union were also represented by troops: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine.

10,500 soldiers marched on the side of the Russian armed forces , some in historical uniforms. It was the largest parade in Moscow since 1945. Parades were also held in 71 other Russian cities, with a total of around 100,000 soldiers involved.

The parade continued to be attended by a number of high international dignitaries and politicians, including Heads of State Bronisław Komorowski from Poland and Hu Jintao from China. With Chancellor Angela Merkel , a German head of government was again present, and she watched the parade sitting next to Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin .

The first visit by a Federal Chancellor to the Victory Parade on Red Square was in 2005 by Gerhard Schröder .

159 different combat vehicles and 127 aircraft were presented as military equipment. Historical models such as the T-34 and SU-85 , which had been restored especially for this purpose, were also shown among the main battle tanks . In addition, the Topol-M mobile nuclear ICBM, shown for the first time in 2008, is a symbol of Russia's claim to great power. In the air, helicopters flying in formation first carried the banners of the Russian Federation and the units involved, followed by a group of 65 attack helicopters. A number of aircraft currently in service followed in low-level flight, including the reactivated Tu-95 long-range bomber , the large Antonov An-124 transport aircraft , the Tu-160 supersonic bomber and a number of modern combat aircraft, such as the MiG-35 .

70th anniversary

In 2015, the parade became the largest military parade in Russian history. However, in contrast to the 2010 parade, no former allies were present, as the Crimean crisis in March 2014 shattered Russia's relationship with the West and, according to the rhetoric prevailing in the Western political environment, the European peace order . The Russian newspaper Vedomosti wrote that the worldview of Russian citizens had been turned upside down: "The propaganda exploited the victory of the Red Army over Hitler to justify today's war in Ukraine."

Out of 68 invited heads of state, 27 attended, including the Chinese head of state Xi Jinping and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi . Germany and Switzerland were each represented by their ambassadors. Czech President Miloš Zeman and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico withdrew during the parade, so that the Cypriot president was the only head of state of an EU state who was present during the parade. The Prime Ministers of Hungary and Greece, who had been perceived as devoted to Russia in the months before, were not present at all. When the German Chancellor Merkel laid a wreath in Moscow a day later, she spoke of the millions of victims that Russia had to make in a war that the Germans had instigated, at the same time of the annexation of Crimea as a "criminal violation of the post-war order" .

Action Immortal Regiment in Moscow, May 9, 2015
Honor wreath for the celebration at the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin-Treptow

Following the victory parade, the Immortal Regiment campaign also took place on Tverskaya , in which around 500,000 descendants of war veterans each carried a picture of their ancestor. This also included Vladimir Putin, whose father was a war participant. The action also took place in other Russian cities and several countries. Nonetheless, critics complain that memories are getting lost more and more, but that more “war kitsch” can be consumed.

75th anniversary

The whole of 2020 had been proclaimed a year of remembrance and glory by President Putin . After much hesitation, the parade on May 9th was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-April , at the public request of veterans' associations to President Putin. The fact that the Kremlin allows itself to be asked publicly about delicate decisions is a practice practiced in the Russian Federation. Until the cancellation, the parade was never even mentioned in Putin's speeches.

An air parade was arranged by the Russian Air Force over eleven Russian cities - despite the lack of troops on the ground.

Belarus

In the Belarusian capital Minsk the 75th anniversary was celebrated with the traditional military parade with several thousand soldiers and spectators; without the measures practiced in many countries to contain the corona virus such as mouthguards or keeping your distance, which was criticized by the World Health Organization and by Putin. It was the only military parade in the world that day. “The holiday is sacred to us,” said President Aljaksandr Lukashenka in his address.

