As Europe – including Ukraine – prepared for the 70th anniversary commemorations on May 8 of Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day), when Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies, the Russian Federation was gearing up for its own Soviet-style Victory Day events on May 9.
In Ukraine, as our Kyiv correspondent reported last week, in a move intended as a break from the past and as concrete manifestation of the country’s European integration, the government was to hold a larger ceremony for the May 8 commemoration – now known as the Day of Memory and Reconciliation – as compared to the limited events planned for May 9. In addition, Ukraine has declared that the national holiday’s official symbol is the red poppy, an international symbol honoring all victims of war. And, what’s more, the Verkhovna Rada has eliminated the official status of the term “Great Patriotic War,” replacing it with “World War II.” Thus, Ukraine is making a concerted and conscious effort to do away with everything Soviet, Zenon Zawada reported from Kyiv.
Meanwhile, in Moscow, and on Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, glorification of the Soviet past, including dictator Joseph Stalin, is the order of the day. As of the writing of this editorial (on May 7), preparations were in full swing for the Victory Day celebrations in Moscow, complete with a parade showing off military might and promoting Soviet-era myths about the Great Patriotic War. Multiple news sources have reported that monuments to Stalin and billboards bearing his likeness have been erected in various parts of Russia, the most recent statue having been raised in Lipetsk.
In Russian-occupied Donetsk, RFE/RL reported, there was a rehearsal for the military parade featuring tanks, Grad rockets and other military hardware. (There are also worrisome reports of provocations being planned by Russian proxies in the Donbas, to be followed by a military offensive.) In Crimea, as noted below in “Turning the pages,” billboards featuring Stalin’s image have sprung up in Sevastopol. In Symferopol, according to the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, a memorial plaque to Stalin is to be erected in the city center, on the façade of a building owned by the Crimean Committee of the Russian Communist Party.
All this conforms, of course, with President Vladimir Putin’s focus on the positive presentation of Russian history and the glorious past in which Stalin – whom Mr. Putin admires and whose achievements he celebrates – is seen as one of the most successful leaders of the USSR.
Nonetheless, all the myths about the great Soviet victory over Nazism cannot overcome the truth: Stalin collaborated with Hitler. As noted by Edward Lucas, writing on May 6 on the website of the Center for European Policy Analysis, “Stalin was a co-conspirator with Hitler and would have happily continued the alliance had the German leader not attacked in 1941.” Furthermore, Mr. Lucas writes, “When the war started, Russia was spared the biggest human and physical costs, which were born by non-Russians. After the war, Soviet rule enslaved the people it claimed to have liberated.” And that is something for everyone to keep in mind as the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II is commemorated this year.