Victory Day!

   VICTORY!

One of the biggest holidays in Russia is Victory Day, celebrated on May 9th.  I think I don't have enough words to describe what this holiday means to Russia, or what it has come to mean to me in my seven (so far) years of living in Moscow.  I hope my photos will help capture some of the spirit of the holiday.

First a little history is in order.  The Soviet Union closed its doors to the world shortly after World War II, and very little information was made public about the Soviet contributions and losses in the war during this time.  Or the deprivations faced by its citizens during and after the war.   If "all was quiet on the Western Front", there was not a peep on the Eastern Front.  So a few facts:

 It can be said that one of the main turning points of the war was the Battle of Stalingrad (now Volgograd).  The German army had taken the city.  They were not expecting a counter-offensive by the Soviets.  But the Soviets attacked the weakened flanks out on the steppe, and with Russian winter setting in, they captured the German army there, marking one of the first major wins for the Allies. Without the German army being occupied on the Eastern Front, it is extremely doubtful that the the Western Front would have been a win for the Allies.  Another point of attack for the German army was Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).  The city was surrounded; Hitler expected to "starve them out" within a matter of weeks. The brave citizens of Leningrad hung on for three long years of unbearable hardship and great loss of lives.  And when the Soviet army marched on Berlin, the war was soon over.

Of the 40 million lives lost in World War 2, nearly half of them were Russian!  A loss of 20,000,000 people in Russia!  There is an excellent documentary, The Fallen of World War II.  If you have 18 minutes to spare, I highly recommend it.  If you don't, skip forward to about the 5:30 mark and it will put the numbers in perspective for you. 400,000 American soldiers died in World War II, to give you a frame of reference.

So, May 9th celebrates the victory and end of this terrible war, and it is an important holiday here in the Motherland.  The veterans go out to Victory Park or other locations around Moscow.  You will see old, old men in their military uniforms, chests filled with medals, clutching armloads of carnations given to them by the public.  Most of them are in their late 80's or 90's now; sadly I have seen the number of old veterans growing fewer and fewer each year.   People will walk up and hand the veterans red carnations, or have their little children give the old soldiers flowers.  It is so moving to see the respect given to these heroes, and to see a culture that actively teaches their children to give respect.   It is a very festive atmosphere--there are concerts and picnics going on all around, and a military parade of tanks of every sort and a flyover of jets.  There is a massive assembly in Red Square--of course you can't get in there unless you are someone important, but you can watch it on television.  My school even has a veteran's choir that comes to perform for us each year, and I tell my students if they get a chance they should go up and shake their hands and tell them "Спасибо" (thank you).  These veterans will all die out in my students' lifetimes, and I can't think of a greater lesson my students can learn than to actually get to meet and thank some of these heroes.  Certainly far more important than any lesson I could ever do in my classroom.

I met this gentleman who was a fighter pilot at the age of 19

Young and old get their photos made with the heroes.

Some veteran groups hold reunions on this day

The entire city is decorated with flags and banners

Children giving flowers to lady hero

Sometimes things get lost in translation, but I'm pretty sure she was a well-known singer during WWII.  She was singing patriotic songs and a man came up and joined her singing.  She did not like that and began whacking him with her flowers.  Once a diva, always a diva!

I took this photo from a friend's 9th floor balcony.  Jet trails form the Russian flag.  They were so close I could have waved to the pilots.  (but I figured they'd better concentrate on avoiding the taller buildings!)

Concert of patriotic WWII songs in front of the Bolshoi

Victory day is always May 9th, but if it happens to fall close to a weekend, we get a nice long weekend holiday.  One year I went to St. Petersburg for the long weekend, and here are a few shots from their Victory Day celebrations:  The video is from Peterhof Palace--the army was performing the Victory song, Den Pobedy.  The pictures following are:  Naval flotilla, crowds thronging the streets of St Petersburg, and station cooking up Russian World War II rations (which you could sample) using vintage equipment.

So Victory Day--important for Russia, important for all of the Allied Forces countries, and important to me.  I hope I've shared a small glimpse of it with you.