“Despite the serious weakening of its global positions after 24 February, 2022, Russia remains to a certain extent the metropolis of a former empire whose actions have to be taken into account,” Dubnov said. Political analyst Arkady Dubnov said that “for the first time in many years” Putin will be surrounded at a Victory Day parade by a number of post-Soviet leaders. Russian president Vladimir Putin, left, and Kyrgyzstan president Sadyr Japarov shake hands at their meeting. Initially, only one of them - Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov - was expected to attend, but at the last minute on Monday officials confirmed that leaders of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were heading to Moscow as well. Moscow sought to project a show of force during its flagship parade on Red Square, with top-notch military equipment rumbling through it and leaders of ex-Soviet nations standing beside President Vladimir Putin. The famed parade in Moscow’s Red Square took place after Russia’s claim of an attempted Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin, whose spires loom next to the parade venue, but amid ramped-up security measures. Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu attend the Victory Day military parade. The Kremlin has also used the memory of the Soviet war effort to justify its offensive in Ukraine, claiming it is fighting “fascists” supported by the West. The Ukrainian leader said the country would mark a separate Europe Day on 9 May, promoting peace and unity on the continent. On Monday, Zelensky said he had submitted a bill to parliament to formally commemorate World War II in Ukraine on 8 May. Ukraine in 2015 symbolically shifted the day to 8 May – when Europe remembers the day, as per Al Jazeera. But the war in Ukraine undermines Russia’s claim to both this year. It celebrates two tenets that are central to Russian identity – military might and moral rectitude. Victory Day is Russia’s most important secular holiday. “And most Russians do not realize that the war was not for their freedoms but was largely a battle between the two dictators.” “The Stalin regime was almost as criminal as the Hitler regime,” scholar Nikolay Koposov told a Wilson Center webcast in 2020, as per Time magazine. “Nobel-Prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich has captured this well, by stating the history of victory replaced the history of the actual war,” Norris added. ![]() Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu, right, salutes his soldiers as he is driven along Red Square in the Aurus Senat car during the Victory Day military parade. Norris added that the win validated the massive blood Russia spilled during World War II. Stephen Norris, professor of Russian history at the University of Miami, told Al Jazeera, “Victory in World War II became the defining myth in post-war Soviet life, outstripping even the Revolution in its significance.” However, scholars say the true significance of the day has been obscured. Russian school and history books also focus on the importance Victory Day and show Moscow as the saviour of Europe. Since coming to power in 2000, Putin has stoked patriotic fervour around the 1945 Soviet victory over the Nazis, boosting his standing as the heir of Soviet power. It was then president Boris Yeltsin who gave the holiday a new lease of life in 1995 – on its 50 th anniversary. A Russian army RS-24 Yars ballistic missile makes its way through the Red Square during the Victory Day military parade. Interestingly, the holiday was only sporadically marked afterward by the Soviet Union, according to the BBC. ![]() Petersburg, told the newspaper that acknowledging the blood spilled by Russians in World War II “is probably the only social glue to form a single society”. Kurilla, a professor at the European University of St. ![]() This, the country’s most spectacular and high-profile parade, is held outside the Kremlin with soldiers marching perfectly in unison, vintage tanks and missiles passing through the iconic Red Square, according to The New York Times. The Soviet Union lost at least 20 million people in the war the suffering and valour that went into the German defeat have been touchstones ever since.Īccording to Al Jazeera, the holiday was first marked in 1965 by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev – himself a veteran of World War II. Tuesday marks the 78th anniversary of Germany’s capitulation in World War II after a relentless Red Army offensive pushed German forces from Stalingrad, deep inside Russia, all the way to Berlin, about 2,200 kilometers. Military cadets march during the Victory Day military parade at Dvortsovaya (Palace) Square. While the Allies celebrated 7 May as Victory in Europe Day, Joseph Stalin waited until the Nazis in Berlin had signed the text of surrender on 9 May.
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