BBC Russia editor
BBCEighty miles from Moscow, a park echoes to the sound of explosions and gunfire.
As plumes of thick gray smoke rise into the air, the Purple Military storms throughout a bridge and battles for management of a tiny island. Extra Soviet troopers are arriving by boat from throughout a lake.
As soon as on the island they tear down a swastika and exchange it with the hammer and sickle of the Soviet Union. Victory.
A big crowd is watching from the protection of the shore. What they’re witnessing is an historic re-enactment of one of many closing battles for Berlin in 1945. It led to the capitulation of Nazi Germany and what Moscow nonetheless refers to as The Nice Victory.
The battle for Berlin, unfolding in entrance of me within the city of Dubna, is one among many occasions in Russia for the eightieth anniversary of the Soviet victory in World Struggle Two.
The anniversary is receiving monumental consideration in a rustic the place the nationwide thought is constructed very a lot across the notion of Russia as victor and sufferer.
“I am right here as a result of my grandfather fought on this conflict,” one of many spectators, Katya, tells me.
“He went lacking close to Berlin. A lot later we discovered he’d been killed in January 1945.”
Eighty years on Katya’s son is preventing in Ukraine.
“My son is in a conflict now. He is within the ‘particular army operation’,” she tells me. “He volunteered. I attempted to speak him out of it. However he hasn’t listened to anybody since he was a child.
‘I am my very own tsar,’ he instructed me. ‘Go battle, then, in the event you’re a tsar,’ I replied. He and his pal went collectively. His pal was killed.”
Katya’s household historical past is a narrative of various generations preventing on the entrance line.
However in very totally different circumstances.
In 1941, Hitler’s Germany invaded the Soviet Union to attempt to conquer the world’s largest nation and safe world domination. Soviet troopers (Katya’s grandfather amongst them) fought to liberate their nation from the Nazis. Victory for Moscow got here at an unlimited human value: greater than 27 million Soviet residents have been killed in what is thought right here because the Nice Fatherland or Nice Patriotic Struggle.
However in 2022 it was Russia that launched a large-scale invasion – of its neighbour. What the Kremlin nonetheless calls a “particular army operation” was broadly seen as an try and power Ukraine again into Russia’s geo-political orbit. In March 2022, the UN Basic Meeting overwhelmingly adopted a decision condemning Russia’s “aggression.”
And but the Russian authorities painting the conflict in Ukraine as a continuation of World Struggle Two. The official narrative right here creates a parallel actuality, through which Russia as soon as once more is preventing Nazism and fascism, in Ukraine and throughout Europe. Russia, the nation which invaded Ukraine, presents itself because the sufferer of exterior aggression.
“Traditionally and sociologically, victory within the Nice Patriotic Struggle was at all times a cornerstone of Russian united consciousness,” Novaya Gazeta columnist Andrei Kolesnikov explains, “as a result of there is no such thing as a glue for the nation: solely this occasion. It was at all times so, from Brezhnev’s time till now.
“However what’s taking place now’s one thing particular. Now the Nice Patriotic Struggle is introduced as simply step one in our everlasting conflict with the West, in opposition to ‘Eurofascism.’ The Particular Army Operation because the continuation of the Nice Patriotic Struggle: that is one thing new.”
In Russia, tv performs a key function in spreading the official message that Europe could not be trusted then and can’t be trusted now. Just lately, on Russian TV, I noticed a documentary entitled “Europe In opposition to Russia. Hitler’s Crusaders”. It was about how European international locations had collaborated with the Nazis throughout World Struggle Two.
No point out of the 1939 non-aggression pact between Hitler and Stalin: underneath its secret protocol Germany and the USSR had carved up spheres of affect in japanese Europe.
Final month a Russian TV presenter launched a tirade in opposition to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a staunch supporter of army help to Ukraine. The discuss present host referred to as Germany’s chief “a Nazi scumbag” for feedback about Russia. Addressing the Chancellor immediately, the anchor stated that Russians “maintain you and your comrades liable for the killing of 27 million Soviet residents.”
