Thread: День победы - 9 May Peace-in-Europe / Victory Day

I would really like to hear more about this day and its' traditions.

How do people "celebrate", what do they do?

How seriously do people take it? Does anyone have special plans for this day?

I read in the UK papers that some British war veterans have gone to Moscow and other locations in Russia to participate. They are super-impressed with the Russian commitment to peace day and they feel that Britain is not taking the day seriously enough.. Russia is treating them like real VIPs.

From Peace-in-Europe Day and 1 May the MUSIC is the best thing, I think. I know Russia has some really great songs, but I don't know what they are called, other than the very most well-known ones.

But I have some reservations about this day too. Does anyone else feel that way? (I personally don't like seeing large countries show off their military.... and I don't like thinking about the War in general...) PLUS -- it just feels unfair on modern day Germans to keep celebrating this for much longer.

But, on the other hand, who can resist a serious celebration with great music and fireworks!!


So let's have a thread about this holiday and it's traditions and music! Please post some nice pictures and Peace day music that you like!

Here are some catchy non-Russian songs from that era:

• Lili Marlene (a German song about a soldier and his girlfriend) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUseP...eature=related
  
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• Bella Ciao (an Italian partisan song) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRR2O...eature=related
  
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• We'll meet again (an English war song by Vera Lynn) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHcunREYzNY[/*:m:3nmlg8o0]

Incidentally, is it celebrated in the US at all?
In Britain, it's celebrated on 11 November for some reason. The celebrations are quite subdued; hymns and silent minute then they trigger the air raid alarms in some places which is spooky. Sweden does a quick ceremony sometimes on 9 May, but we were not in the war.

I personally don't like seeing large countries show off their military

I absolutely agree with you on that.

Moreover, watching all those military parade rehearsals on TV makes me feel sorry for our country, as the ostensible greatness they are trying to flaunt doesn't actually match the squalid and deplorable state the army is really in. Instead of committing to real achievements our government is too busy trying to impress the world with outward glamour and fake grandeur. We can see the same strategy with the preparations for 2014 winter Olimpics and some other projects.

As to the celebration, I think for most people, it's no more than an additional holiday that they will be spending on dachas trampling cow dung in their greenhouses and cucumber beds. Though in the central regions they've prpbably already done it.

Oh, by the way, one more virtue of the Victory Day is that there will be no commercials on TV on that day.

I'm afraid that the generation who truly celebrates this day is gradually dying out. Ours is the last generation who had at least heard about this war immediately from those who fought it. When my grandfather was alive I always visited him on this day and congratulated him.
Now when I see all that pomp and pathos from billboards, tv screens, etc it doesn't feel right somehow. It all is just for show. Oh, in theory I would agree that certain efforts should be made to make the young remember this day, but I doubt this day will be as important for them as it is for the older people.

I rather agree with Ramil that with the decrease of living veteran's number the meaning of the Victory Day in Russia is becoming more pompous , it was their Victory and it's their holiday first of all. Both my grandfathers, who were completely civilian people before the war (one was school teacher and the other was mining engineer) went to the front as volunteers in 1941. Luckily for me (otherwise my parents wouldn't been born) they survived this horrible war but I had an opportunity to talk with only one of them, the other one died rather early (in his early fourties, my mother was only eleven then ), because his health had been heavily damaged during the war. So, for me it's a very important holiday, but I'm afraid that for the younger generation it's just another day-off.
I do not mind the military parade at all, btw. Actually I rather like this tradition, but the whole celebration imho should be less pompous with paying more respect to veterans and with less modern politicans' PR.

As a German, I have no problems with others celebrating that victory. I can be just as happy as any Russian that the Nazis back then did not win. And the Russians did pay a hefty price in human lives back then, so remembering that is fully justified.

Robin

This is only natural I suppose. You don't celebrate the victory over Napoleon now. Times change and this war too gradually turn into several pages of school history book. I wouldn't mind military show-offs if only this didn't had a disastrous effect on the city traffic. They make repetitions and driving is absolute hell these days.

My great-grandmother is a veteran of World War II, and 22. 04. 2010 she has reseived one medal (65 year of a victory).
In my city every year have celebratory parades, concertes and other.
P.S.
My great-grandmother with medales

Originally Posted by Ramil

I wouldn't mind military show-offs if only this didn't had a disastrous effect on the city traffic. They make repetitions and driving is absolute hell these days.

I'm just trying to avoid the city center and the roads where the main troops and the vehicles pass. As for me, driving in Moscow even became a little easier these days because many people took vacations till the 11th of May. I'v happily escaped from the city yesterday while the yesterday's evening training took place, but I'm afraid I shall not be so lucky tomorrow morning cause I will have to pass near Dzerzhinsky division's headquarters at 7 am and they will be most likely coming out for the tomorrow's final training exactly at that time.

That's great but I live near Novy Arbat. And getting home sometimes is a challenge )))

Originally Posted by Ramil

That's great but I live near Novy Arbat. And getting home sometimes is a challenge )))

Well, in that case you should be accustomed with traffic blocking since the president's and PM's corteges are passing where every day. If I were you I would just use the metro instead of car while these trainings take place.

To the celebrations, I was very impressed with the air show part of the forthcoming parade, this picture in particular:

Originally Posted by Johanna

Incidentally, is it celebrated in the US at all?[/b]

No, it's not. May 9 wasn't the end of the war for us, anyway.

Our holidays on this subject are Veterans Day (November 11 -- based on Armistice Day of WWI) and Memorial Day (May 31 -- dating back to the Civil War).


