This Monday, Russia President Vladimir Putin visited the cemetery in the village of Marfino, not far from the old western Russian city of Staraya Russa, where he placed a bouquet of red roses. Then he met with veterans of the "Great Patriotic War," the term Russians use to describe their battle against Hitler.
It would be hard to find another part of Russia that is as saturated with the blood of that war than the earth around Staraya Russa. Officially, 850,000 soldiers died there during the two-and-a-half-year German occupation. The real figure is probably higher, because the Red Army long attempted, albeit unsuccessfully, to fend off repeated attacks by the enemy along the northwestern front.
The encounter near Marfino was one of the events with which the Russian president is preparing his country for May 9, which marks the anniversary of the end of the war with Hitler's Germany. It is "our country's most important and most honest holiday," Putin said in Staraya Russa. "It is the day of the great victory."
The end of the war will be commemorated in Russia for the 70th time this year. Since it was declared an official holiday in 1965, May 9, with its spontaneous gatherings of veterans in the streets, public festivals and gun salutes in the evening, has in fact become Russia's most moving holiday -- and perhaps the only one that has truly united the people. The victory over Hitler happened three generations ago. Still, during Putin's visit to Staraya Russa, the veterans reminded him of the words of military commander Alexander Suvorov, who said that a war is not over "until the last soldier has been buried." Last year, search teams recovered the remains of 12,900 fallen soldiers from swamps near Novgorod, the forests of Smolensk and the region around St. Petersburg.
Reopening Old Trenches
May 9, 2015 shows that there are also other reasons why the war still hasn't ended for Russia. It demonstrates that the country's leadership needs the memory of that war more than ever, even though only a few soldiers who fought in it are still alive today. Finally, it shows that this anniversary, unlike all previous victory celebrations, has become a European political issue, because old trenches on the Continent have been reopened. There are those in Russia who say that this year the celebrations on May 9 must become a demonstration against the "rehabilitation of fascism in Europe" and a "revision of the outcome of World War II."
The parade in Moscow on the morning of May 9 is intended to set an example. It will be the biggest military parade ever held. Some 15,000 soldiers will march across Red Square, 4,000 more than at the last major anniversary. Two hundred tanks, artillery and missiles will roll past the Kremlin, and 140 fighter jets will crowd the skies over Moscow. Weapons will be displayed that "will astonish the entire world," wrote the tabloid newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, full of anticipation -- including "the 'Armata,' our new miracle tank."
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