The celebration of the 75th anniversary of Victory (always with a capital “v”) in the Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany was supposed to be the pivotal political moment of the year, marked by an extravagant parade on Red Square and multiple public shows. The arrival of the shockingly severe COVID-19 pandemic derailed these plans, and only symbolic air parades were organized in Moscow and several other cities, weather permitting (Newsru.com, May 9). President Vladimir Putin emerged from his self-isolation to visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, at the Kremlin wall, and to make a televised address.
These curtailed official ceremonies left much empty space for Russians to reflect upon the meaning of this event, sacred for many families but converted by the regime’s pervasive propaganda into a glorified assertion of Russia’s “greatness.”