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Correspondent
These days all of Russia pays tribute to not just Soviet soldiers and citizens who sacrificed their lives in the Great Patriotic War, but to the sacrifice of all humanity. On June 22, 1941, Hitler’s Axis legions invaded without warning the frontiers of the Soviet Union. Having already obliterated its opposition in Western Europe, Nazi Germany and its allies opened up the so-called Eastern Front of the European theatre of World War II. This region of conflict would very soon become the pivotal battleground in humanity’s most devastating war. On that summer day, four million Axis soldiers attacked across a front 2,900 km long.
Over the next three and half years, tens of millions would perish across this landscape. Before victory could be achieved, the most grievous wound in all human history would be carved into the Eurasian geography, and into the heart of every Russian.
Operation Barbarossa was the rising of the fascist tide, an ideological conquest aimed at subjugating hundreds of millions to a master race outlined in ‘Mein Kampf’ (‘My Struggle’). The ‘Lebensraum’ (‘living space’) this Arian nation would require laid primarily in the vast interior of Russia. Furthermore, the slave labour needed to serve a 1 000-year Reich were residents from the steppes to Siberia and beyond.
The utter darkness of the Nazi plan was cemented in the words of Hitler’s notorious SS Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler.
Of the lands in the east, Himmler foretold in his personal diary: “I work for my ideal of German womanhood with whom, someday; I will live my life in the east and fight my battles as a German far from beautiful Germany.”
For the Soviet people the Second World War started in June 1941, when Hitler invaded Russia. Russians call it “The Great Patriotic War”, likewise the fight with Napoleon back in 1812, when the Russians also had to drive foreign invaders away from their home.
The Great Patriotic War was a part of the Second World War, though the Soviet propaganda never really cared a lot about the battles on the Atlantic, in the Far East and Africa. Because of that a lot of people in Russia consider these events insignificant, compared to the dramatic fighting in Europe, in which the Soviets lost, by some estimates, up to 30 million soldiers and civilians.
Yes, Russians know what stands for Pearl Harbour and the Battle of the Bulge, but Russian people are absolutely certain that the main forces of the enemy were sent to conquer Russia. Out of 177 Wehrmacht divisions, 136 were fighting on the Eastern front.
That means, overall, considering another 53 divisions of Hitler’s satellite countries, the Red Army withstood the might of 237 divisions! No wonder there was not a military campaign in history that could be compared to the battles for Moscow, Kursk and Stalingrad — which were the turning points not only for the Great Patriotic War, but also for the whole of WWII.
After winning those three glorious victories, the Red Army started chasing the Nazis back West. Everybody in Russia is perfectly aware of the fact that Soviets were allies with the British, the French, and of course, the Americans whom the Red Army gloriously linked-up with on the River Elbe in April 1945.
However, Russians also remember how from the very beginning, in 1939, the West was hoping to orient Hitler to the East and make the German socialists and the Russian communists kill each other.
Yes, Moscow did get tons of American supplies under the Lend-Lease Act passed in 1941, and the Northern convoys to Murmansk were a manifestation of real heroism by the Royal Navy.
Russian people also cherish the memory of the French Normandy-Niemen air squadron and Le Resistance, but the Russians will never forget that they had to suffer three long years, before their brothers in arms finally landed in Normandy in 1944.
That reduced the distance between D-day and VE-Day for them to just 10 months, while for the Russians it was 46 long months of war. For the first time since 1941, Moscow really celebrated Victory on March 26, 1944 — the day the Soviet troops crossed the River Prut and recaptured the state border.
By the time the allies crossed the Channel three months later, the Red Army had started its victorious march across Europe, liberating Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Norway.
The heaviest price we paid during this operation was for ousting German troops from Poland: 600 000 Soviet soldiers were killed on Polish soil.
The local patriots, partisans and resistance groups joined the Russians along the way in their unstoppable pursuit to Berlin.
The red flag was hoisted over the Reichstag on May 1, 1945; Berlin surrendered to the Soviet victors.
And, finally, on May 8, a quarter to midnight, German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signed the unconditional surrender document.
That was it. Any questions? Protests? Suggestions?
Oh, yes. Why are the Russians celebrating on May 9? Because of the time difference: the news came to Moscow early morning that day in 1945. And nothing else behind it; no politics, not even haughtiness.
For 70 more years now, May 9 has been a sacred date for all Russians because, literally, there is not a single family in the country who has not had a member who fought in the Great Patriotic War.
In May 2015, President Robert Mugabe came to Moscow, after an invitation from President Vladimir Putin, to witness commemorations of the 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender to the Soviet Union during World War II.
He joined more than two dozen other world leaders in witnessing a colourful display of Russian military might in Red Square. Some 16 000 troops paraded, along with hundreds of units of military hardware.
During the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the head of Russian state said that, “During the World War II, when Soviet Union struggled against Fascism and Nazism, military units from Africa also took part in that struggle. Thus the victory was our shared victory”.
Together with the entire world, diplomacy travelled its road to the Great Victory.
The creation of the anti-Hitler coalition rightfully may be called the biggest diplomatic breakthrough of its time. The coalition became an example of the rallying of states of different ideologies and political systems in the face of a common mortal danger.
Today, 71 years on, there is no need to simplify or embellish history.
Each of the anti-Hitler coalition states pursued its aims, had its own national interests. The achievement of mutual trust did not come easy.
But still, the participants of the coalition succeeded in rising above their differences and putting aside all that was secondary for the sake of achieving a common Victory as their principal task.
Neither do the lessons of World War II appear less relevant from the viewpoint of construction of the postwar world pattern.
The outcome of the war exerted a profound influence on the development of international relations.
Even now, 71 years later, when the world has changed beyond recognition, the elements of the postwar arrangement the world retain an enormous significance for the cause of safeguarding peace and security on our planet.
Online Reporter