Paul
Goble
Staunton, May 7 – Sometimes to ask a
question is to answer it even if the answer is different than one intends. That
appears to be the case with a Russian nationalist who asks, “Does Russia really
need a Victory Parade every year?” His answer is an unabashed affirmative, but
others clearly don’t agree (iarex.ru/articles/66359.html).
Not only do more than half of all
Russians – 52 percent – say they have no plans to take part in the May 9 events
(newvz.ru/info/150201.html); but ever more of them are asking how much will all
this cost, a sure sign of parade fatigue (rusmonitor.com/na-chto-ukhodyat-nashi-dengi-gigantskuyu-georgievskuyu-lentu-razvernuli-v-moskve.html).
Moreover, ever more Russians are upset
by the militarization of the holiday as it involves children (capost.media/news/society/deputat-gosdumy-raskritikovala-parad-doshkolnikov-v-pyatigorske-/);
and some are even now willing to say that they’ve had enough not only with
Victory Day but with World War II as a center of attention (ura.news/news/1052383411).
Like his Soviet predecessors, Putin has used
World War II as a universal moral solvent to call into question any criticism
of Stalin and the Soviet regime. But in contrast to them, he has also made it
the centerpiece of his campaign to make militarism and brute power the basis
for the admiration of Russians to their leaders (newtimes.ru/articles/detail/180288).
One meme he and his regime have used
this year in particular is the assertion that “We can do it again,” a
suggestion that Russians can fight and win yet another war. That may work with some Russians, but it
doesn’t work with veterans or others who know what war really is. Their numbers
are declining. However, they are very clear that they reject that slogan.
94-year-old World War II veteran
Petr Aryshev says that “only idiots say that ‘we can do it again. They should be called pseudo-patriots.” They
haven’t experienced the trenches or the front line and so don’t know what they
are talking about (fedpress.ru/news/77/society/2231334).
In a few years, of course, there won’t be anyone left with these memories.
But the younger generation isn’t
falling into line as Putin would like. One much younger commentator offers the
following bitter reflection about May 9: “Moscow is spending more than a half
billion rubles (eight million US dollars) on May 9. But the few veterans who
remain alive are being given only 10,000 rubles (160 US dollars).”
“There is no money in our country
for the elderly but there always is for a showy parade. May 9, the holiday of the
Great Victory, has been transformed into an expensive and complete farce and a
cheap showy spectacle with bad actors.
Our grandfathers didn’t fight for this” (publizist.ru/blogs/112342/30939/-).
He could have added that neither
will we or our children.
No comments:
Post a Comment