In connection with the war in Ukraine, many experts suspect that today, May 9, could have a special significance. What this date is all about is explained by First Lieutenant Christoph Bilban. He is a researcher at the Institute for Peacekeeping and Conflict Management at the National Defense Academy in Vienna. His research focuses on conflicts in the post-Soviet region and the foreign and security policy of the Russian Federation.
Lieutenant, why is May 9 so important for Russia?
Russia celebrates “Victory Day” over Nazi Germany in 1945 on May 9. The declaration of surrender, which was binding for the Soviet Union at the time, was only signed in Berlin shortly after midnight on May 9, 1945 – but with retroactive effect from 11:01 p.m. on May 8, 1945. However, the time difference between Berlin and Moscow meant that, from the Russian perspective, the war ended on May 9 anyway. In June 1945, the victory was celebrated with an hour-long military parade on Red Square in Moscow. In the following decades, Victory Day in the Soviet Union was only a day of remembrance for the victims of the war; it only became an official state holiday in 1965. Parades were also only held on major anniversaries (for example in 1965 and 1985), as the parade on the anniversary of the October Revolution was more important to the Communist Party. In independent Russia, there were no parades at all between 1991 and 1994 for cost reasons. Only since 1995 have annual parades been held in Moscow again. While the focus was initially on remembering the horrors of war and the fallen, from around 2005 it became apparent that Russia was beginning to use the Great Patriotic War of 1941 to 1945 as a symbol of national unity and strength. The state appropriation of history took on a new dimension in 2015, when Putin led the march of the “Immortal Regiment” in Moscow. The “Immortal Regiment” wants to commemorate the costly battle in the “Great Patriotic War” with publicly displayed pictures of Red Army soldiers. For Putin, this campaign is a further building block in rallying the Russian population behind the current regime.
How is Victory Day usually celebrated?
May 9 has been a public holiday in Russia since 1991. It was not until 1995 that there were annual, small parades where only soldiers marched, but no vehicles, tanks and other military technology were presented. This changed in 2008, when the parade was broadcast internationally for the first time by the Russian state broadcaster RT, and “Victory Day” became a symbol of Russian military strength. Since then, technology ranging from all-terrain vehicles and tanks to long-range missiles has been on display at the parades. The heart of the celebrations is the parade on Red Square. The parade ends with a flyover by the Russian air force. In addition to the large parade in the center of Moscow, there are also smaller parades in major Russian cities. This year’s parade is only about half the size of previous years. Other states of the former Soviet Union also usually celebrate May 9 as a public holiday. The day is also celebrated in Belarus in particular. This year, Kazakhstan has canceled the parade, which did not take place in previous years due to the coronavirus, without further explanation. Ukraine has not celebrated Victory Day since 2015 due to its connection with the USSR and Russia, but celebrates the end of the Second World War on 8 May and the “Victory over Fascism in the Second World War” on 9 May.
What role does history play in the current war with Ukraine?
The question of history and Russia’s historical role is a central element in the war in Ukraine, but also in the wider conflict between Russia and the USA and Europe. In recent years, Russia has increasingly emphasized that its role in the Second World War is not valued highly enough. President Putin published a detailed essay on this in 2020. His essay on the alleged historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians from June 2021 also underlines that Putin wants his actions to be understood as a correction of historical injustices and undesirable developments. In Putin’s view, the fact that Ukraine is at best only a part of Russia is an argumentative basis for the current war.
