Memory is an indissoluble thread that connects us with the past. Memory of the Second World War is a reminder of the greatest tragedy in the history of humanity that took away and lacerated dozens millions of lives. However, when the memory becomes the object of speculations, then the tragedy turns into farce.
Price of war
The Second World War is, perhaps, the most terrible event in the history of humanity. It left over 50 million of perished, hundreds millions of wounded, widows and orphans. This is why in Europe that suffered from the horrors of war not less than the USSR is not customary to celebrate the signature of capitulation, they grief here remembering the ones whose lives has been taken away and lacerated by that war.
It was approximately the same in the USSR as long as the memory of the war remained rather fresh, as long as millions of battle-front veterans were alive and could say how they friends perished by the hundreds storming another high ground for the sake of an order for a general’s chest, or by an anniversary of the great vozhd.
It’s not a coincidence that the soviet writer and battle-front veteran Victor Astafyev wrote that the war had been won without a spark of talent, “overwhelmed the enemy with dead bodies, drowned him in Russian blood”.
Only 20 years after the end of war, when the pain dulled a bit and the policy started to dictate new tasks, the Victory Day became an official holiday with parades, veterans, fireworks and other symbols.
Mythologization of the victory
It has been already 70 years since the end of the war. Almost everyone who fought is gone. This is why the memory of war gathers more and more myths in order to please the political environment.
For modern Russia, the “Great Victory” is virtually the last frontier of its greatness. This is why parades of the Victory started to be held annually on the background of the economic collapse in the Russian Federation since 1995 (in the USSR they were held once every 5 years).
It’s quite explainable – if there is nothing to be proud about today, one has to apply to the past, virtually crying out on every corner: “We won!” while projecting this victory on the present day.
At the same time, no one cares about the quality of the myth. This is why billboards with pictures of either American machine gunners or Wehrmacht soldiers framed by the main symbol of the holiday – the St. George ribbon appear in towns and settlements of vast Russia. There is no difference whose images were printed there, main thing is that they fulfilled the “sacred duty to the fallen”, congratulated veterans and felt the spirit of co-participation in the “Great Victory”.
From tragedy to farce
Cult of the Victory started to form still in the USSR but had reached its pinnacle already in Russia. In the USSR there was strict ideology and clear scenario of the celebration one could not flinch from: May 9, monument of the Soviet warriors, veterans, pioneers, flowers, the Victory Day song of Lev Leshchenko, passionate speeches, gifts and commemorative medals. That’s where everything ended till the next year.
There are problems with an ideology in Russia, but there are a lot more technical possibilities the authority try to use to the fullest. As a result, fashion for the Victory and everything that is connected to it appears. Marketing technologies come into play. St.George ribbon as a symbol of Victory? Sure, why not, the whole country becomes orange and brown decorating everything possible and impossible with the ribbons. Crab sticks “Valiant” and sushi rolls “Victory Day” in St. George ribbon colors show off on the counters of grocery stores. In one of the Moscow’s fashion salons customers are offered free tattoos for dogs that looks like St. George ribbons for the Victory Day. A symbolic picture looms out: Putin with the ribbon inspecting the parade on the Red Square and a doggie mincing next to him with the tattoo on its butt. However, it does not trouble anyone – the theater of the absurd is full, the audience is pleased, the show “must go on”.
The biggest problem of the modern Russia is that perception of the Second World War in such interpretation turns the tragedy into the farce. This is where tittles on cars with the “hooray-patriotic” meaning like “I am grateful to grandfather for the Victory” or “To Berlin!” come from. Memory of pain and suffering of people turns into some sort of kitch that yields dividends for the authorities and business that makes money by trading the memory.
Remembrance as business
It is possible to judge about the true attitude towards the veterans according to the spending allocated from the budget of Russia for the festive events in 2015. According to the RBC information, around 7 billion rubles were spent for the celebration of the “70th Anniversary of the Great Victory”, 3 billion of which were consumed by advertisement, concerts, parades and fireworks. In total, it was spent more for decorating streets than on accommodation repairs for veterans, who turned into the necessary attribute of the holiday.
Year after year, inflation of the memory grows and Russian business tries to get the maximum benefit out of it by turning the “Great Victory” into a trading “brand” with the aid of the state
Triple-tiered cakes styled as an installation of letter of condolence, eternal light and an old man holding a dead child took the first place on the candy-maker contest in Krasnoyarsk. In Bryansk an installation about partisans was prepared for a “pig fair” devoted to the 70th anniversary of the Victory by dressing stuffed pigs in the uniform of Bryansk partisans, about what an employee of the local meat cutting plant says with undisguised pride.
Boundaries between absurdity and reality, between morality and cynicism are erased and it is no longer clear what is allowed and what is not. Why is a cake with eternal light ok and why is it not ok to dance in front of the Minor Land memorial? Where is that wire? No one knows anymore.
Memory is some sort of symbolical resource that is ruthlessly exploited by the authorities, business and society in Russia. As a result, year after year memory about the war is depreciated more and more and the Victory resembles a “holiday with tears in one’s eyes” fewer and fewer, but rather looks like “dancing on the bones”. However, the worst thing is that it seems to suit everyone, or almost everyone.
