MOSCOW: Jet fighters roared and white-haired veterans rode in military trucks across Red Square yesterday, as world leaders honoured the victors and victims of World War II, paying particular tribute to the Soviet Union’s massive sacrifice at a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat.
Addressing a parade redolent with imagery from the communist era, President Vladimir Putin evoked the unity that brought victory but also stressed the Soviets’ huge role. The celebration brought together leaders of lands that faced off on the battlefields of the war – or across bitter Cold War barriers in the decades that followed.
“I bow low before all veterans of the Great Patriotic War,” said Putin, using Russia’s name for World War II. He watched the parade from a podium in front of Lenin’s tomb, flanked by US President George W. Bush, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. On the Kremlin wall, the word “victory” was emblazoned in several languages – including those of the vanquished.
War raged in the Soviet Union for years after the Nazi invasion of 1941 before the Red Army began pushing the German forces back. An estimated 27 million Soviets died in the conflict.
Putin described 9 May 1945 – observed in Russia as Victory Day – as “a day of victory of good over evil, freedom over tyranny.”
Beneath overcast skies, the parade began with four goose-stepping soldiers in ceremonial gold-embroidered uniforms carrying a red flag with a hammer and sickle – a replica of the banner flown from the top of the Reichstag in Berlin after the building was seized by Soviet troops a week before the Nazi surrender. Veterans adorned with gleaming medals rode in green trucks.
Soldiers in modern and war-era uniforms – infantrymen with red flags topped by Soviet insignia, tank troops with black padded helmets – marched in tight formation, the slap of their boots echoing across the cobblestones. Jets streamed smoke in the Russian flag’s white, blue and red colours above the square after Putin’s speech.
While Russians have often complained that the Soviets’ wartime role is underrated in the West, Putin said that “we have never divided the victory between ours and theirs, and we will always remember the help of the allies,” listing the United States, Britain, France and those who fought fascism in Germany and Italy.
“Today we pay tribute to the courage of all Europeans who countered Nazism,” said a sombre Putin.
However, he said: “the most cruel and decisive events unfolded on the territory of the Soviet Union.” Listing fateful battles including Stalingrad, Kursk and the siege of Leningrad – where he was born in 1952 – Putin said that “the Red Army put a victorious end to the war with the liberation of Europe and the battle for Berlin.”
He and the other leaders laid red carnations and a huge carpet of red roses at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to honour soldiers who perished in World War II.
They stood silently before an eternal flame at the tomb, close to the red brick Kremlin wall, before heading inside for a reception.
Yesterday’s celebration was preceded by a summit on Sunday of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a grouping of 12 former Soviet republics, and is to be followed today by a Russia-European Union summit. Along with Western heads of state, Putin’s guests included Asian leaders such as Chinese President Hu Jin-tao and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
For Putin, hosting more than 50 leaders or top officials was a way to boost Russia’s profile in the world and cultivate his own image at home as a key international figure. Speaking at the reception, he drew a parallel between World War II and today’s threats from extremism and terrorism, saying: “We must strengthen our cooperation in the fight against this evil.”
But despite his calls for unity, Putin’s celebrations also opened up old wounds created during the war and in its aftermath, when the Soviet Union dominated eastern Europe for decades.
At the Kremlin reception, he said that the victory over the Nazis brought “the right to freedom, to life itself, to an independent choice of a path of development” – the kind of remark bitterly disputed in the Baltic states, which were annexed by the Soviet Union and gained independence only with its breakup in 1991.
The leaders of two Baltic nations, Estonia and Lithuania, stayed away – angered by Putin’s portrayal of the Soviet Union as a liberator despite decades of occupation. Bush balanced his Moscow visit with a trip to Latvia, another Baltic nation, and later yesterday went to Georgia, where a new pro-Western leadership is seeking to shed Russian influence.
The Soviet imagery and the shadow of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin – featured on a few of the billboards blanketing Moscow for the celebrations – also take on a renewed significance as the United States and other nations accuse Putin of backtracking on democracy as he seeks to tighten control over Russia.
Before the parade, Bush stressed the importance of democracy and free speech in a meeting with representatives of Russian non-government organisations, including a prominent rights activist.
Putin sought to ease such concerns. Before proposing a toast to veterans at the Kremlin reception, he called World War II “the most tragic event of the last century,” the ITAR-Tass news agency reported – an apparent effort to quash questions raised last month when he called the demise of the Soviet Union the 20th century’s “greatest geo-political catastrophe.”
And amid mutual accusations between Russia and the West of meddling in former Soviet republics, where Moscow’s clout has faded as pro-Western leaders have come to power after peaceful protests in Ukraine and Georgia, Putin said in Red Square that Russia stands for the right of all nations to choose their own way in the world.
Tight security measures closed the heart of the capital to the public, and anti-aircraft batteries were on alert to protect Moscow’s airspace. Security has been a concern amid a rash of attacks by Chechen terrorists over the past three years, including a suicide bombing near Red Square.
Russians were urged to gather in their homes or in parks to mark the holiday and, despite Putin’s passionate praise for their feats, some veterans said the tightly controlled access to the celebrations showed a lack of respect.
“Putin stole our victory!” said Maya Sergeyeva, 79, a war-time nurse who was among some 5,000 protesters who gathered under hammer-and-sickle flags at an opposition rally in Moscow. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov dismissed the victory celebrations as “window-dressing events.”
Putin and other VIPs gathered in Red Square yesterday evening for a nationally televised concert that started with the tolling of the Kremlin bells and a moment of silence. It was to climax in a fireworks display up and down the Moscow River, which snakes through the capital.