The term "Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War" keeps so many absurdities that you can write about it a separate book. Even the term "Great Patriotic War" is a propaganda trick of the Soviet government, in which its role played ... Napoleon, Yury Gudymenko writes for TSN.
About Napoleon, more precisely about the victory over him in the Patriotic War of 1812, Stalin and Molotov and other Soviet figures remembered in their famous addresses to the people at the beginning of the war. It was supposed, according to the idea, to encourage Soviet citizens (who before that had been told for many years that the war would be waged by the Soviet Union in a foreign territory and with little blood, driving the European workers and peasants away from the inescapable capitalist yoke). A comparison with Napoleon in 1941 suggested: yes, they retreated, yes, the enemies reached Moscow, but they still attacked the French with curses, so why not get the Germans to strike, but, fellows?.
... The term "Patriotic War" entrenched itself after the war with Germany rather quickly - albeit on a par with other propaganda terms like "holy war", "people's war" and so on. The war is - it means, it is necessary to call it something all the same. Finally, the phrase "Patriotic War" was staked in about a year after its beginning - but without the word "Great". For example, in May 1942 the famous Soviet award - the Order of the Patriotic War. It is easy to see that the word "Great" in the title of the war is missing. It appeared about a year later, mostly for pathos, and still in order not to get confused in terms of and to distinguish one Patriotic War from another, the one that Napoleon our Buonaparty was.
Only that's what it is.. Domestic war, it is for this and domestic, that is conducted on the territory of the fatherland. So it was with the Napoleonic War. The French attacked Russia, crossed the border, entered, that is, into the territory of the fatherland - the Patriotic War began. But as soon as the French were expelled for the territory of the fatherland - the Patriotic War ended. Everything, point. Fatherland is liberated. Victory. Women shouted "Hooray" and threw their caps into the air.
But the Russian army, dug out the remnants of the French abroad, did not stop, and went further, taking as a result a couple of allies with the capital of France, Paris. But everything that happened after the Russian army's transfer of its border was not called the "Patriotic War". And it was called "Foreign campaign of the Russian army". This is at least logical: the fatherland was won - the Patriotic War ended. Everything that goes on is a foreign campaign, an intervention on someone else's land. Hence, it should be called otherwise.
If you apply the pretty sound logic of the nineteenth century, the Great Patriotic War ended in the autumn of 1944, when the last German troops were driven out of the pre-war frontier of the USSR. But Soviet propagandists had less conscience than their pre-revolutionary counterparts, or they were alien to such subtleties, so the term "Patriotic War" spread to the Red Army's campaign to Berlin. The propagandists were not even embarrassed by the fact that, as a result of the Patriotic War, the fatherland itself became somewhat larger in size (for example, the USSR had cheekily acquired the original German city of Koenigsberg with its surroundings, which later became the Kaliningrad region). Subtlety, yeah..
Okay, with the term "Great Patriotic War" we figured out. Now let's look at the date.
Strictly speaking, Victory Day as a holiday was approved in the USSR by a number of official documents and it is rather problematic to dig it out. The state has the right to appoint any date with any holiday and with any justification - and citizens can only shave off its illogicality and absurdity (this is what we are now doing with you). Therefore, I'll tell you now the prehistory of this very Day of Victory, and you decide for yourself which date is right and why ... ... So, it's May 1945. Hitler for several days as a capote. German troops massively surrender and surrender, and the vast majority of German soldiers and officers are doing everything possible to surrender not to the Red Army men, but to the allies - the Americans, the British and the French. Why - guess yourself, it's not very difficult.
For several days now there have been negotiations with the Germans about their complete surrender. The Germans first tried to pull the cat for the rubber, but after the threats of the Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower left the cat alone and expressed a willingness to sign everything they were offered, including the bill for renting the room (I'm lying, of course, but the general attitude was something like this).
The allies pull out the official representative of the USSR, Major-General Susloparov, and put a ballpoint pen in his sweaty hands (I'm lying again, the pen was a fountain pen): sign it, it's time to close the shop, you see - the Germans are warm,.