Iconography underpins the ideology. Within the city of Khimki, close to Moscow, a not too long ago unveiled monument depicts a Purple Military soldier facet by facet with a Russian who’s preventing in Ukraine. Framed pictures of Russian troopers killed in Ukraine have been positioned beneath the 2 fighter figures.
An inscription reads: “By preserving the previous we defend the long run!”
Wars previous and current: introduced collectively in bronze.
Within the run as much as Victory Day, Russia has been awash with reminders of The Nice Victory. Final month a Soyuz rocket adorned to have fun the eightieth anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome.
Again down on earth, at a maternity hospital within the Siberian metropolis of Kemerovo, new child infants are being wearing miniature Purple Military caps and capes.
On its Telegram channel, the hospital defined that battle garments for infants served “as a reminder of hyperlinks between the generations, the braveness of the defenders of the Fatherland and of how even the tiniest Russian citizen is a part of an enormous historical past.”
In Moscow, the Russian phrase for ‘Victory’ – ‘Pobeda’ – is in all places: on big billboards, on posters in store home windows, even caught to the facet of road-sweepers. Underground, particular “victory trains” on the Moscow Metro have been decked out with World Struggle Two imagery and the phrases: “Be proud!” and “Bear in mind!”
Tanks have been rolling down Moscow’s principal avenue, Tverskaya, at rehearsals for the massive 9 Might parade on Purple Sq.. In Soviet occasions, after 1945, army parades on Victory Day have been uncommon. Underneath Vladimir Putin they’ve turn out to be a key factor of what’s now Russia’s most sacred nationwide vacation – a day not just for remembering the victims of World Struggle Two, however for showcasing Russian army energy and to unite the folks across the thought of Russia as an unbeatable nation.
The USSR was, certainly, victorious within the Nice Patriotic Struggle. However eighty years on, and regardless of assured pronouncements by Russian officers, victory eludes Moscow in Ukraine. The Kremlin’s “particular army operation” was solely anticipated to final just a few days, just a few weeks most. After greater than three years of conflict – and big casualties on each side – it is nonetheless unclear how and when the preventing will finish.
The Kremlin says 29 world leaders, together with China’s Xi Jinping, shall be attending the Victory Day parade. In accordance with Moscow, Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico shall be visiting Russia for the commemorations. Guaranteeing safety for the army parade and company on Purple Sq. will have already got been a prime precedence for the Kremlin. Much more so after two consecutive nights of Ukrainian drone assaults focusing on Moscow.
Again in Dubna, German resistance has crumbled and the Purple Military is in full management. The re-enactment is over.
A number of the spectators right here consider the official portrayal of Russia as a besieged fortress threatened by the West.
“Each Britain and America have betrayed us and threaten us,” Lidiya tells me. “However we’re resilient. You can not defeat Russia.”
Once I discuss to 98-year-old Fyodor Melnikov, he does not get into politics. The army present has sparked painful recollections for him. Fyodor’s brother was killed within the Nice Patriotic Struggle.
“Struggle is a terrifying factor,” Fyodor tells me. “Individuals ought to be allowed to reside freely. Allow them to work, allow them to reside their lives, allow them to die naturally.”
Fyodor has written a poem about his late brother, about conflict. He recites it for me. In translation it appears like this:
“A uniform I by no means wore,
A battle I by no means noticed.
However in my thoughts’s eye I see
My brother going off to conflict.
The one factor he stated to me
Earlier than he went was this:
‘Reside, little brother, be properly.’
I’ll deliver victory residence.”
On Friday, together with the entire of Russia, Fyodor Melnikov shall be celebrating the eightieth anniversary of The Nice Victory of 1945.
However it will likely be a day for remembering, too: family and friends who by no means returned.
A day for acknowledging the price of conflict.