День победы is a major production here in Kazakhstan. There's a big parade down the main street in my little city and all the kids are busy all week with rehearsals for it.

Originally Posted by Basil77

Originally Posted by Ramil

If I were you I would just use the metro instead of car while these trainings take place.

They blow up bombs in metro
Well, actually my work office is 8 km from the nearest station and the only option to get there is by shuttle bus (which goes through all the traffic jams anyway)

Originally Posted by Ramil

They blow up bombs in metro
Well, actually my work office is 8 km from the nearest station and the only option to get there is by shuttle bus (which goes through all the traffic jams anyway)

1) Sounds like you need a bicycle or maybe a motorbike.

And about the Metro: In London the official line is: one must never let fear of terrorism change your life, then the terrorists win....

[that must be why flying from Heathrow is now the thirteenth degree of Hell and I, a Christian Swedish, woman get treated by the security staff as if I was Osama bin Laden's right hand man... ]

2) Sounds like this holiday does not stir up much sense of triumph or patriotism with anyone here at least!

Cool picture of SPZenA's Great-Grandmother!

My great grandmothers wartime achievement was taking in a girl from Finland who got evacuated.

Oh, by the way, one more virtue of the Victory Day is that there will be no commercials on TV on that day.

Originally Posted by Johanna

1) Sounds like you need a bicycle or maybe a motorbike.

Yes, all I need is bicycle: (for maybe 3-4 moths a year, and ski as an alternative):

Isn't there a word called "лето" in the Russian language....
About NOW would be a good time to bring out your bike if you had one! Then use your car in the winter if you must... или идти пешком!

Originally Posted by Johanna

Isn't there a word called "лето" in the Russian language....
About NOW would be a good time to bring out your bike if you had one! Then use your car in the winter if you must... или идти пешком!

I owned 3 bicycles and all were successfully stolen I've nowhere to store it, I live in 1 room apartment with my wife and two dogs. Walking is nice I suppose, but spending 4+ hours each working day to get from/to the station is too much, I think.

Originally Posted by Johanna

There is a more radical solution:

Ok - anyway; here is an actual Russian war song that I like!
Called "Smuglianka"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8Dcj56wARM

I have always been familiar with this catchy melody. But now, since I can understand a bit of Russian, I realised that the song is about a soldier who has a crush on a brunette girl who was a partisan in Moldavia (I THINK?????)

Interestingly I noticed in the comments that THREE Polish people recently made positive comments about the song. I guess it's a sign of the improved PL-RU relations as of lately!

This song originally comes from a movie "В бой идут одни старики"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOBrSo-4 ... re=related

The information about the film: (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070861/)


But I just love this cover version of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL36QHn-Goc

Although USA doesn't have May 9 as day of observance, every American has to learn a short speech related to something like to it's meaning. What May 9 is Russians, is something like what this speech is for Americans. Some of the last few words have found their way into constitution of the current French republic. It is the Gettysburg address, given by Lincoln in 1863. Perhaps most famous short speech In American history.

And they are found in Russian http://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%93...B5%D1%87%D1%8C

Восемьдесят семь лет тому назад наши отцы создали на этом континенте новую нацию, основанную в духе свободы и верную принципам, что все люди сотворены равными.

Теперь мы вовлечены в великую гражданскую войну, которая докажет, сможет ли долго выдержать эта нация или любая другая нация, таким образом рожденная и преданная той же идее.

Мы встретились на великом поле битвы этой войны. Мы пришли сюда для того, чтобы освятить часть этого поля как место последнего успокоения для тех, кто отдал свои жизни ради того, чтобы эта нация могла жить. Этим мы лишь достойным образом выполняем свой долг.

Но мы не можем в полном значении ни открыть, ни освятить, ни почтить эту землю. Храбрые люди, живые и мертвые, которые сражались здесь, уже освятили ее, и не в нашей слабой власти что-нибудь добавить или отнять. Мир отметит недолгой памятью то, что мы здесь говорим, но он никогда не сможет забыть то, что свершили эти люди. Для нас, живущих, лучший способ почтить память погибших — посвятить себя с удвоенной преданностью завершению того дела, которое они так благородно начали, за которое они здесь сражались и за которое с честью умерли, отдав все, что могли.

Мы должны торжественно постановить, что эти смерти не будут напрасными, и наша нация под покровительством бога получит новый источник свободы, и это правительство из народа, созданное народом и для народа, не умрет на земле.

And in English:

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth
on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing
whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so
dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-
field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of
that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave
their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether
fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate…we cannot
consecrate…we cannot hallow…this ground. The brave men,
living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it
far above our poor power to add or detract. The world
will little note nor long remember what we say here, but
it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the
living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the
great task remaining before us…that from these honored
dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which
they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain;
that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of
freedom; and that government of the people, by the people,
for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

For me this day is a very great holiday. The day is not only the thanks and gratitudes for veterans though it is also a very important part of it.
This day is a day of national unity. We as a nation had a history which unite us and it is a very good idea to have a day which revive this sense in our hearts. After years there eventually will be no people remembering that war but keeping this day for the day of the national unity is a really good idea. Every nation should have such a day like a Queen's birthday for UK for example. I absolutely agree with Seraph:

Originally Posted by Seraph

What May 9 is Russians, is something like what this speech is for Americans.

Originally Posted by Ramil

Now when I see all that pomp and pathos from billboards, tv screens, etc it doesn't feel right somehow

Our officials and TVs are over zealous sometimes. But there should be some movement in this field for keeping the celebration of this day for younger generation and inserting the sense of this day in their hearts.