Victory Day holds a special place in the history of our countries and the whole world. 75 years have passed since the triumph of May 9, 1945, the day of the capitulation of Nazi Germany. Over the years, its global significance has only increased, and the involvement of each of us in this immortal feat is more acutely felt.
Victory Day is the most valuable and brightest Day for the peoples of our countries. It is a Day of the strength of the people’s spirit, “a Day with tears in our eyes”. On May 9, 1945, popular jubilation knew no limit. After the announcement of the capitulation of the enemy on the radio, the feeling of all-encompassing joy filled the hearts of everyone. People in the streets cried with happiness and the awareness of irreparable losses sustained during the Great Patriotic War. More than 26 million people, who died on the battlefields, were torn and frozen, burned alive and starved within the walls of besieged Leningrad, tortured in Hitler’s camps of death and killed by a traitor – that was the true price of Victory.
If there is absolute happiness in the world, it was experienced by those who survived to meet that unforgettable day – May 9, 1945. The majestic Victory hymns sang freedom – freedom from fear for lives, freedom from racial hatred of Nazism, freedom from cruelty and injustice. Victory Day encompassed not only pain and joy, but also hope. Hope that the horrors of war will never be repeated and that, having healed the wounds of war with hard work, we will live peacefully and happily.
Seventy-five years have passed since the Great Victory, but the memory of its creators, living and dead, appeals to us diligently. What did our grandfathers and great grandfathers fight for? What were they thinking, rushing to the attack and squirming in pain in hospitals? What were they praying for in moments of despair? Of course, first of all, they were thinking about their loved and dear ones. They prayed for the salvation of themselves and those who remained in a ruined country seized by hunger. They fought for their home, for their children. They fought for their Great Motherland. They fought for all of us – the future generations.
All the peoples of the USSR contributed to the Great Victory. During the Great Patriotic War, more than 34 million citizens from all the republics of the then
integrated Soviet Union were drafted into the Soviet Army. Russian and Ukrainians, Kazakhs and Belarusians, Azerbaijanis and Georgians – representatives of more than 100 nationalities and peoples of the Union fought with fascists shoulder to shoulder. The people of Russia paid the most expensive price for the Victory. It was the Russian people who carried the principal weight of losses – 5.7 million people or 66% from the general losses of the Soviet Armed Forces. The titles of the Hero of the Soviet Union were awarded to sons and daughters of all peoples of the USSR, but the majority of them (8182 out of 11657) were Russians. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief Joseph Stalin also spoke about the contribution of the Russian people, calling it the victorious nation. This is perhaps the only example in Soviet history, when a toast was publicly proposed to one nation.
The fate of Soviet Byelorussia should be especially emphasized. Byelorussia was the first Soviet republic to face the attack of fascist aggressors, becoming the theatre of the most dramatic and cruel events at the beginning of the War. In Byelorussia Nazi troops met resistance, which they had never experienced in any of the military campaigns in Europe. The heroic defense of the Brest Fortress, where the last two pockets of resistance were destroyed only two months later, and the city of Mogilev, which could not be conquered for 23 days, became the brightest pages in the history of the Great Patriotic War. More than a million citizens of Byelorussia fought on the fronts of the war, 440 thousand partisans and clandestine fighters were resisting the enemy on the occupied territory. The contribution of the Belorussian partisan movement can be estimated by the fact that by the end of 1943 60% of the country was under the control of the partisans. But the losses were also unprecedented. The Nazis killed 2,2 million Byelorussians. In total, Belarus lost more than 1/3 of its population. It took more than a quarter of a century to restore it.
The citizens of all Republics of the former USSR, fighting shoulder to shoulder in the Great Patriotic War, showed courage and valor. The Victory was gained with common efforts. Only solidarity, courage and obsession with the sacred struggle for the Motherland allowed the peoples of the USSR to defend the country, its freedom, its future, while daily and hourly repeating for themselves the words that became almost a prayer: “Everything for the front, Everything for Victory”.
On this joyful Day, we also pay tribute to the memory of all the participants of the anti-fascist coalition: the soldiers of the United States and Great Britain, the fighters of “Free France”, the fighters of Poland and Czechoslovakia, the partisans of Yugoslavia, Slovakia, Greece, Italy, the participants of Resistance in Belgium, Norway and other European countries, the patriotic anti-fascists of Germany – all known and unnamed heroes of the great struggle against the “brown plague”. The peoples of Asia, especially China, who opposed the expansion of militaristic Japan, made their contribution to the common Victory.
We would especially like to mention the heroes-patriots of Ethiopia, a country that, along with Republican Spain, was the first to sustain fascist aggression. We remember that it was the heroic struggle of the Ethiopian patriots that paralyzed here a 200 thousand expeditionary corps of fascist Italy, which our army would otherwise have to deal with in the steppes of Ukraine and on the outskirts of Stalingrad.
The genocide of Jews in Europe, which took the lives of 6 million people, will forever remain among the most black pages of the account of Nazi crimes. There would be even more sacrifices but for the Soviet soldier. The world must remember that.
It is deeply regrettable that in recent years in certain countries, with the connivance of the authorities, Nazi and fascist groups have been reactivated. Racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance have been practiced, and extremist movements that threaten democratic values have risen. What is even more unfortunate is the so-called “war against monuments” to those who have laid down their heads in the fight against fascism unleashed in some European countries. Attempts to rewrite the history of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War, to revise their results and to diminish the importance of the Victory of the Soviet Union and its contribution to the anti- Hitler coalition are closely related to these processes.
Appealing to primary historical sources convincingly demonstrates the inconsistency and prejudice of such attempts. The experience of the anti-Hitler coalition shows the need to unite the peoples of the world to repel fascism, the inadmissibility of dictate and command approaches in international relations. It demonstrates the value of negotiation and diplomacy, equal dialogue, since there is simply no other way to prevent new conflicts and to preserve peace in the world.
On this day, we swear to be worthy of the memory of the feats of our ancestors. May the memory of the fallen live forever! Eternal glory to those who carried the banner of victory over the crushed Reichstag, those who for many days and years marched through smoke and flames, through the ashes of their native land to the great justice – to the Victory!
The Ethiopian Herald may 10/2020
BY DMITRIY KUPTEL AND EVGENY TEREKHIN
