From the Brezhnev era to the present day, May 9 parades have served to glorify the USSR’s victory in World War II. Over the four years of the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army first lost a large part of the USSR’s European territory and then, in a massive advance, not only liberated its own lands from the Nazi invader but also militarily occupied Eastern Europe, Central Europe, and eastern Germany. Admittedly, this war cost the lives of 20 to 27 million Soviets, two-thirds of whom were civilians, including nearly one and a half million Jews who were victims of the Holocaust by firing squad. Initially, therefore, it was a somber commemoration in a nation in mourning, where few families had not lost some of their loved ones.
But as the wounds of war healed, beginning in 1965, the commemoration of May 9 turned into a massive show of force by the Soviet Army, which was supposed to defend the socialist country against threats from the capitalist world. However, while engaging in subversive activities in several countries around the globe, the USSR advocated for peace, and its military doctrine was defensive. The memory of the Great Patriotic War remained too vivid, and the official ideology boiled down to “Never again!”
This doctrine changed under Putin. The parades of the Immortal Regiment serve instead to assert: “We can do it again!” That is to say, to reconquer the former Soviet republics that have broken free from Moscow’s power and advance all the way to Berlin. The May 9 parades showcased the new weapons intended to serve this purpose: all those new tanks and supersonic missiles, all those Burevestnik, Kinzhal, Oreshnik, etc. And the full-scale war launched by Russia against Ukraine in February 2022 was supposed to be the first step in this reconquest. Putin was thinking big, very big, and, as always in totalitarian countries, there was no countervailing power to prevent him from making decisions based on his historical fantasies and his KGB upbringing.
This year’s May 9 parade, which everyone saw on television, is the clearest sign that the war is already lost for Russia, even though the fighting continues. To stage this parade—reduced to just infantry and five planes flying over Red Square, with nearly empty stands and the glaring absence of foreign leaders, save for three or four— Putin was forced to ask Zelensky for a two-day ceasefire, and Zelensky, in an act of pure mockery, issued an order to his army not to attack Red Square.
For Ukraine is rising again after overcoming the trials of a monstrously harsh winter, with its electrical infrastructure nearly destroyed; its army, the most battle-hardened in the world, is retaking territories occupied by the enemy and attacking deep into its heartland, from Moscow to the Urals, systematically destroying refineries and oil depots, military factories, and warships. Ukraine now produces half of the weapons it needs; it has its own long-range missiles and powerful, sophisticated drones that enable it to assist the United States and the Gulf states in their confrontation with Iran.
In addition to cynically reversing the roles of aggressor and victim, the comparison between the Nazis of yesteryear and the Ukrainians of today has proven politically damaging to Putin’s regime: in four years, the Soviets defeated the Nazis, but in more than four years, the Russians have not defeated the Ukrainians and have only managed to occupy a small part of Ukrainian territory, at the cost of 350,000 dead and more than a million wounded. For the Ukrainians are a great, free European people, and they have confirmed this through the incredible mobilization of the entire nation. This time, during this pitiful parade, Putin did not even speak of Ukrainian “Nazis” anymore, but of an “aggressive” regime, while promising a near end to the war whose victory is slipping from his grasp.
Despite internet blackouts, footage of the parade of widows of “heroes of the special military operation”—who marched in Chita clad in military jackets—went viral across the country. A parade that does little to encourage young people to sacrifice themselves for an absurd and criminal war, despite propaganda calling for “service” to the motherland. In Saint Petersburg, the Immortal Regiment march displayed portraits of Yevgeny Prigozhin, a bloodthirsty patriot who dared to stage a coup against the corrupt military leadership and was assassinated by Putin. In short, “something is rotten in the state of Putin,” to paraphrase Shakespeare.
It is Zelensky who visits his troops at the front and meets with world leaders, one-on-one or at international summits, while Putin hides like a rat in bunkers. Recent history shows that tyrants who hide in bunkers eventually get killed or commit suicide: Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden, Ali Khamenei, and so many others. Putin has always been terrified by images of the violent deaths of Ceaușescu and Gaddafi, as well as by the trials of people like Slobodan Milošević or Khieu Samphan. He now knows he could be next.
Born in Moscow, she has been living in France since 1984. After 25 years of working at RFI, she now devotes herself to writing. Her latest works include: Le Régiment immortel. La Guerre sacrée de Poutine, Premier Parallèle 2019; Traverser Tchernobyl Premier Parallèle, 2016.