Despite repeated promises from the Russian government to ensure a good life for its veterans, Karavanets is not alone in his sentiments. Feeling abandoned, some have returned their medals as they literally struggle to survive in abysmal conditions.

As United Civil Front leader Garry Kasparov argues, Russia’s ruling regime has offended its veterans in the worst possible way: by essentially carrying out the work of the Third Reich.

Occupier Day
By Garry Kasparov
May 11, 2011
Kasparov.ru

In Brezhnev’s time, Victory Day began to be actively used to strengthen the ideological basis of the Soviet system. Victory in the Great Patriotic War became not just a symbol to bring society together, but a central element of Soviet propaganda, justifying growing socio-economic problems and all the crimes of the Stalin era. Naturally, the real history of the Great War was sacrificed for a semi-official myth that worked to their advantage.

But for all the satirical attempts to present Brezhnev as a significant participant in military actions, that generation of ruling Soviet leaders had a direct link to the war all the same – they experienced the ordeal in one way or another. The Putin regime’s exploitation of the military theme cannot be called anything other than a tragic farce. The Soviet regime concealed its anti-Western essence with peace-loving rhetoric, and today aggressive rhetoric serves as a cover for the integration of the corrupt Russian elite into the Western financial and economic establishment.

The promises repeated year after year to fix veterans’ problems sound of mockery. There are fewer and fewer people left who took part in the Great Patriotic War, but even with the treasury overflowing with petrodollars, the government does not feel it necessary to give them the opportunity to live out their days in good conditions and give them the benefits that these people have earned by their feats. The constant assurances that apartments and cars will be provided for them conclude with the provision of pitiful rations. Those who held out under the hail of bullets from the Wehrmacht’s elite divisions are mockingly used by a government rolling in gold as a decoration for ritual presentations.

The Kremlin leaders sprawled out on their armchairs watching the Victory Day parade perhaps only symbolize the victory of a thieving regime over an entire country. Under the leadership of Putin, a former Dresden resident spy, the basic tenets of the Third Reich in regards to Russia have been carried out. The country has turned into a raw materials appendage for the civilized world, the population is defenseless before bureaucratic and police lawlessness, social infrastructure is in a pitiful state, the most talented and capable young people are breaking away to the West in search of a better life, and funds made from selling natural resources are kept in Western banks and used to develop other countries, most of all European ones.

I’d like to say that this all happened without a single shot, but this, of course, is not the case. The bloody events of October 1993, two Chechen wars, terror in the North Caucasus, and the murders of journalists and political opponents accompanied the formation of the current regime. Without question, this bloodshed is nothing compared to what happened seventy years ago. But the country that withstood the onslaught of Hitler’s tanks has turned out to be defenseless in the face of the acute forms of theft of its ruling elite.

The ostentatious renaming of the militsiya to the politsiya can also be seen as a mockery of history, as if the only thing needed to complete the picture of the occupying regime was a police element. Any illusions that it’s possible to somehow negotiate with this regime are, at a minimum, a dangerous misconception, and any sort of work for the government is collaboration. The occupying regime is not going to change as a result of work to improve it from within. It will fall only after clashing with the organized resistance of the entire population.

Translation by theotherrussia.org

Monday, May 9 marked Russia’s 66th annual celebration of the defeat of Nazi Germany. Victory Day is Russia’s most widely celebrated national holiday, with people across the country flooding the streets to join in public gatherings, ceremonies and memorials. For a country that lost upwards of 20 million people in World War II, such a large celebration is only natural.

The main event during Victory Day celebrations, however, is an elaborate military parade in Moscow. While such parades are a longstanding tradition in the country, it was only in 2008 that Russia reintroduced an element of military hardware not seen since the fall of the Soviet Union. Along with thousands of soldiers, the parade now includes tanks, armored trucks, nuclear missiles, and a noisy aircraft flyover.

But why the sudden decision to showcase all this equipment, especially considering that nearly all of it is decades old? With that question in mind, journalist and military expert Aleksandr Golts remarks upon the social and political undertones of this year’s Victory Day parade.

