The Victory Day was introduced in the USSR in 1965. Its establishment was used by the Soviet government as the means to conciliate the peoples of the communist state, especially ex-war soldiers. As the war ended they were forgotten by the state and left to struggle for survival by themselves having both bodies and souls crippled by the war. After Stalin’s death, Khrushchev (First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964; in full power as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964) loosened terror pressure in the country leading the course of de-Stalinization. He appeared both too liberal, too harsh and too weak, but most importantly too unpredictable and too voluntarist in the eyes of the predominantly conservative party leaders. His incredible projects and statements made old apparatchiks feel uncomfortable. He was overthrown, and his successor Brezhnev was searching for the mass support, which manifested in continuous improvement of social standards and unification of people into the single formation of “Soviet nation”. Mass events introduced new religion substitute based on brainwashing propaganda. The Victory Day was to complement the Soviet myth alongside the Great October Revolution, the New Year with Ded Moroz (instead of the Christmas), the International Women’s Day, and the workers’ unity Labour Day. The mythical component of the Soviet legend was deepened and developed each year until it became absurd. Any veteran was welcomed at the Victory Day celebrations meaning that their killers of the NKVD punitive squads joined their ranks too.
What has happened to the Victory Day in Ukraine and Russia since 1991?
As the Soviet Union disintegrated, Ukraine inherited the communist traditions. Religion was reborn, but they remained. Moreover, as Russia declared itself legal successor of the USSR, it managed to embrace communist and tsarist traditions, which resulted in the mixture of two. As the Russian Orthodox Church conducts its activities in ex-USSR states, it manipulates the religious holidays and precepts to engage other nations into the sphere of influence of the “Russian world”.
The “Russian world” concept is the essential manipulative term introduced and popularized in the 2000s to describe the spiritual unity of the Russian people. The main problem is that its creators and supporters regard as Russian national anyone fluent in the Russian language; as Russian land any piece of land ever conquered by the Russian Empire regardless of it being inhabited by any other nation. As Russia has nothing to be proud of, its propagandist managers outlined a new set of false values depicting totalitarian state based on the unlimited tsar power bringing stability in poverty for its citizen and resisting to the western capitalist decadent influence as well as to the threat of the conquest and invasion, primarily from the USA. Schizophrenia, you would say?
Only after 2013-2014 Euromaidan pro-European protests then newly elected President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko risked to cancel pointless Defender of the Fatherland Day (February 23) introduced as the Red Army Day in 1919. As of 2016, it is still officially celebrated only in Russia, Belarus, and Kyrgyzstan. The Defender of Ukraine Day is celebrated October 14, according to the Cossack and UPA tradition, while the Ukrainian Army Day is December 6.
Since 2005 Russian propaganda managers introduced St. George Ribbon action. Although it was first used in the 1769 Order of Saint George, and then by nazi collaborators Vlasov’s Russian Liberation Army, it was applied as decoration of the 1943 Order of Glory and 1945 the medal "For the Victory over Germany". It meant nothing in golden times of the USSR – the 1970s-1980s Stagnation Era, but its aggressive imposition led to its popular rejection in Ukraine, at least since 2014, where it is conventionally called “Colorado beetle ribbon”.
They say, there was no tradition of May 9 military parades in the USSR; November 7 was the major date for those. As the latter ceased to bear importance for post-1991 Russia, May 9 found its new meaning of showing military power. Ukraine tended to hold military parades August 24, on its Independence Day, but not on yearly basis. May 9 was slowly becoming a commemoration day, WWII military equipment exhibition, as there were barely a few dozens of hundreds of veterans still alive all over Ukraine in 2010s.
In the European Union May 9 is Europe Day. In Ukraine the Day of Europe is celebrated the third Saturday of May.
Conclusion may sound rather unexpected: as long as “the West” does not offer options for Ukraine to substitute its communist past, the country’s reincarnation is postponed and left free to lag behind. And it would turn nightmare to “the West” if Ukraine turned back to Russia. Fortunately to the world security, it will not happen, at least in 5-10 years.
