The 80th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany in World War II will be celebrated in a few days. In all the past eight decades, the whole world witnessed different ways of organizing events related to Victory Day, and lately changes were seen in the whole world itself, in particular under the influence of the radical change in concepts related to Victory Day. How concepts and the world are changing, why these changes happen and what effects they produce, including on societies in the region, were among the issues discussed by the experts invited to IPN’s public debate “May 9 in Moscow, Kiev and Chisinau, three totally different faces”.
The permanent expert of IPN’s project Igor Boțan said that World War II, which took place between September 1, 1939 and September 2, 1945, was an armed conflict on a global scale. It involved two global military-political coalitions, becoming the largest in human history. Towards the end of the war, 54 states participated in the anti-Hitler coalition. “The name “Great Patriotic War”, from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945, has its origin in Soviet historiography and is still used, mainly in the Russian Federation. In most countries of the world it is called the “Eastern Front’, part of World War II,” the expert explained.
According to him, Nazism or National Socialism was the nationalist, racist, anti-Semitic and anti-communist totalitarian ideology and policy of Nazi Germany, which were applied during the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler in the German state between 1933 and 1945. “The anti-fascist coalition united the allies in World War II, representing an association of states and peoples that fought in World War II between 1939 and 1945 against the coalition of Axis powers: Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and militarist Japan,” Igor Botan noted.
Since September 1939, Poland, France, Great Britain and its dominions had been part of the anti-fascist coalition and were in a state of war with Nazi Germany, after the German aggression against Poland. This alliance was also based on the Anglo-Polish agreements of 1939 and the Franco-Polish agreement of 1921.
“The Atlantic Charter, which is one of the programmatic documents of the anti-Hitler coalition, was a key document in the establishment and enlargement of the Alliance. It was discussed and adopted at the Atlantic Conference “Riviera” by British Prime Minister W. Churchill and U.S. President F.D. Roosevelt. And it was announced on August 14, 1941. Later, on September 24, 1941, the USSR and other countries joined the Charter,” the expert said. Consequently, in January 1942, the anti-Hitler coalition consisted of 26 states, and by the end of World War II there were already 54 states.
Doctor habilitate in history Pavel Moraru, associate professor, noted an evolution in the way this event is marked. After the end of the war in Europe, on May 8/9, 1945, a military parade was organized in Moscow, after which there was a long break of 20 years. Respectively, until 1965, this military parade was not staged in Moscow.
“The horrors of World War II were terrible. There were no pompous demonstrations until 1965, during the Brezhnev period. This victory was a disaster for the Soviet Union, including politically, ideologically. However, after World War II, the USSR did not get what it wanted from a territorial point of view. Until then, the plans of the Kremlin leadership were great – they wanted to conquer Europe, Sovietize it, but also the world – an objective that was not achieved. At the same time, a colossal number of lives were lost – almost 27 million people – about 10% of the population of the USSR or 40% of the losses of World War II. A large number of orphans, war widows, people with sequelae, destroyed economy,” the historian said.
According to him, in the first post-war years there were no reasons to celebrate. Then, in 1965, the first military parade after 1945 was organized, the Soviet leader at the time, Leonid Brezhnev, being a more eccentric personality. However, during the Soviet period, the commemorative component persisted, which was very strong – flowers were laid at the monuments of the heroes, veterans were honored, etc. But after the dissolution of the USSR, especially in the last decade, this event turned into a costumed carnival. In his opinion, what has happened in recent years is a real blasphemy because the event has been highly politicized.
“We cannot celebrate a victory, because those entitled to celebrate it celebrated in 1945. So, the generation of 1945 won the victory, but boasting about the victory of our ancestors would be just like the Romans would boast about the geese of Rome. That’s what we do now and it’s not fair. I repeat – the victory was marked by those who lived in 1945, who escaped the horrors and disasters of war. What is happening now is a real mockery because the event has been politicized,” said Pavel Moraru.
According to the university lecturer, the Russian leadership currently marks this event with great pomp, as the most important day in the calendar of the Russian Federation. However, such events are not organized on Russia’s day either. In his opinion, through this event, Russia is trying to demonstrate its military strength. It is also an opportunity to see what is the degree of loyalty of the countries participating in the event.
Director of the Institute of Political Studies and Social Capital in Chernivtsi, Marin Gherman, university lecturer, Ph.D. at “Stefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, said that, as the generations have changed, the true memory of those events has been erased. And slowly, slowly since the shedding of tears and cries for the heroes of the war, it gradually turned, especially in the Brezhnev period and much later, in a true national holiday, as if they dance and sing on the graves of the ancestors, from the perspective of the Soviet man.
“And so, gradually, we have witnessed, but especially on the territory of the Russian Federation, the transformation of an act of commemoration, we are talking about some victims into a projection of the future – in the words of a philosopher and writer. Russia is a state with an uncertain past because the instrumentalization of the historical past for a projection of the future and the gradual integration of the discourse dedicated to the commemoration of the victims of World War II into a neo-imperialist projection of the Russian Federation took place. It is one of the last stages of the so-called holiday in which we are at the moment”, explained the university lecturer.
According to him, until approximately 2004-2005, in the entire ex-Soviet space, practically, there was a copy in which this day of May 9, Victory Day, was celebrated, being seen through the angle of political continuity. Even in Kiev, Chisinau, Minsk and other capitals of the former states that were part of the USSR, very similar ceremonies were staged, certain practically identical speeches were delivered. Thus, it gradually became a ritual matter, which actually replaced the Christian one founded somewhere in the collective mind of the time.
“The cult of heroes and everything we call heroes today is a social construct, in fact invented by those who remained alive. None of the participants in any military event wanted to be a post-mortem hero, but wanted to be a living hero, and the Soviet Union used this cult of heroes who are no longer alive to plan future geopolitical actions and to justify them. Here we are talking about both the 1980s, the 1990s, and the year we are in 2025,” Marin Gherman concluded.
The public debate entitled “May 9 in Moscow, Kiev and Chisinau, three totally different faces” was held as part of the series of debates “Developing political culture in public debates”. IPN Agency carries out this project with support from the German Hanns Seidel Foundation.