Victory Day or a Holiday of Militarism?
May 6, 2011
Aleksandr Golts
Yezhednevny Zhurnal

All these past years, I have not ceased to be amazed at how ineptly our government has used the unique opportunities presented to them by Victory Day – the only real holiday in contemporary Russia. A holiday that can, at least for a day, unite Russia’s fragmented, isolated society. Only on Victory Day do thousands of the country’s people come out into the streets not by order from above but because they want to feel like part of a single whole – the people who in fact rescued modern civilization.

But instead of finding words, symbols or ideas to strengthen this extraordinarily positive feeling of unity, the Russian leaders rattle their rusty iron – the main part of the holiday is the military parade, which a larger number of soldiers take part in every year (this year it’s more than 20,000 soldiers and officers). It is assumed that citizens will get this feeling of unity by contemplating the parading files of soldiers striding the Prussian goose step. And citizens like the Odessan from the Soviet film Intervention are flooded with tears of emotion: “A standing army – now that’s something special.”

In practice, the exact opposite happens. The rehearsals for the parade, which bring about the collapse of transportation in the city, are a powerful tool to force Muscovites to leave the capital.

It’s doubtful that a contemporary Russian citizen is seriously inspired by seeing military equipment that was developed twenty years ago and is currently produced in paltry numbers. At least take the new, as the parade organizers assert, S-400 anti-aircraft system. There will be eight units in the parade. Which is to say exactly one fourth of all existing S-400 units, the production of which began way back in 2007. About the same can also be said of simpler models of military equipment proclaimed to be new – the Iskander ballistic missiles, the strategic Topol-M. And the chief commander of the army, Aleksandr Postnikov, recently correctly said that the T-90 tank was the result of the seventeenth upgrade of the old T-72. So the only real innovation in the parade is the demonstration of the new berets, which from now on will be worn not only by paratroopers and marines, but also by soldiers from other branches of the Armed Forces.

Why are the authorities so hung up on the parade? In privatizing Victory, like all other Russian values, the leaders approach the holiday in a strictly utilitarian manner: as an opportunity for self-promotion. In 2005, Moscow turned into a besieged fortress, essentially banning residents of the capital from reaching the center of the city. All only so that Vladimir Putin had the opportunity to strike a pose while receiving world leaders.

This time, the anniversary is not a key one, but an ordinary one, so to speak. There will be no foreign guests. And facing Putin and Medvedev’s political strategists is the question of what backdrop to use to show off the leaders. Old veterans who cannot speak well and are less than well-groomed are not well suited for this. For them, it’s enough to have perfunctory statements like “nobody is forgotten and nothing is forgotten,” wretched holiday food baskets, and routine promises to provide them with housing sixty-six years after Victory. And where is it nicer for the top Russian leaders to pose with rockets and dashing soldiers than next to veterans?

It was not by accident that everyone pretended that there hadn’t been an announcement last year by Presidential Affairs Office Chief Vladimir Kozhin that there wasn’t going to be a parade in 2011 because of proposed renovations to Red Square. Cancelling the parade in an election year would be impossible. As a result, the Victory holiday will become a holiday of militarism.

Translation by theotherrussia.org.

According to the news site Fontanka.ru, the bus in question belongs to a private company that lacks a contract with the city and is basically bankrupt. A group of activists paid for advertising space on the side of the bus and put up a collage featuring Stalin’s face instead of an ad.

Viktor Loginov, who headed the movement to place the collage, says that his group only “fulfills the wishes of veterans.” He specified that the adorned bus will run for two weeks in honor of Russia’s May 9 Victory Day celebrations commemorating the end of World War II.

Memorial Director Irina Filge said that “the public demonstration of Stalin’s image – with the obvious goal of glorifying this historical figure – is leading to a schism in society.” Far from fulfilling anybody’s wishes, the picture not only inflicts moral trauma onto victims of the dictator’s repressions, but is offensive to veterans of the war and survivors of the Leningrad Blockade, the director added.

