According to commentators and historians, “the holiday with tears in the eyes” was a mixture of buffoonery and aggressiveness
In Russian cities is in full swing preparing for a major celebration of the 71st anniversary of the end of world war II in Europe. However, in the war on Russia is traditionally called the great Patriotic war.
At the beginning of April in towns and settlements of the Russian Federation in the streets and squares were installed billboards with the winning theme. However, not without confusion. So, in one of the programs of the Kemerovo television was shown a festive collage, which is the Russian state flag was the flag of the Netherlands, where the red, white and blue stripes are arranged in a different order.
In the shops of Saint-Petersburg you can buy gift box with the inscription “Thank you grandpa for the Victory”, the dates “1941 – 1945”, the St. George ribbon and the American M24 tank is the Soviet T-34.
In Bryansk on the poster Patriotic content depicted an Israeli fighter. The signature at the bottom reads: “homeland is always right”.
All this brings to mind and about the mistakes made a year ago when, preparing to scale to mark the 70th anniversary of the Victory PR people confuse the Russian flag with the flag of the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and in the background the banner of the Victory flaunted by the soldiers in the Wehrmacht uniform.
By the way, symbolism in the past year was prepared so that, for example, in the Leningrad region a few weeks ago reappeared posters congratulating the residents with “the 70th anniversary of the great Victory”.
But even aside from these inaccuracies, some samples of holiday merchandise to raise questions. So, forums in social networks are full of photos of household goods and food, decorated with St. George ribbons and other symbols 9 may.
Greeting cards had appeared with the image of the baby in the cap of the soldier and the caption “I’m gonna be a hero like my grandfather”. There are billboards urging people to do push-UPS in honor of the Victory… 25 933 times (the number of peaceful days after may 8, 1945). The slogan of this campaign: “I Remember. Proud. Press”.
One of the Volgograd newspaper put a picture of Jesus Christ, walking with a red flag at a military parade in Central Moscow.
The correspondent of “Voice of America” asked the experts how they evaluate the preparation for Victory Day?
“Can you repeat that!” vs. “This must not happen again!”
Writer Denis Dragunsky does not see the mass distribution of black and orange ribbons and the donning of military uniforms of the 40-ies of any negative aspects. “Just a holiday goes into the category of carnival, when everyone dresses up in armor, waving swords, or rifles. Therefore, when these processions would join the warriors of Dmitry Donskoy and the soldiers of Peter I in Poltava battle, it will gain a finished look. Because the desire to decorate themselves military symbolism is absolutely natural, and nothing terrible in this,” – said the writer.
At the same time, he notes that slogans like “Forward to Berlin!” or “Can you repeat that”, this is ridiculous, and I would even say disrespectful to the memory of those people who shed so much blood. It turns out that we under to put another 30 million lives? No!”, “says Denis Dragunsky, Recalling that the main slogan of the victory Day in the Soviet times was the call to “This must not happen again!”
“And this, as they say now, “meme”, was accompanied by a terrible documentary photographs of the destroyed cities, military aircraft, refugees hiding in the basements of children, concentration camps, and so on. And all were agreed that this really should not happen again!” says Dragoon.
Then, how to transform the anti-war appeal today, the writer explains the “weird psychosis generated by the sick mind of some promoters”. And expresses the hope that this will not last long.
“I don’t think people in families where there are or were real war veterans, can throw around phrases like “can you repeat that!”. Especially in the current conditions, when Russia is a nuclear power,” continues the source, “voice of America”.
“To me personally,” admits Dragoon, – everything that happens is deeply unpleasant. Is that some kind of vulgarization of the great feat of the Soviet people and the vulgarization of great sacrifices which he suffered”.
“We’ll get to Berlin… for spare parts”?
Father Denis Dragunsky, writer Victor Dragunsky – went through the war. The son of a soldier and the other is interviewed by “Voice of America” expert – supervisor of faculty of applied political science State University — Higher school of economy mark Urnov.
“I remember very vivid memories of the mother, when the father slammed the door and she heard only the receding sounds of his boots. And she ran around the apartment and wondered: will come back – not come back?” “says Urnov.
“And then,” he continues, – many years later I asked the father and the war, and he told me. All this is stored in my memory. And all the slapstick that is happening, it is disgusting!”.
The analyst notes: display of military paraphernalia during the may 9 parade in previous days, “in society raises the level of aggressiveness, which is very high, and it – also very bad.”
