What would happen to this patriotic celebration of the war once communism fell was not at all clear. “From 1965 on, the Great Patriotic War continued its transformation from a national trauma of monumental proportions into a sacrosanct cluster of heroic exploits that had once and for all prevent the priority of communism over capitalism.” Each May 9, veterans would visit local schools, recount their experiences, and be presented with bouquets of flowers. The desperate poverty people had experienced in the immediate aftermath of war had eased, and the veterans – now moving into middle and old age – were made into heroes. Two years later a new tomb of the unknown soldier was unveiled by the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. In 1965, May 9 became a national holiday again. It was not until the mid-1960s that the Soviet Union began to actively celebrate the second world war once more.
Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1962 Ivan’s Childhood is perhaps the most powerful of these. In his famous “ secret speech” of 1956, Khrushchev ridiculed Stalin and his leadership.įilms made in this period of political and cultural thaw turned the spotlight away from Stalin and began to probe the experiences of a generation that suffered so much. In a tremendous finale Stalin, clad all in white arrives in Berlin to oversee the soldiers’ joyous celebrations the hero-soldier and his love interest are reunited, but almost immediately she turns to Stalin and asks him for a kiss, gushing gratitude for all he had done for the people.Īfter Stalin died in 1953, his successor Nikita Khrushchev began to dismantle many aspects of the Stalin cult, including his reputation as a great military leader. The 1949 film Fall of Berlin conceived as a gift to Stalin for his 70th birthday was the climax of this post-war leader cult. Under Stalin, victory in the war was celebrated primarily in terms of his own genius as leader. In December 1947, only two years after it was launched, May 9 was downgraded: no longer a state holiday, it became a regular working day again.
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Moscow announced a new phase of the Ukraine war plan was to take full control of southern and eastern Ukraine and connect the Donbas region with Crimea, leaving places such as the town of Irpin, pictured here, devastated. Photo: Alamy via The Conversation They told him: “We don’t want to see our heroes – our victorious warriors – standing in queues, trading at the market, living from hand to mouth, but instead fully provided for materially, well-dressed (preferably in a special uniform), living in light apartments and with the highest weekly allowances and privileges that our possibly in our great Soviet country.” One group of workers wrote directly to Stalin to complain about the state’s failure to provide for the veterans. Veterans became buskers, fortune tellers and beggars. Many veterans, especially those who had been injured in the war, found themselves homeless and jobless.
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Promises were made to them – a free ticket home, a job waiting, a new suit of clothing and footwear, monetary recompense for their service, financial help building or repairing homes – but the reality fell drastically short. It took at least two decades for war remembrance to emerge as a core component of Soviet – and later Russian – patriotism.Īfter the happy homecomings, life was often hard for veterans in the late 1940s. In 1945, with the economy in ruins, and the Soviet people injured, grieving and traumatized, remembering the war was painful and potentially divisive. The story of how those war veterans were treated – and their war commemorated – has been rather complex. In cities across the Soviet Union, activists organized receptions: banners, flowers, portraits of Stalin, throngs of happy citizens celebrating the end of war, and paying tribute to the soldiers. In the weeks that followed, the first demobilized soldiers returned home. Glory to our heroic Red Army, which upheld the independence of our Motherland and won victory over the enemy! Glory to our great people, the people victorious! Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in the struggle against the enemy and gave their lives for the freedom and happiness of our people! A woman holds a poster of Joseph Stalin during a commemoration ceremony to mark the 65th anniversary of Stalin’s death at the Red Square in Moscow on March 05, 2018. On a radio broadcast on Stalin announced: But then came victory in Europe, celebrated on May 9, a day after VE Day (fighting stopped a day later in Russia).
The cult that had been constructed around him in the 1930s seemed to have been abandoned.
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