Iconography underpins the ideology. In the town of Khimki, near Moscow, a recently unveiled monument depicts a Red Army soldier side by side with a Russian who is fighting in Ukraine. Framed photos of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine have been placed below the two fighter figures.
An inscription reads: “By preserving the past we defend the future!”
Wars past and present: brought together in bronze.
In the run up to Victory Day, Russia has been awash with reminders of The Great Victory. Last month a Soyuz rocket decorated to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome.
Back down on earth, at a maternity hospital in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, newborn babies are being dressed in miniature Red Army caps and capes.
On its Telegram channel, the hospital explained that battle clothes for babies served “as a reminder of links between the generations, the courage of the defenders of the Fatherland and of how even the tiniest Russian citizen is part of a big history.”
In Moscow, the Russian word for ‘Victory’ – ‘Pobeda’ – is everywhere: on giant billboards, on posters in shop windows, even stuck to the side of road-sweepers. Underground, special “victory trains” on the Moscow Metro have been decked out with World War Two imagery and the words: “Be proud!” and “Remember!”
Tanks have been rolling down Moscow’s main street, Tverskaya, at rehearsals for the big 9 May parade on Red Square. In Soviet times, after 1945, military parades on Victory Day were rare. Under Vladimir Putin they have become a key element of what is now Russia’s most sacred national holiday – a day not only for remembering the victims of World War Two, but for showcasing Russian military power and to unite the people around the idea of Russia as an unbeatable nation.
The USSR was, indeed, victorious in the Great Patriotic War. But eighty years on, and despite confident pronouncements by Russian officials, victory eludes Moscow in Ukraine. The Kremlin’s “special military operation” was only expected to last a few days, a few weeks maximum. After more than three years of war – and huge casualties on both sides – it’s still unclear how and when the fighting will end.