In addition, according to Urnov, the events indicates a low level of culture, especially in the Russian provinces. “It shows how poorly we know our own history. After all, the celebration of Victory Day has become a kind of supersingular, and is the only one that provides the collective memory. Therefore, the government is eager to escalate the sense of belonging of all Russians to this event. However, it is already acquiring some of the wild forms,” – emphasizes the interlocutor of “voice of America”.
“After all this “holiday with tears on eyes” supposed to know that a monstrous number of victims can only cause grief. And while this mixture of buffoonery with aggression I personally deeply unpleasant,” – says mark Urnov.
One of the reasons behind the analyst explains that “people who so celebrate the victory, I don’t know what war is. Real veterans have very little. And, basically, it is those who got to the front at the end of the war, sixteen-year-old boys. Older people are mostly already are in the grave. After all, those who then were, say twenty-four years, should now be ninety-five years.”
“Those people that go to a demonstration and say they are ready somewhere to go and something to repeat, they can not even imagine the horror and enormity of war – the blood, the dirt, the hardness and the nightmare,” – says Urnov.
He says and the words “we’ll Get to Berlin”, decorate your cars owners “Mercedes”, “BMW” and “Audi”. “Someone very well said that when he sees a slogan on German cars, he wants to ascribe “parts”. And this is true. Because really, this holiday should be quiet and calm so you can think about the millions of dead. Now this is some bad Comedy in the blood,” – says the scientific Director of the HSE faculty of politics.
The cult of personality of Stalin as an insult of feelings of believers
Another feature of the celebration on may 9 was a noticeable increase in images of Joseph Stalin and on the banners that take part in celebratory processions, and on the boards of the so-called “outdoor advertising”.
In Novosibirsk, the activists of the Communist party ordered the placement of the 25 posters with the portraits of “the best friend of athletes” in Moscow, the image will appear may 9 on taxis, and in St.-Petersburg – on the buses. This vehicle has been dubbed the “stalinobusy”; in this case the initiators of the project claim that placed the portraits of his idol on “stalinobusah” exclusively on a commercial basis through private donations.
For comments about the revived cult of Stalin’s personality, the correspondent of “voice of America” addressed to the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Scientific information and educational centre “memorial” Nikita Petrov.
According to the historian, this phenomenon was observed long ago. “Unfortunately, what the witnesses of those events, the less remains of veterans, the stronger grows the demagoguery about who would win in this war”, – said Petrov.
According to him, it’s not trying to revive the “cult of personality”, and the peculiarities of the human psyche to attribute all the success to his superiors.
“But I would not say that this year is somehow more noticeable in comparison with the past. The Communists and the representatives of the statist movements has become a tradition to raise Stalin, to exalt his role. Most likely, this is in line with anti-Western sentiments”, – the expert believes.
“However,” continues Petrov, in this case, those who glorifies Stalin, alienated not only from West but also from the history of their own country. History, which rendered a verdict and Stalin as the man who was guilty of starting the war, and the price of victory, which has given us many tens of millions of lives”.
It is known that Stalin himself had abolished the celebration of victory Day on 9 may. However, he placed his profile on the medal, next to saying “Our cause is just, victory will be ours”. “This is what is called the “cult of personality” – when victory is attributed to one person. Fought and bled for the people, and the winner we have one, and he is depicted on the medals. This did not allow himself even the Russian monarchs” – emphasizes Nikita Petrov.
However, the Deputy Chairman of the “Memorial” believes that Stalin, whose portraits are on the may demonstrations, has little in common with the Soviet leader who was posthumously debunked at the twentieth Congress of the CPSU. “The current Stalin is a myth. The real Stalin no one remembers and knows. His bloodlust and his monstrous orders of the forgotten population,” – says the historian, noting also that the revival of the personality cult of the dictator is a manifestation of slave mentality, when the masses would like to think that they are ruled by “wise leader”.
“But because the modern civilized society needs no leader. And what we see in Russia is a symptom of a very serious disease of our society. If it is in need of idols, which, incidentally, differed special cruelty and the Commission of hate crimes, it is a very worrying syndrome,” Petrov stressed.
According to him, the exaltation of Joseph Stalin can be described as an insult of feelings of believers. “The struggle in the 20-ies – 30-ies of the Communist party headed by Stalin led with the clergy, can never be forgiven no Church. The population of our country and the Church should remember this. And installation of monuments or busts should be impossible, anywhere, except on his grave”, – says the historian.