See also

Web links

Commons : Victory Day  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Time of Remembrance and Reconciliation for Those Who Lost Their Lives during the Second World War, May 8–9 , UN Resolution 59/26 of November 22, 2004
  2. ↑ "Stalin hated the fighters at the front". May 8, 2015, accessed on May 10, 2015 : “Russia is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany. Has "Victory Day" always been the most important national holiday? "
  3. ↑ In the declaration of surrender, May 8th at 11:01 p.m. CET is named as the date of its entry into force . According to the summer time in force in the German Reich at that time, this corresponded to May 9 at 00:01 a.m., see declaration of surrender: The paper that ended the war , Spiegel Online , Panorama , May 8, 2005.
  4. ↑ a b Sonja Margolina: On May 9, there will be eternal victory in Russia again - at least on the screen , NZZ, May 8, 2018
  5. ↑ Nina Tumarkin: “History Matters: Politics of the Past in Putin's Russia” from minute 9, Camden Conference 2015
  6. ^ Jan Plamper in: Jan C. Behrends, Nikolaus Katzer, Thomas Lindenberger (eds.); 100 years of Red October: on the world history of the Russian Revolution , Ch. Links Verlag, 2017 ISBN 978-3-86153-940-7 , p. 279.
  7. ↑ a b Russia postpones the military parade on Red Square and all celebrations at the end of the war , NZZ, April 16, 2020
  8. ↑ a b c ORF at / Agencies red: Despite the CoV crisis: Minsk holds the world's only military parade. May 9, 2020, accessed May 9, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Federal Agency for Civic Education: Current background: May 8, 1945
  10. ↑ Impressions from the years 2008 to 2011
  11. ↑ Nina Tumarkin: “History Matters: Politics of the Past in Putin's Russia” from 18:25, Camden Conference 2015
  12. ↑ n-tv.de: Old splendor on Victory Day , May 9, 2008
  13. ↑ Telegraph.co.uk: Russia prepares spectacular Red Square parade , April 28, 2010
  14. ↑ Faz.net: A Non-Martial Parade , May 9, 2005
  15. ↑ Youtube: Russia Today: Military Parade 2010
  16. ↑ Exemption as an obligation , NZZ, May 9, 2015; Hanns W. Maull: About intelligent power politics , Science and Politics Foundation, November 14, 2014; "Putin's power games have also shattered the foundations of the pan-European order"; Jan C. Behrends : Russia is again pursuing Soviet foreign policy , NZZ, August 14, 2014. The annexation of Crimea means Russia's return to the Brezhnev doctrine, writes historian Jan C. Behrends. Putin is pursuing a foreign policy of the old Soviet school, which sees military force as a central instrument; Jeffrey D. Sachs : Putin's dangerous course. In: NZZ. May 9, 2014; “Post-war order unhinged”; Europe's nightmare neighbor. In: The Spectator. March 8, 2014; "Brings to an end the Pax Americana and the post-Cold War world that began in 1989"; Putin destroyed all trust for a long time , Die Welt May 13, 2014; What Would Willy Brandt Do? , Die Zeit, November 28, 2014; Putin's annexation of Crimea overturns four European agreements - the CSCE Final Act of 1975, the Charter of Paris 1990, the Budapest Memorandum 1994 and the NATO-Russia Founding Act 1997. Putin shifted European borders in a stealth war. This is exactly the opposite of what the Soviet Union wanted to achieve in Helsinki in 1975 - the recognition and reliability of borders. Here is the crucial difference between Brezhnev and Putin: one wanted to see the post-war order cemented, the other wants to dig it up. Brezhnev wanted the status quo, Putin wanted revision. That is why Brandt's Ostpolitik was possible with Brezhnev; with Putin, everything is left behind. Mr Putin has driven a tank over the existing world order. In: The Economist ; Merkel criticized Russia with clear words. In: SRF. September 1, 2014; "With this approach, Russia is violating the foundations of the post-war European order," said Merkel. Such a breach of international law should not remain without consequences ”; Crimean annexation: Federal government rejects Putin's Temple Mount settlement. In: Der Spiegel. December 5, 2014; While the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that one should think about whether the European structures were still appropriate, Steinmeier emphasized that Germany would adhere to the principles of the Helsinki Final Act passed almost 40 years ago. The principles of territorial integrity and self-determination are neither outdated nor negotiable. Didier Burkhalter , OSCE Chairman: Opening of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. October 5, 2014; “The violations of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, as well as the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia, have an impact far beyond Ukraine. You question the foundations of European security, which is defined in the Paris Charter on the basis of the Helsinki Final Act ”; Merkel can repair broken relations with Russia , Sputnik, November 13, 2014; Full text of Chancellor Merkel's speech , Die Zeit, November 17, 2014; “Nevertheless, we have to experience that there are still forces in Europe who refuse to respect each other and to refuse to resolve conflicts with democratic and constitutional means, that rely on the alleged right of the stronger and disregard the strength of the law. That is exactly what happened with the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia at the beginning of this year. (…) After the horrors of two world wars and the end of the Cold War, this calls into question the European peace order as a whole. This is continued in the Russian influence to destabilize Eastern Ukraine in Donetsk and Lugansk. ";
  17. ↑ Muscovite Muscle Games for the Anniversary ( Memento from May 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), tagesschau.de, May 9, 2015
  18. ↑ Vedomosti quoted by Christian Lininger in: Out of balance: Is a new cold war threatened? , Peter Fritz Verlag - Styriabooks, 2015, ISBN 978-3-99040-382-2 , section "The dream of imperial size"
  19. ↑ Merkel in Moscow: Binding gestures, clear words , Spiegel, May 10, 2015
  20. ↑ How the Russians earn from the “cult of victory”. In: handelsblatt.com. May 8, 2015, accessed on May 10, 2015 : “Many in Russia today complain that decades after the war, the culture of remembrance is being lost more and more. Sometimes the partying takes on bizarre excesses: the media report on confectionery competitions with edible figures of the victims of fascism, on advertising campaigns with the symbolism of war memorials or even on striptease evenings on May 9th, the most important holiday in the country. Russian media are currently full of such stories. "
  21. ↑ The Russian President announces an air parade in Russia on May 9 , Interfax, April 28, 2020
  22. ↑ tagesschau.de: Military parade in Belarus: tightly packed and without a face mask. Retrieved May 9, 2020 .