Russia marked the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany 71 years ago by holding a series of parades that occur in over 20 of Russia’s major cities and one of the largest Victory Day military parades in Moscow in years.
Thousands of soldiers marched through Red Square on May 9. This year’s Victory Day parade was designed to showcase the role of Russian military force in Russia’s current global agenda.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles, 135 tanks and military vehicles, including Russia’s newest S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems rolled through the city’s streets and across the square. Seventy-one aircraft — including Sukhoi jets recently returned from Syria — flew overhead.
The newly created Military forces: the National Guard and female regiments participated in the parade for the first time this year.
Here is a part of Russian TV coverage of the parade as it was broadcast all over Russia. The video has English translation of the Russian broadcast’s commentary.
At a reception on the occasion of Victory Day Putin said: “Victory represents not only pride of the past but also a stern warning for the future to those who would like to experience the strength of Russia.”
These Putin’s words very accurately describe the mood of this year’s Russian Victory Day. Every Russian knows very popular song: “The Victory Day is a holyday with tears in one’s eyes”. But lately this song ceased to describe the mood of the celebration.
Here is a quote from an article at the Ukrainian Russian language website Svodka Novostej” (News Review) :
“Victory Day has long been transformed from a ‘with tears in one’s eyes’ into ‘we can repeat it.’ The hysteria that we are surrounded by enemies and that NATO military is dreaming to make an insidious attack upon us, was heated all year round, although in early May, of course, it reached its climax. The main refrain is not even when to start the Third World War, but the assertion that the war is really already going on, and the only question is when the current ‘cold’ stage will turn into the ‘hot’ “.
Arcady Babchenko, a known Russian journalist told to a correspondent of the Russian language channel of the Israeli TV:
“During the TV broadcast of the parade, a girl-presenter said with her elevated, joyous tone: ‘Now you can see how multiple rocket launchers Hurricane are crossing the Red Square. They have been used successfully in Chechnya and Georgia’. I wished to ask her: ‘My God, girl, what are you talking about? Have you seen what the Hurricanes did in Chechnya? Have you seen what they made with villages? Have you seen Chechen villages where there were not even one intact house left, only chimneys in the midst of the ashes? The whole village of chimneys, like in the movies about the WWII, but not Nazi invaders have done it, it was done by your multiple rocket launchers. Have you seen how they work? It is not enough to say it’s scary.’
“For several years, I try to leave Moscow before the Victory Day. It became absolutely impossible to watch it. For a few days this country, not very healthy in the mental and moral terms at all other times, turns entirely in a mad house.”
Here are some photographs that can illustrate what Babchenko meant.
It was difficult to find a type of merchandise, which wouldn’t get a special Victory brand. Here is an air freshener “Smell of Victory”.
Here is the advertising of the Victory costumes for toddlers:
There was a lot of advertising of new vodka brands with names like “to our Victory”, devoted to the Victory day.
The Victory was celebrated everywhere, even in nightclubs. Many of them advertised the Night of Victory on May 8.
Young people happily followed the new trend.
But especially popular and symptomatic were Victory stickers on the windows of cars.
“My grandfather fucked Hitler’s wife!
“Onto Berlin for German women!”
“We can do it again!” was the increasingly popular slogan plastered across car windows.
The most interesting were stickers with the texts directly connected to the today’s events:
“Hitler caput! Bendera (the historical leader of Ukrainian nationalists. V.Ts.) is a Nazi! Obama is a bitch! Donbas belongs to us!”
The text of this sticker is a paraphrase of the popular WWII song about a Russian soldier coming home from the war with the medal for capturing the city of Budapest.
The rhymes on the sticker say: “As long as Russian solder has bullets, matches and moonshine, soldiers of NATO, suck our pricks! Pentagon, tremble in horror! Our solder will be boozing and crying under the music of a captured enemy’s saxophone, and the medal for the captured city of Washington will be shining on his chest.”
I think commentaries are not needed.
