Victory Day

DAY OF VICTORY

PLANES ABOVE BUT NO HUGE PARADES

By Stephen Wilson 

 

           

The past is never dead. It's not even past.

            

Requiem For a Nun, William Faulkner.

 

"It was like a day in paradise."

 

           Alexander Dmitrivitch Levin, a war veteran on how he felt during the Day of Victory when the fighting against the Germans ceased in 1945.

 

           "We ended the war while staying in one of Goebbel's castles in the Austrian Alps.

            I recall how beautiful everything was. The fruit trees were all white and blooming.

            Then we heard what was a horrible explosion or eruption of thunder as if a bomb was going off. We thought we were being attacked by partisans. We jumped out of the windows and took up positions ready to shoot. But there were no partisans.

            Then we saw that people were throwing up their hats in the air and some saying:

           "It is our Victory Day and we are alive." I can never forget the sky. It was clear, crisp, and transparent. Everything looked beautiful. It was as if we were with God in paradise," stated the war veteran Alexander Levin. {The full interview can be read in the Second City Teachers issue dated August 5, 2018, by Oksana Chebotareva }  Ludmilla Kirova, at 16, vividly recalls this time when she was living in a small town near Kaluga when someone came and knocked on her window shouting,

            "It is a Victory". Everyone in her town were so elated and bursting with joy. She had never in her life witnessed such beaming faces. The event left an indelible impression on her soul. "It is my favorite celebration of the year". Seventy five years may have passed, but people still recall this strikingly profound and moving event. No wonder people felt relief if not complete joy. The most horrific and bloodiest wars in history which cost the lives of almost 60 million people not to mention untold suffering had come to the end or rather, almost. The war with Japan was still going on and Oksana Chebotareva told me of how her grandfather was sent to fight against Japan.

 

            For some people the war has never ended. Even now it continues in their dreams.

            I always wondered why so many people who had been through the war were always worried whether I was hungry or not. I learnt that due to the destruction of war, many

families in Eastern Europe experienced famine. Oksana's mother had a brother who died from starvation during this period. I recall being bemused by my grandmother warning my aunt again and again, "Make sure you have filled the bath with enough water in case there is an air raid". This was forty years after the war was over yet in old age a past habit became reactivated. During the war everyone in Scotland was

advised to fill up their baths with cold water so they could help rush to put out the fire caused by a falling German bomb. Yulia Zhukova, who fought as a sniper during the Great Patriotic War, wrote the following sad words in her memoirs on how she once attempted to forget her role in the war by burning all wartime photos, poems and letters connected with her time at the front. It was all in vain! "However, the war

would not leave me. I constantly dreamed of it, most of all I saw myself fleeing, in the surroundings and in a prison of war camp. They were very difficult dreams, and they tortured me for over thirty years."{Girl with a Sniper Rifle, Yulia Zhukova, 2006 Z.A.O. Centropoligraph, Moscow}

 

            It seems that while some people are trying to escape the painful present by living in an imaginary past, others would like to make a complete break with a painful past by living in a pleasant present. So for many people the Day of Victory could be a day to be dreaded rather than greeted with joy. As the song 'Day of Victory' goes, 'We celebrate it with joy and tears in our eyes'.

 

            This Day of Victory had no great grandiose parade or huge march through the cities of Russia. Instead, the government cancelled all parades as a precaution to contain the spread of the Covid 19 virus which has rapidly engulfed Russia. The event seemed more solemn and anxious than on previous occasions. Nevertheless, the celebrations went ahead as I again witnessed an aerial display above my house

where helicopters and fight jet planes thundered above our apartments. The pilots were flying so low you could see them and residents were welcoming and waving at them from their balconies.

 

            For some curious reason, I get the distinct impression that Western Journalists are gloating at the cancellation of events for political reasons. What they forget is that the vast majority of people commemorate this event not for ideological or political reasons, but to genuinely mourn losses practically every family felt. This is not just a time of joy, but deep mourning. It is true that governments and some people always attempt to manipulate this event for political gain or as a means to promote ugly nationalism. However, when I meet and talk to most Russians they feel mainly saddened by the war. And the war veterans are almost always reticent when it comes to talking about the war. They prefer to be silent.

            Some can't even watch war films at all. Some don't like the sound of fireworks as it brings back so many memories. This is ironic given the fact that the events of the 9th May end with a grandiose firework display. Has it occurred to anyone that a firework display might be unwelcome to some war veterans?

 

            I befriended two war veterans who were women who had served at the front.

            I met an old woman in the park who warmly greeted me and invited me to her apartment to tell me her life story. She told me how she was almost arrested for reading a poem by Robert Burns {Honest Poverty} to an injured soldier recovering from his wounds in hospital. A general overheard her and thought the lyrics showed contempt for generals. Lybov told me that, "I joined up because all my young friends

had been killed at the front. I felt I had lost a whole family". Then later I met an old woman called Nadia, who was the grandmother of a friend called Pavel. I learnt that she had served on an artillery battery at the Battle of the Kursk and just missed by a second being shot at by a Tiger tank. I found this woman was very warm, friendly and adored children. She was a little bit eccentric. I recall how she would always give me some sweets to take back to my daughter. Unfortunately she died.

            I really regret not playing dominoes with her. But thankfully, she lived to see Pavel's wedding. That was where I last saw her and she told me about how she had been strongly driven by her love for Russia to serve in the war.

 

            It is important to remember that the Day of Victory has not always been officially supported or backed by the Russian government. For almost twenty years, under

Khrushchev, this event was not commemorated. This fact embittered many war veterans. Yulia Zhukova wrote: 'He cancelled the most important and favorite celebration of the people - The Day of Victory as an official state celebration. The motive for this was primitive: you must not offend, hurt or humiliate other people by constantly reminding them about their wounds from our victory. He never grasped that such a decision humiliated his own people, who had suffered immense losses from this war and by attaining victory not only saved Russia, but the whole of Europe from slavery. Under Khrushchev the 9th of May became just a typical working day, without any further official ceremonies or events ... It was painful and offended people.'

 

            In fact, the continued celebration of 9th May is largely due to people at a grassroots level commemorating it unofficially. Even the largely successful movement known as 'The Immortal Regiment' which was founded in Tomsk 8 years ago sprang from the initiative of just ordinary Russians who did not want the deaths of their loved ones just to remain 'a statistic' or another pretext for boosting the prestige of a

government or politician such as Brezhnev. It is a tremendous sight just to see an endless crowd of people carrying placards with photos of their loved ones who fought in the war. The eyes from all those photos seem to be staring back at you

from another age. We begin to understand that each of those persons who died were priceless icons. Aleksei Chadov stated: "The main point is not to forget the feats of our grandparents, and pass it down from generation to generation. Therefore, I like how the activity of the immortal Regiment which was born 8 years ago in Tomsk; and afterwards: seized the imagination of the whole country. This is the most successful flash mob, if you want to express it in latter day language."