Tag: World War II

Victory Day, 2016

Published on by Mark Jahnke

World War II means many different things depending on where in the world one finds itself.  Where I grew up and in my family, it was a war that both of my grandfathers fought in, one as a pilot over Normandy and the other as a gunner on Okinawa.  It was something that shaped the rest of their lives and that forever influenced their world perspective.

In America, we like to say that we “won” World War II.  There’s a whole bevy of satirical merchandise for sale that says “USA: Back To Back World War Champs,” obviously joking.  But in the former Soviet Union, World War II is thought of quite differently.  A year ago, I wrote about Victory Day, the 9 May holiday that marks the end of the War, because it was the 70th anniversary, and I watched the spectacular military parade in Moscow on television.  I later learned that it was the largest and most lavish parade held in Russian history, and even included a group of Kyrgyz soldiers (as did the Chinese Victory Day parade held in September).

This year, I wanted to explore a bit deeper into the significance of this holiday of remembrance and its history, and why it is such an important holiday.

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Victory Day

Published on by Mark Jahnke

 

In the US, the more militarily minded of families tends to observe in some capacity V-E Day, or Victory In Europe Day, or the equivalent from the Pacific campaign of World War II. But I’ve never seen anything remotely resembling the scale of the celebrations here of Victory Day, which marks the same occasion. You might have seen a few pictures or video clips on this on American television or news websites, but seeing it here from within the former USSR has been a very different experience.

Part of the reason for this may be that this is the 70th anniversary, which might command a larger celebration than otherwise, but part is simply because to the countries that fought on the Eastern Front paid a much larger price in lives; the USSR accounts for something like half of the deaths of the entire war, more even than Germany. Stalingrad did not have a happy ending (although it now has the world’s tallest statue, which is really both spectacularly beautiful and a marvel of engineering. It’s also sliding off its foundation slightly).

Over the past few days, we’ve seen a lot of Russian fighter jets flying over Bishkek and over the surrounding areas preparing for aerial demonstrations, and everyone was talking about the parade and the celebrations for days. Despite the rain, on TV we watched downton Bishkek fill up, and the newly minted Prime Minister give a speech about the holiday in the main square before a large military parade went by and the fighters did a fly-by.

The real spectacle came on Russian television, which broadcasts several Russian-language channels here, right alongside China Central Television Russia.

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