Victory Day 2018 in Russia

Russian Tanks followed by Artillery on Parade in Moscow

May 9 is Victory Day in Russia.  The day in 1945 when the Nazis surrendered to the Soviet Union. Victory in Europe Day, VE Day, for the Western Allies is May 8.

In Russian:  День Победы--2018

The Russians have a huge parade every year. It is by far the biggest holiday on the Russian calendar. From the end of World War II until the fall of the Soviet Union, it was also the biggest Soviet holiday.  

Just as in America and everywhere else, the veterans of the war have mostly died and the the significance of the victory is fading for the young people that are living today. But it is not fading as quickly as it is here in America.  In Russia, the Nazis captured territory all the way to the western edge of Moscow and laid seige to Leningrad (St. Petersburg) for three years.  

For Russians, the toll of the Great Patriotic War was so high, that the  celebrations and commemorations continue with great fanfare.

America lost 400,000 soldiers killed in World War II and 2 million more wounded. At the end of the war 12 million of a U.S. population of about 130 million were serving in uniform.  

As terrible as these numbers are, the Russian loses were simply staggering. Soviet population in 1940 was about 170 million.  Recent estimates put the death toll at 27 million. Of those, 7 million were soldiers, the rest were civilians.  

 In a speech during this year's celebration, Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced "what he asserted were attempts to "rewrite and distort history" and deny "the feat of the people who saved Europe and the world from slavery, extermination, and the horrors of the Holocaust." He added: "We will always be proud that the Soviet people did not blink or bend before the cruel enemy, when some states preferred the shame of capitulation."

Russia defeated Hitler and the Nazis at great cost to its people.  The Victory Day parade and celebration marks the defeat of the Nazis and the evil they brought to the world.