Susloparov rushes to the phone to get instructions from Stalin, but "the subscriber has a position in the zone" and there are no instructions, and allies are pressing. Fortunately, in the document, which persistently put Susloparov in his hands, there is a point number four, allowing this act to be replaced by another act, so that Susloparov is imperceptibly baptized in his trouser pocket and with a free hand the document signs.
The German surrender act was signed on May 7 at 02:41 CET and enters into force on May 8 at 23:01. In fact, it's a victory. Germans lay down arms.
But then Susloparov receives a text message with a text like "Subscriber Josip Stalin znovyatsya u mozhi" (some false historians insist that SMS messages in 1945 have not yet been invented, but I despise them and ignore them). The usato-pipe subscriber is in a rage because the act of surrender was still signed by Susloparov. He demands an over-signing of the act - in Berlin, which the Red Army has just drowned in its own blood, and necessarily in the presence of the high command of the Allied countries and all German troops - land, aviation and navy. For him, this is not a question of logic or common sense, but only of prestige.
The Germans agreed to everything and sent their representatives. With the allies, it simply did not work out: after learning that Tovarisch Stalin requires signing a new surrender, Western politicians asked carefully whether the aforementioned tovarisch would make any serious changes to the document, or would it be to cheer?.
After reading a new version of the act of surrender, in which no major changes have been made, the Western leaders realized that they were still indulging themselves. Having twisted a finger at the temple, they spat and sent for their deputies to sign again - as though Stalin were respected, but they did not give special credit to the new capitulation. In the meantime, the deputies and Germans gathered in the suburbs of Berlin, where Marshal Zhukov was waiting for them with a pen ready with pride, replaced in this responsible case by the deceived Susloparov, in Europe, Sir Winston Churchill and the other leaders of the victorious countries (except for the USSR, of course) read out the addresses to Their people with joyful news: the war is over, and is over with victory.
Since then, it is the eighth of May in Europe and America is considered the day of victory over Nazism. And in the USSR, where the first act of surrender was not in favor (Soviet propaganda called it "preliminary" - although this, of course, is a lie), the day of victory was considered the ninth of May - when Soviet people told about surrender. Although the second, Soviet act of unconditional surrender of Germany is also dated on May 8th - although it was signed on the first hour of May 9th Moscow time (but still the day before - on time German). On the same eighth of May, the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "On declaring Victory Day on May 9" is dated (in other words, there was no victory, and the order was already, yeah).
In general, approximately the ninth, not the eighth of May, was the Victory Day in the USSR. At the same time, the war with Germany legally did not end in May 1945, but it ended already a dozen years later, on January 25, 1955, with the adoption of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet of the end of the state of war. The fighting in Europe, incidentally, did not end there either - the Germans still resisted in some places for more than a week, and many Soviet soldiers died during the May days.
But this is all trivia. The most important myth about the "Victory Day" is that it is a holiday. No, I will not once again list the well-known facts about the fact that even under Stalin May 9 became quite an ordinary working day with flickering salutes sometimes that for twenty years after 1945 there were no solemn parades in the USSR on that day , And "George ribbons", of course, no one wore. I will say something else.
Imagine that a maniac broke into your house. He managed to ax your mother, your father and one of your children with an ax, before you could neutralize him and with the help of the police to bind and bring to justice. Let's say a maniac was shot. Or he hanged himself in the cell. Or he was given a life sentence, it does not matter. For you, will that day be festive or not? Will you sing songs every year, rejoicing in just punishment - or will you remember the children and parents who died at the hands of the maniac? Will this day be a holiday for you?.
I think no.
So the eighth of May, as well as the ninth, is not a holiday.
A reason to recall the millions of Ukrainians who died in World War II. About millions, your mother, people from our people, from our land. Millions of living people who have become dead.
The myth that "Victory Day" is a holiday is the biggest myth about this day.
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