Victory Day
The Unseen Costs of Victory Day: A Critical Examination of Memory, Myth, and Militarization Victory Day, celebrated annually on May 9 in Russia and former Soviet states, commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
Officially framed as a tribute to the sacrifices of the Soviet people, the holiday has evolved into a potent symbol of national identity, militaristic pride, and political legitimization.
Yet beneath the parades and patriotic rhetoric lies a contested narrative one shaped by selective memory, geopolitical manipulation, and the suppression of uncomfortable truths.
Thesis Statement While Victory Day honors genuine suffering and heroism, its contemporary manifestations serve as a tool for authoritarian consolidation, historical revisionism, and the glorification of war, obscuring the darker legacies of Soviet imperialism and stifling critical discourse.
The Manufactured Memory of Victory The Kremlin’s narrative of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) emphasizes Soviet resilience while minimizing complicating factors.
Scholarly research, such as historian Timothy Snyder’s, reveals how Stalin’s pre-war pact with Hitler (Molotov-Ribbentrop, 1939) enabled the invasion of Poland and the annexation of Baltic states facts often omitted in official commemorations (Snyder, 2010).
The Soviet Union’s own war crimes, including mass rapes in Germany and the brutal suppression of Eastern European uprisings, are similarly airbrushed from public memory.
State-sponsored celebrations amplify a myth of unblemished heroism.
The Immortal Regiment, a march where citizens carry portraits of wartime relatives, appears grassroots but is tightly controlled.
In 2022, the government weaponized the event, conflating WWII sacrifice with support for the Ukraine invasion a cynical parallel noted by analysts like Masha Gessen (, 2017).
Militarization and Political Control Victory Day’s spectacle missile displays, goose-stepping soldiers reinforces militarization.
Budget allocations reveal priorities: in 2023, Russia spent an estimated $320 million on the parade (Reuters), while veterans’ pensions stagnate.
The holiday also silences dissent.
In 2021, historian Yuri Dmitriev, who exposed Stalin-era mass graves, was imprisoned on dubious charges a warning against challenging state-sanctioned history (Meduza, 2021).
Divergent Perspectives Proponents argue Victory Day unites a traumatized nation.
Polls by the Levada Center (2022) show 89% of Russians view WWII as a source of pride.
Yet critics, like Memorial (Russia’s oldest human rights group), counter that this pride is engineered.
State media drowns out alternative narratives, such as the Siege of Leningrad’s mismanagement, which caused preventable starvation (Anna Reid,, 2011).
In former Soviet states, reactions are mixed.
Baltic nations, which suffered Soviet occupation, now ban communist symbols, seeing May 9 as a reminder of oppression.
Meanwhile, Belarus’s authoritarian regime mirrors Russia’s glorification, while Ukraine once a participant abandoned the holiday after 2014, replacing it with May 8 as a Day of Remembrance.
Conclusion: The Shadows Behind the Celebration Victory Day is not merely a memorial but a political instrument.
By monopolizing memory, the Kremlin legitimizes aggression abroad and authoritarianism at home.
The broader implications are stark: when history becomes propaganda, reconciliation falters, and cycles of militarism persist.
Honoring the past requires confronting its full complexity not weaponizing selective fragments.
As Europe faces renewed conflict, the lessons of 1945 demand more than performative patriotism; they demand truth.
References - Snyder, T.
(2010).
Basic Books.
- Gessen, M.
(2017).
Riverhead.
- Reid, A.
(2011).
Bloomsbury.
- Levada Center (2022).
- Meduza (2021).
The Case Against Yuri Dmitriev.
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