The bus did not last long before unknown persons vandalized it on Wednesday, painting over Stalin’s face but leaving the rest of the bus untouched. The bus, however, was quickly cleaned off and put back into service on Thursday.

At the same time, RFE/RL is reporting that city authorities are refusing to display anti-Stalin posters reading “For a motherland without Stalin.”

Yevgeny Vyshenkov, the deputy director of the Journalistic Investigations Agency that helped prepare the anti-Stalin poster, told RFE/RL that the company responsible for placing posters in St. Petersburg said the issue should be discussed by the city’s Media Committee.

Committee officials have said that the anti-Stalin poster cannot be placed in public places due to some “discrepancies” in the poster’s colors.

Also on Thursday, Ekho Moskvy radio reported that members of the liberal opposition party Yabloko are asking Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to officially denounce Stalin in a public address. The president has spoken out against the Soviet leader’s crimes before, but his most noticeable statements were in the form of a video blog. Yabloko leader Sergei Mitrokhin said that such an address would only have value if done officially and directly to the nation, not through the internet or in an interview.

Both controversies come on the heels of the public release of documents directly implicating Stalin in the 1940 Katyn massacre in World War II, in which the Soviet secret police executed close to 22 thousand unarmed Polish army reservists. As the Telegraph puts it: “The sight of Stalin’s signature on what amounts to a collective death warrant quells decades of debate on the massacre and gives the lie to claims by die-hard Stalinists that their idol did not personally sanction the killings.”

Stalin’s legacy has been a divisive topic in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union, but particularly so in recent months as the country has prepared to celebrate the 65th anniversary of victory in World War II. Veterans groups, human rights organizations, and oppositionists alike have criticized a number of initiatives to use Stalin’s picture as part of national celebrations. The most notable debacle was in Moscow, where a city design committee issued plans to erect informational posters complete with the dictator’s portrait in chosen parts of the capital. The plans were eventually dropped after criticism from both rights organizations and the Kremlin itself, but not before Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov promised to make Stalin’s image a fixture of future city celebrations.

Russian human rights advocates worry that any continued glorification of Stalin could lead people to forget that the dictator was responsible for the estimated 30 million lives lost as a result of repressions and widespread famine in the 1930s and 40s. “Stalin was a criminal, and his regime, which killed millions of people, is utterly disgraceful to publicize,” former Soviet dissident and prominent rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva said last March in reference to the Moscow poster plans. “It’s the same as glorifying Hitler in Germany.”

The mayor made the announcement yesterday at a session of city government officials, following plans released last month for informational posters featuring Stalin’s role in winning World War II to be placed throughout the city in the run-up to May 9 Victory Day celebrations.

“I am not an admirer of Stalin,” said the mayor. “I am an admirer of objective history.”

Luzhkov then accused the Russian media of misrepresenting the city’s plans for the Victory Day posters and giving a false impression that big portraits of the dictator would be literally hung around the city.

“We’re going to do it in appropriate proportions,” he said.

Human rights organizations have already expressed their outrage at the plans, which the city’s design and advertising committee said was introduced at the request of veteran and pensioner organizations.

“Stalin was a criminal, and his regime, which killed millions of people, is utterly disgraceful to publicize,” said former Soviet dissident and prominent rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva in response to last month’s announcement. “It’s the same as glorifying Hitler in Germany.” She added that rights groups intend to hold protests if the plans are implemented.

The Memorial human rights organization also said on Wednesday that they would be launching their own campaign in response, hanging posters that detail crimes committed by the Stalinist regime.

Estimates of up to 30 million people died in the Soviet Union as a result of the Stalinist repressions and widespread famine in the 1930s and 40s, not counting the tens of millions who died as a result of World War II.

See also:
• Veterans Outraged at Stalin Soft Drink
• Fewer Russians Want Stalin-Like Leader

The posters, which will go on display throughout the capital in the month leading up to Russia’s May 9 Victory Day celebrations, will take the form of informational stalls that picture Josef Stalin and include text detailing his role in orchestrating victory in the war.

