[Image: A screenshot of the march of the Immortal Regiment in Moscow May 9th 2022. Note the Saint George’s ribbon in the foreground.]
Publication date: 2022-05-09
Update 2022-05-18: Added Regis Tremblay’s interview with Snezhana Gregorieva.
Update 2022-05-26: A culture section is added via a relocation from Subverting Scandinavia with that article receiving a more appropriate piece and this one welcoming a far more fitting celebration.
Update 2022-06-03: The sanctioning of Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill has been attempted but not yet achieved. Text has been updated for accuracy.
A small datum is ignored or hidden from view in "the west". Almost every Russian family suffered during their WWII sacrifice. More than 25 million Russians were killed. The USA's sacrifice was 0.43 million. Both are horrific. It is the order of magnitude which differs.
Russia's current President included in his speech the suffering of peoples from the USA, France, Britain and other allies during WWII; a remembrance.
Russia has in its social structure a memory of this WWII suffering. They cannot and will not forget it. The pain and understanding is commemorated each year on May 9th. The 77th version has just occurred with hundreds of thousands of citizens walking with their grandchildren down main streets holding placards with photographs of relatives who died during or contributed toward and survived the Great Patriotic War (WWII).
Regis Tremblay was invited to march in Moscow. He reports that there were over a million persons marching with the Immortal Regiment in Moscow alone. A march is held in every major Russian city and in others worldwide. The Immortal Regiment is a civilian idea and a collection of civilian organisations. The surviving heroes, both men and women, of the Great Patriotic War are few. Their relatives honor them by marching in their stead.
Attempts to re-write the history of WWII by the west will have absolutely no effect on Russia. Its history is known to itself. They remember.
[Image: centre is Kirill, the leader (Patriarch) of the Russian Orthodox Church who the EU is attempting to sanction. Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, seems to be blocking this stupidity (and violation of religious freedom).]
The west subjugates this collective expression of Russia's culture and history. Attempts to denigrate the day are pure disrespect. The systematic murder of gypsies, homosexuals, the infirm, Jews, unionists and many others occurred mostly in occupied Poland. The first allied forces to discover the extermination camps were Russian.
[Image: from Wikipedia’s page on Auschwitz]
On this day, Russia's Ambassador to Poland was doused in red paint as a media stunt to divert attention from Russia's acknowledgment of its history.
More than 25 million Russians died to defeat 80% of Nazi Germany's armed forces. It was Russia that discovered the first death camps. Its people know and feel this history viscerally.
Russian families: I see you, and hear you.
Sources
Victory Parade on Red Square, Kremlin translation of the President's speech, Kremlin, 2022-05-09
'Russia gave a preemptive rebuff to aggression' | Putin addresses Ukraine during V-Day speech, RT's live translation of the speech including footage of Red Square, 2022-05-09
SPLAT: Russian Ambassador Hit With Red Paint In Warsaw, On Demand News, 2022-05-09
Live : Russian-Moscow | Red Square | Immortal Regiment commemorate Victory day |May9th 2022, DD Cyprus1Click (unattributed Ruptly), 2022-05-09
Immortal Regiment - One Family's Story, Regis Trembley interviews Snezhana Gregorieva, Global Conversations, 2022-05-17
Thanks to Mr. Tremblay for recording this first hand account of Gregorieva’s family’s involvement in the Great Patriotic War (WWII, European “eastern” front).
Culture
1812 Overture with Russian Chorus, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture; Russian Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tomomi Nishimoto performed on January 2nd 2004 in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Consevatoire, KevinTay, uploaded 2021-05-21
The video production is so good that I recommend watching and listening. Nishimoto’s conducting excites viscerally. The sound engineering is excellent. Enjoy listening only, for a second experience.
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