Dozens of foreign leaders are expected in Moscow on May 9 for the biggest international event in the Russian capital since Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago. Officially, they are gathering for a military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, but it is already clear that the shadow of Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine will hang over the spectacle.
The guest list for Friday’s Victory Day parade on Red Square reflects the dramatic geopolitical reshuffle since 2022, and highlights the growing gap between Putin’s Russia and the democratic world. Before the invasion of Ukraine, Putin’s showpiece annual parade was attended by many Western leaders, including US President George W. Bush. But this year, the guest of honour will be China’s President Xi Jinping. He will be joined by Brazil’s president and a host of leaders from Central Asia and Africa. The sole representative from the European Union will be Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico.
The visiting dignitaries will witness a bold display of modern Russian military might. The mood is expected to be a far cry from the somber tones usually associated with World War II memorials elsewhere. Friday’s parade was carefully staged to highlight Russia’s strength while also demonstrating Putin’s supreme confidence in his eventual victory over Ukraine.
The connection to today’s war will be driven home by the involvement of numerous Russian military units accused of committing war crimes in Ukraine. Putin may also choose to surround himself with alleged war criminals from the ranks of his invading army, as he did last year. In his official address, Putin would be truly shocking if he did not attempt to draw direct parallels between the fight against Nazi Germany and his own ongoing war in neighboring Ukraine.
Even without the participation of Russian troops fresh from the front lines of the current war, it would be nearly impossible to separate Putin’s parade from the Kremlin’s propaganda justifying the invasion of Ukraine. Ever since Russia first decided to conquer Ukraine more than a decade ago, the Kremlin has portrayed its escalating invasion as a continuation of the Second World War fight against Germany, with Ukrainians cast as modern-day successors to the Nazis. Despite the almost complete absence of evidence to support these absurd and obscene claims, the “Nazi Ukraine” narrative continues to resonate with a Russian population that has been thoroughly saturated with an extreme form of Second World War mythology that often borders on religious fanaticism.
From his first years in power, Putin sought to place the Soviet Union’s experience of World War II at the heart of modern Russia’s national identity. For the Kremlin, this emphasis on the immense suffering and ultimate triumph of the Soviet war effort served as the perfect ideological antidote to the horrors of Stalinism and the humiliations of the Soviet collapse. It proved a highly effective strategy, helping to restore Russia’s battered national pride and giving new meaning to the country’s twentieth-century totalitarian trauma.
Putin’s military cult has centered around Victory Day, which has become the most important holiday on the Russian calendar over the past 25 years. Many outsiders assume that Victory Day has always enjoyed the same prominence, but this is not true. In fact, Stalin himself disapproved of the celebration and made May 9 a working day in 1947. It was not until the mid-1960s that Victory Day was declared a national holiday. However, there was none of the pomp and fanfare that is now associated with the anniversary of the Nazi surrender. In the 46 years between the end of World War II and the fall of the Soviet Union, Moscow held a total of only four Victory Day parades.
Putin’s cynical use of World War II has also shaped Russian rhetoric on the international stage. This was most obvious in relation to Ukraine, which Kremlin propaganda has consistently portrayed as a Nazi state. Russia’s grandiose rhetoric has proven surprisingly resistant to reality, and even the election of a Jewish candidate, Volodymyr Zelensky, as Ukraine’s president in 2019 failed to change tactics. Instead, Putin and other leading Kremlin officials resorted to ever more ridiculous mental exercises to explain how a supposedly Nazi country could elect a Jewish leader. In one particularly infamous incident in the early months of the invasion, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed Zelensky’s Jewish roots, claiming that Adolf Hitler also had “Jewish blood.”
When Putin announced a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on the fateful morning of February 24, 2022, it was no surprise that he listed “denazification” as one of his two key war aims. The true meaning of that chilling phrase has since become abundantly clear; “denazification” is actually Kremlin code for “de-Ukrainization,” and reflects Putin’s ultimate goal: a Ukraine without Ukrainians.
In the areas of Ukraine that have fallen under Kremlin control since the invasion began, the occupation authorities have systematically destroyed all traces of Ukrainian history, culture and national identity. Thousands of children have been abducted and indoctrinated in an attempt to strip them of their Ukrainian citizenship, while anyone deemed potentially loyal to Ukraine has been detained and sent to a vast network of prisons where torture is reportedly common. Europe has not seen atrocities on this scale since World War II.
For decades, most European countries marked the end of World War II with solemn memorial services, collectively vowing “never again.” Under Putin, Russians have embraced a far more threatening form of militant commemoration, accompanied by the unofficial slogan “we can do it again.”
Putin has already succeeded in weaponizing the memory of World War II to consolidate his power, gain domestic support for his expansionist foreign policy, and dehumanize his enemies. Now he is prepared to use this week’s Victory Day parade in Moscow to legitimize the criminal invasion of Ukraine among his foreign guests and place it in the same context as the fight against Hitler. This is staggeringly disrespectful. It is also historically illiterate. If anyone is guilty of repeating the crimes of the Nazis today, it is Putin himself.
Peter Dickinson is editor of the Atlantic Council's UkraineAlert service.
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