Moscow’s department for publicity and design came up with the plan after pensioners and veterans’ organizations repeatedly requested that officials display pictures of Stalin as part of the wider set of decorations set up for anniversary celebrations.

It has been decades since Stalin’s image has been used publicly for the event.

Lev Ponomarev, a prominent activist and head of the organization For Human Rights, said that the decision to display the dictator offends the millions of people who died during the years of the Stalinist repressions.

“A public billboard with a glorification of Stalin is unacceptable. There will most definitely be protest demonstrations. And we will not only be participating in them, but instigating them,” Ponomarev said. “This is a step by city authorities that will evoke opposition throughout society. [Moscow Mayor Yury] Luzhkov is issuing a challenge to Muscovites, and this is a serious political step. Clearly, he wants to use this to escape discussion of the accusations of his corruption and the deterioration of social life in Moscow,” the activist added.

Former Soviet dissident and acclaimed rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva supported her colleague.

“Stalin was a criminal, and his regime, which killed millions of people, is utterly disgraceful to publicize,” she said. “It’s the same as glorifying Hitler in Germany. We will be protesting these decisions without fail.”

Alexeyeva added that the Soviet people have their soldiers, and not Stalin, to thank for victory in World War II.

Estimates of up to 30 million people died in the Soviet Union as a result of the Stalinist repressions and widespread famine in the 1930s and 40s, not counting the tens of millions who died as a result of World War II.

The protests echo similar concerns from war veterans and activists in the city of Volgograd last January, where a beverage company announced that Stalin’s portrait would be gracing soft drink labels in honor of the 67th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad.

Russian society is largely fractured in its reconciliation of Stalin as a war hero and Stalin as a ruthless dictator. In 2007, then-President Vladimir Putin mandated a revised school history textbook that called Stalin “the most successful Soviet leader ever” and lauds his qualities as a “great organizer.” President Dmitri Medvedev condemned the dictator in a speech last October, but Putin spoke out in the leader’s defense several weeks later in a live telecast, arguing that the question of Stalin was a “subtle” one. A 2009 poll indicated that nearly a third of Russians would like to see a Stalin-like leader as their head of state. At the same time, this number is down from recent years – 42 percent favored a Stalin-like leader in 2005.

While many spectators came out to watch the military parade and listen to speeches, a large contingent of supporters of the Communist Party (KPRF) marched through central Moscow and expressed outrage at the Kremlin, the Sobkor®ru news agency reports.

An estimated 9 thousand Communist demonstrators took to the streets, chanting “Beat this authority!” “We cannot be broken!” “Down with modern fascism!” “We took the Reichstag, and we’ll take the Kremlin!” “Down with densifying construction!” “Luzhkov, densify yourself!” “The Federation Council will be ours!” “Bears [Medvedi, a play on Medvedev] into the woods!” and “Freedom for political prisoners!”

Gennady Zyuganov, the leader of the Communists, led the procession. Speaking before the crowd at the Teatralnaya ploschad, Zyuganov said that for this holiday, the authorities had only given one present to veterans – higher prices for consumer products and public services. Zyuganov added that all the military gear rolling through Red Square was created during Soviet times, and that no new technology was being created. He went on to say that not one new factory had been opened in recent memory.

The Communist leader then accused Russia’s Finance Minister, Aleksei Kudrin, of letting capital flow out the country at a time when funds should be allocated for the country’s social services. Zyuganov also thanked supporters who voted for him during presidential elections, and who cast ballots to bring the KPRF into the Parliament.

It should be noted that before the event began, 20 members of the Council of Orthodox Banner-bearers who tried to join the Communists, were arrested. The group was charged with breaking the picketing rules.

Arrests also took place at other demonstrations in the city. Four youth activists trying to unfurl a banned reading “No to fascism of all stripes,” were nabbed by OMON riot police, as was a nearby photographer. Another opposition activist, Suren Yedigarov of the United Civil Front, was leading a solitary picket against President Dmitri Medvedev when the militsiya tried to grab his sign, and then detained him when he resisted.

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A photo-report of the Communist march, courtesy of Kasparov.ru

A report by Al Jazeera covering the military parade: