The ghosts of past wars live on in Russia’s Victory Day

Photo: Oleg Smirnov

This marks the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany. St. Petersburg, known as Leningrad in Soviet times, was blockaded by German troops for over two years. This resulted in a million citizens losing their lives. While commemorating his ancestors’ sacrifice in the fight against Nazism, Valery is fully supportive of what he sees as his country’s struggle against a new Nazi threat in Ukraine. He told me that “We are seeing the resurrection of Nazism, so that’s the goal of the special operation, to destroy it.”

As every May 9th, hundreds of thousands of people flood the city centre to witness a big show. This year, over 4,100 troops and 80 pieces of military hardware were on display in front of the Winter Palace, the former residence of the tsars. After that, war veterans on vintage military vehicles paraded along Nevsky Prospekt, the main city avenue. Then it was time for the “Immortal Regiment” march, in which Russians display the portraits of their family members who participated in the war. Finally, fireworks illuminated the sky in front of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

The spectre of Nazism

Victory Day is a picturesque and colourful spectacle. People from all parts of the former Soviet Union take part, many dressed in vintage costumes, waving flags and singing old Soviet songs. This year, among the usual St. George ribbons and Russian and Soviet flags, I also saw the “Z” and “V” – symbols of Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.

“Considering the current situation, this date has become even more symbolic, important, deeper, more patriotic,” said Alina, 29, an Immortal Regiment participant carrying the pictures of her grandparents. She is a convinced supporter of the military operation in Ukraine. “Our guys are at the front and we fully support them,” she said with enthusiasm.

The Soviet Union played a decisive role in the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War – the Russian name for the Second World War – and paid the heaviest human toll. Overall, around 27 million Soviet citizens died in the conflict. The war started on June 22nd 1941, when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, and ended on May 9th 1945 with Berlin’s capitulation.

Victory Day has become the main secular holiday in Putin’s Russia. It is also an occasion for the government to showcase Russia’s military might and rally people around the flag. This year, the authorities used the celebration to bolster public support for the war in Ukraine, which they described as a necessary measure designed to “denazify” the country and prevent an imminent attack on Russian soil.

“Everything indicated that a clash with the neo-Nazis, the Banderites [slang for the so-called Ukrainian nationalists], backed by the United States and their junior partners, was inevitable,” Vladimir Putin said in his traditional speech in Moscow’s Red Square during the commemorations.

On the eve of the event, Putin sent a congratulatory telegram to the heads of the so-called separatist republics in Eastern Ukraine. He said that “Russians were fighting shoulder to shoulder to liberate their homeland from Nazi filth” and that “Victory will be ours, like in 1945.”

Immortal Regiment

The Immortal Regiment march lies at the core of the May 9th celebrations. Launched in 2012 by a group of journalists from the Siberian city of Tomsk as a commemoration event, the march was soon co-opted by the authorities and increasingly turned into an instrument for propaganda. Since 2015, high-ranking officials have started taking part in it, including Putin.

This year, the authorities used the event to galvanise public support in favour of the war in Ukraine. Participants were allowed to use the Z and V symbols, while family members of soldiers fighting in Ukraine were allowed to carry their portraits in the march.

However, not everyone in Russia agrees with the increased politicisation of the Immortal Regiment. For many, Victory Day remains an apolitical event, dedicated to honouring the memory of their ancestors.

“I don’t see any parallels between what our grandfathers fought for and what is going on right now [in Ukraine],” said Maria, 31, another participant in the march. “This celebration is about remembering and I hope that many people here think the same.” While she was hesitant to condemn Russia’s operation, she did not support it either. “I prefer to stay neutral,” she told me.

A few days prior to May 9th, the original organisers of the Immortal Regiment distanced themselves from the event. A statement on the movement’s website reads, “We consider it no longer possible to associate ourselves with what is happening in the columns on the street.” Sergey Lapenko, one of the movement’s founders, declined to comment further on the issue.

“The government has hijacked this event and desecrated it, transforming it into the glorification of the state, of militarism,” said Bogdan Litvin, a coordinator of Vesna, an opposition movement based in St. Petersburg. He told me that “They did not fight for this, people endured the war so that there would be no more wars. It was a struggle for peace and now their memory is being used to spark new wars.”

Vesna was among the coordinators of the anti-war rallies that took place in the city back in February and which ended with hundreds of arrests. Since then, any public dissent around the war in Ukraine has been prohibited in Russia. Most independent media outlets have been blocked or forced to shut down and the only allowed information on the conflict comes from government sources. Vesna called for people to join the Immortal Regiment march with anti-war posters in an attempt to break through the curtain of state propaganda. “This is an opportunity to talk to people about how the memory of their ancestors is being used against what they fought for,” he explained. On the eve of the event, the apartment of Litvin’s parents was searched by the police. Other Vesna activists were detained and they are now facing criminal charges.

In St. Petersburg, district council member Sergei Samusev was detained while trying to take part in the Immortal Regiment with the portrait of Boris Romanchenko, a survivor of a German concentration camp who was killed in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv back in March.

He was one of 125 people arrested all around Russia for anti-war protests on May 9th, according to independent monitor OVD Info. Over 15,400 Russians have been detained for anti-war protests since the start of the conflict.

A civil religion

As anthropologist Aleksandra Arkhipova pointed out, victory in the Great Patriotic War has become a “civil religion” under Putin, the only event capable of uniting the people of Russia. “There is no other factor capable of uniting people living on such a large, vast territory, speaking different languages, with different income levels,” she said. According to her, the official narrative around Victory Day has been an effective tool in building Russians’ collective identity and a sense of pride for being “on the right side of history”. “It is such an indisputable value. You defeated Nazism, it’s hard to argue with that,” she continued. 

Yet the victory narrative has also been used by the state to promote its political agenda. Since 2014, when Russia’s confrontation with the West intensified following the illegal annexation of Crimea, Russian propaganda started spreading the idea that Nazism was being resurrected in Ukraine and other European countries. Russia was increasingly described as a “besieged fortress” surrounded by enemies.

“The Russian people have the impression that Nazism is everywhere in Europe, that this Nazism surrounds Russia,” Arkhipova explained. This narrative was largely focused on the central role played by far-right groups in Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution in 2014 and the subsequent decommunisation process taking place in the country. Monuments of Lenin were removed and cities and streets renamed after Ukrainian historical figures, including the controversial Stepan Bandera, a nationalist who collaborated with the Nazis against the Red Army.

As pointed out by Arkhipova, many Russians believe that “victory in the great war is being stolen by these modern neo-Nazis.” Varvara, 47, argued, “What would you do if someone was dancing on the grave of your ancestors, whom you consider practically sacred?” She came to the parade with her 11-year-old daughter Taisia. Varvara, who has a Z-shaped St. George ribbon pinned to her chest, is fully supportive of the “special military operation”. 

“We know very well that fascism has always been present in Western Ukraine,” she told me. Another woman who was listening to our conversation then intervened, “When was the last time you were in Ukraine?”

“A long time ago”, replied Varvara.

“I was there last year,” the other woman said. “I saw no fascists there!”

The besieged fortress

Following the invasion of Ukraine and the unprecedented sanctions imposed on Russia, the country’s relations with the West reached an unprecedented low. Russia’s increased isolation was reflected in this year’s May 9th celebration. No foreign leaders were invited to attend the military parade in Moscow, as is usually the tradition. No matter, since western leaders have been boycotting the event since the annexation of Crimea in 2014. According to Russian propaganda, the country has now truly become a “besieged fortress”, fighting alone against Nazism and its allies in the West.

A few weeks before Victory Day, the governor of St Petersburg, Aleksandr Beglov, compared Russia’s current confrontation with the Siege of Leningrad. According to Beglov, “the troops of 13 European states” that besieged the city now “together with the United States, are trying to hold in a blockade our entire country”.

Despite the dubious historical accuracy of Beglov’s statement – only German, Finnish and Italian troops and Spanish volunteers took part in the blockade of Leningrad – they seem to resonate strongly with Russians’ perceptions of current events. According to independent polls, the majority of Russians consider the US and other NATO countries responsible for the destruction and civilian casualties in Ukraine. Only seven per cent blame Russia. Even though the unprecedented crackdown on dissent is affecting polls’ reliability, these numbers are still significant.

“I don’t know who killed him,” said Andrey, 41, pointing to the portrait of his grandfather, killed in Ukraine in 1944. “Perhaps he was killed by a German. But maybe he was Italian or French?” He fully agreed with the official version of events, that the attack on Ukraine was a necessary move to prevent Russia from being invaded. “If on the 21st of June, 1941 we attacked Germany first, St. Petersburg would not have been held in a blockade, maybe there wouldn’t have been so many victims,” he concluded.

Oleg Smirnov is a freelance journalist currently based in Russia.

May 9th, Russia, St. Petersburg, Ukraine, Victory Day 2022, War