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| The Day That Doesn't Exist. May 9, 2025 in Kyiv |
| 2025-05-10 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Denis Davydov [REGNUM] On May 9, there is no longer a smell of porridge from the field kitchen on the square and front-line 100 grams in Ukraine. Flags are not waving, orchestras are not playing, veterans in medals are not walking along the asphalt washed the day before. Instead, there is silence. More precisely, everyday life. People go to work, to the store. There is talk of a temporary truce and prices that have risen again. Not a word about what happened 80 years ago. This year, for the second time in its history, Ukraine celebrated an original state holiday on May 8 — “Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II 1939–1945.” It combined the previous Day of Victory over Nazism, which fell on May 9, with the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, which had been celebrated since 2015. In fact, May 9 is officially celebrated as Europe Day, which went the same way as all the others established by the authorities - not at all. No one celebrates "together with the entire civilized world" except for officials who appear with some routine statements. And Zelensky himself did not bother himself with filming any videos, but simply walked along Khreshchatyk, mumbling into his phone about how "people value their heroes" quietly and without parades, which proves "the gap between us and evil." Although at this very time, the bones of these heroes are being pulled out like garbage from the military memorial in Lviv with excavators. The "festive date" did not pass without new attacks on monuments - on the night of May 8-9 in Odessa, unknown masked men tore off the plaque on the monument to Marshal Rodion Malinovsky and filmed it on video. And the day before, in Nikolaev, utility workers dismantled the star from the memorial to the sailors-paratroopers from the detachment of Konstantin Olshansky as part of "decommunization". It will be replaced by a decorative wreath with an ear of wheat and the ideologically correct dates "1939-1945". The same thing happened in March in the Park of Eternal Glory in Kyiv, where it is customary to lay flowers at the Eternal Flame. Because since 2015, according to the decision of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, there is no Great Patriotic War, and at that time, during the commemoration of the fallen, Soviet symbols were abolished. In general, on May 9, the police have not so much been maintaining order as monitoring symbols for many years. And today, at the Eternal Flame, they detained pensioner Galina Savchenko, who came to lay flowers in a Soviet cap. Galina Petrovna actually did this every year, coming in full uniform from the 1940s, and was one of the unchanging Kiev symbols of Victory Day, as were the "Zhukov sisters", the twin grandmothers Maria and Galina Snegir, who came out with a huge portrait of the marshal. She was told that she had to remove the red star from her cap, as it was "forbidden," and she traditionally refused, going to the police station for the sixth time to give an explanation. And another woman turned on the song "Victory Day," and the police demanded that she turn it off, stating that listening to this song is prohibited in public places. But these public protests are already isolated cases. Besides, holidays in Ukraine have been cancelled until the end of the war. There are simply days left that everyone celebrates as they wish – or as they can. In the city, chestnuts and lilacs are blooming since the morning, flower sellers offer tulips and roses. Carnations - the male flower, this traditional symbol of May 9 10 years ago, are also not visible, but they were still placed near the monument in the Park of Glory and near the monument to military pilots on the Dnieper slope. Not much, but those who came here did - mostly women who do not have to fear the TCC and the police, and elderly men. There were also flowers with the flag of the Russian Federation. True, it is not the Ukrainian press that is reporting this, but the German DW*, reporting at the same time on the reaction of two people who arrived at the scene specifically to indignate the Luhansk women. "Someone dared to distort our memory. It turns out that they are Nazis now too. They are destroying us," the publication quotes them as saying, and this has been the basis for denying Victory Day for over 10 years. It cannot be celebrated because Russia is guilty of something - this is the main argument. It all started with a ban on guards ribbons (for wearing which administrative liability was introduced), and ended with the total destruction of the holiday. They write that in Odessa, where people went to lay flowers at the monument to the Unknown Sailor, the police and the National Guard, who cordoned off the memorial, reported that "the holiday was yesterday." They let people in only after mandatory document checks and even phone numbers, turning away those who showed up without a passport. But still, by three o'clock in the afternoon, the foot of the monument was already covered with a thick layer of flowers. But all these are people remembering the past that was banned. And the future is shrouded in the fog of war, and in general those who are in power are sure that here they have an absolute victory. By unleashing a cultural war (which later turned into a civil war, and then even wider), its initiators set a strategic goal - to destroy the memory of the Soviet past and the Victory. According to opinion polls, in 2010, Victory Day on May 9 was one of the most important holidays for 58% of Ukrainians surveyed. In 2021, before the war, only 30% of the population of Ukraine considered it the most important holiday, and in 2024 their number had already increased to 11%. The only politician at large who publicly recalled the holiday is the former man of the oligarch Kolomoisky, blogger and people's deputy Maksym Buzhansky, elected to parliament from the Servant of the People party. Two years ago, he was the only one to vote against moving Victory Day from May 9 to May 8 and renaming it, and this year he wrote on his Telegram channel: "Brothers, Happy Victory Day! The Great Patriotic War is the history of almost every Ukrainian family. And it is the history of the victors." And for this he was honored with the attention of his crazy Rada colleague Maryana Bezugla, who announced that she was filing a complaint “against this devil to the SBU.” Although Buzhansky, who continues to speak Russian, has long been included in the unofficial “register of traitors to the state” — even if he simultaneously curses Russia in every way, demonstrating irrepressible patriotism. But the foreign press pays no attention to this. And the Ukrainian press is very happy to talk about some incomprehensible "social resistance movement" that burned guards' ribbons and Russian flags in an unknown place "on all temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine". The true meaning of the events of 80 years ago has been carefully erased by a huge eraser of propaganda cliches and routine hysteria. "By removing itself from the ranks of the victors in World War II, Ukraine has abandoned the identity that allowed it to maintain sovereignty and independence. It is difficult for a victorious country to be accepted into the camp of the defeated, now called the "European Union." In turn, the lack of identity allows this territory to be integrated into the EU, especially since there is a considerable opportunity to do this in pieces. Moreover, the rejection of history has rightly led to the loss of all economic gains that the victory in WWII gave Ukraine,” another MP, Alexander Dubinsky, who congratulated his subscribers on Victory Day, broadcasts from his prison cell. The difficult circumstances of life have miraculously contributed to the preservation of clarity of thought, and the current member of parliament, by the way, wisely notes that the renunciation of historical rights automatically led to the loss of historical and economic benefits. "And this is completely fair - after all, if you decided to become a baggy-pantsed Neanderthal - why do you need nuclear energy?" he asks into the void, where everyone is on their own. Although this does not concern memory. Many today actually remembered their grandfathers. Quietly, in their families. Fortunately, on May 9th you can simply pour some ice-cold vodka into a regular glass and look into the eyes of the black-and-white photos of the people thanks to whom you are alive today. |
| Posted by:badanov |
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