66th Anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War-Lessons of common victory |09 May 2011

Just one mention of Victory Day causes the heart of each Russian to be wrung. It's unlikely that even now - 66 years after - there can be found in the country a family who was not scathed by the flames of war. The grievous ordeals that fell to the lot of the peoples of the Soviet Union revealed the greatness of the human spirit and manifested numerous examples of heroism, personal feat and true patriotism. That is why this war has gone down in the history of our country as the Great Patriotic War.

As never in history, in those dramatic war years, the destinies of the country and of its people became most closely intertwined. For many, especially the veterans, this is a very personal holiday, but the veterans, unfortunately, are leaving us. The memory remains. An eternal memory of those who perished defending the Fatherland from the plague of the 20th century, who died from wounds, in prisons, in captivity or in the blockade.

World War II was indeed an epochal event. It was not only a global battle that exceeded in scale all the previous armed conflicts in world history. For the first time in history, the stake in this struggle was the preservation of the life of many nations. The gas chambers and crematoria of Oswiecim, Buchenwald, Salaspils and other death camps have demonstrated what fascism had in store for the world. And those who in some countries today question the significance of the Victory and the role of our country in it are forgetting that without it these countries might not have been on the map.

The assertions about an "exaggeration of the Soviet contribution to the cause of Victory" do not stand up to criticism. In 1944 the length of the Soviet-German front was four times greater than that of all the fronts where the USSR's allies, put together, fought. At the same period up to 201 enemy divisions fought on the eastern front, whereas only 21 divisions faced the American-British troops in the very same months.

Even after the opening by the West of the second front the allies had 1.5 million men in Western Europe, while the Germans 560,000. At the same time there were amassed 4.5 million German troops on the Soviet-German front, against whom 6.5 million Soviet soldiers fought. The Hitlerite forces sustained their major losses in the battles against the Red Army: 70 percent of their manpower and 75 percent of all their military equipment - tanks, guns, aircraft.

As Winston Churchill wrote: "It was the Russian army who tore the guts out of the German war machine." Now in our days George Bush echoes him, noting at the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the allies' landing on Normandy: "If not Russia, none of this would have happened."
 
We did not divide the Victory into percentages in 1945, nor do we divide it now. All the allies of the anti-Hitler coalition won the Second World War. It was our common Victory.

The war turned into the greatest tragedy for the peoples of Europe and the world, regardless of whose side their states fought on. It is the duty of historians to tell the truth about this tragedy, but it should not serve as an object of political speculations. We call deeply immoral the attempts to rewrite the history of the war, to equate the rights of the victims and the hangmen, of the liberators and the occupiers. "Double standards" are as inadmissible as attempts to rehabilitate the fascists' accomplices. Giving terrorists a public platform for stating their man-hating views is as immoral for contemporary Europe as the parades of former SS men in the countries claiming adherence to democratic values.

It is symbolic that the United Nations, at the initiative of Russia and other CIS countries, has designated May 8 and 9 as the Days of Remembrance and Reconciliation. It is in this vein that we also intend to hold the celebrations in Moscow on May 9 (today) with many heads of foreign state and government in attendance.

It is important that Victoria Day contributes to uniting all countries and peoples and serve to reinforce our solidarity in the face of the global challenges of the 21st century.

Mikhail Kalinin
Russian Ambassador