Voices: On Victory Day, Russia flexes its muscles
MOSCOW — Every year on May 9, in a holiday that has been getting more lavish, costly and ostentatious, Russia celebrates its victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
Russia has a lot to commemorate and honor: Without its sacrifices on the Eastern Front, the outcome of the war could have been very different. The Red Army laid down more lives than any of the other Allied forces, with Soviet losses numbering over 26 million people.
Yet from an occasion of remembrance, Russia’s Victory Day has turned into a gaudy display of military might. There is a parade of weapons and armed forces on Moscow’s Red Square, an official event to which most ordinary Muscovites are not welcome. On display Monday were tanks, a nuclear missile launcher, and the S-400 missile-defense system. In preparation, the city virtually shuts down as people use the holidays to leave town for their summer homes rather than deal with the blocked roads and official festivities they are unlikely to have access to anyway.
There is another inconsistency: Although state television will make a show of honoring the dwindling number of war veterans, in reality many of them are neglected by local and federal authorities. The average pension for war veterans, although it has risen over the years, constitutes less than $350 a month, given the collapse of the ruble in the last two years.
Meanwhile, what was initially started as a local, grass-roots effort to commemorate veterans who have already passed away with a parade of people carrying their portraits has been taken over by politicians pursuing a nationalist, pro-Kremlin agenda. Last year, President Vladimir Putin himself led the march, carrying his father’s portrait. This year, the march was held in 42 countries worldwide and reported widely by Russia’s pro-Kremlin English-language news networks.
President Putin reinstated a military parade for Victory Day in 2008, but since then the holiday has become increasingly politicized, particularly following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in the spring of 2014 and its backing of separatist rebels in East Ukraine. The black and orange St. George Ribbon, initially used in Russia to honor the victory in World War II, became a symbol eagerly used by pro-Russian separatist militia and in the Russian propaganda campaign supporting the rebels.
This politicization has had an isolating effect on an event that should be about celebrating a common victory. Less than half of some 70 world leaders invited to attend last year’s 70th anniversary showed up. This year, the Kremlin did not send out special invitations, while diplomats from neighboring Lithuania refused to attend, citing “Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.”
It is easy to understand Russia’s efforts to remind the world of its sacrifice: In the United States, Russia’s role in the war is sometimes underestimated. But at home, celebrations and particularly the military parade have turned an important historical event into a fetish that masks deep insecurities about national identity. The increase in the holiday’s prominence is as much about showing military might as inadvertently admitting that Russia has few significant victories to boast of since then. Even though Putin’s approval ratings remain over 80%, 51% of Russians failed to attribute a positive achievement to him in the last year, according to a recent poll by the Public Opinion Foundation. The economy continues to stagnate, and record numbers of Russians are pessimistic about their earnings.
For veterans, their families, and millions of Russians touched by the war, Victory Day has always been a holiday celebrated “with tears in our eyes.” That piety has been replaced by a theatrical obsession with might.
Moscow-based correspondent Arutunyan is author of The Putin Mystique. Follow @scrawnya on Twitter.