Victory Day: Memory That Travels through Generations

On 9 May Russia and many other countries celebrate Victory Day, which marks the capitulation of Nazi Germany and the end of one of the deadliest episodes of the Second World War known as the Great Patriotic War (June 22, 1941 – May 9, 1945)

85 years ago, on early 22 June, 1941, the inhabitants of the towns and cities along the western frontier of the Soviet Union were suddenly awakened by the sounds of artillery and the explosion of bombs. By that time, the Second World War had been raging on for almost two years in Europe. The plague of hatred ideology propagated by Nazi Germany had already engulfed the continent and finally reached the USSR, bringing devastation and death. On 22 June, German troops embarked on an unprovoked aggression against the Soviet Union, which lasted until 9 May 1945, when Berlin finally capitulated. That military conflict is remembered in Russia as the Great Patriotic War and is considered to be one of the deadliest episodes of the Second World War.

9 May, Victory Day, is a very personal holiday for every Russian, whose ancestors lived through the horrors of the Great Patriotic War. In four years of the confrontation with Nazi Germany, the USSR lost about 14% of its population, or about 27 million people. The Second World War affected dozens of countries, but none suffered such a huge loss. Many Soviet citizens fell victims to the military aggression on the front line; numerous people met a brutal death in concentration camps or under occupation. However, many survived against all odds.

The Great Patriotic War is a story of untold sorrow and sacrifice but also a story of the courage and resilience of Soviet people. We, the predecessors of those who fought for their lives and the survival of their Motherland back in the 1940s, carefully preserve and hand over to succeeding generations personal tales of our grandparents. Every Russian person has a story about their family members, who had to take arms and join the army, or risked lives in the enemy's rear as part of guerrilla resistance, or were forcibly displaced to Germany to work there as slaves, or endured severe hunger in blockaded Leningrad and so many other personal dramas. In one way or another, Soviet people showed remarkable bravery and stamina and made an incomparable contribution to the defeat of Nazism in Europe.

For ethnicities large and small of the Soviet Union, the Great Patriotic War was a struggle for survival, for national identity, and for a mere possibility to speak their respective mother tongues. The Bangladeshi people know by their own tragic experience what it is like to live through a genocide and fight for their freedom. For Russian people the Great Patriotic War is a conflict similar in magnitude to the independence struggle for Bangladesh, only longer and more devastating.

This year is also marked by an important anniversary related to the Second World War – 80 years since the conclusion of the Nuremberg trials in October 1946. This judicial process was carried out by the allies of the anti-Hitler coalition (i.e., France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union) against 22 of the most influential surviving leaders of Nazi Germany. Most defendants were charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The first of its kind, this international trial was innovative in many ways and is considered the beginning of international criminal law.

The Second World War affected about 80% of the world's population. That is why the significance of 9 May as the day of victory over Nazism trespasses national borders. 9 May is the day of memory and a strong reminder for generations to come that a conflict of such a scale as the Second World War is never to be repeated and that radical hatred ideologies only lead to a dead end.
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The writer is Ambassador of Russia to Bangladesh