Babies in military uniforms, toddlers in camouflage tanks, schoolchildren in a formation march: this is how the Kremlin is using the victory over Nazi Germany to assert its ideology. By Yuri Resheto.
Babies in military uniforms, toddlers in camouflage tanks, primary schoolchildren in a formation march: in many cities, Russians are celebrating the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany. Apparently, the imagination of their parents and state organizers knows no bounds.
In Kemerovo, Siberia, newborns are dressed in maternity hospitals as infantrymen - with military caps on their heads and wrapped in olive-green sleeping bags. "Take part!" - this is what the home management calls on the network. The "touching" disguise is intended to symbolize "the connection between generations". "Do not forget that even the smallest citizen of Russia is part of the great history", reads another message.
At the same time, hundreds of kindergarten children are parading through a neighborhood in the city of Voronezh, central Russia, in homemade military vehicles and planes. Underage girls with drums and white ribbons in their hair accompany the ceremony with military sounds.
Ideology for the formation of identity
In Vladivostok in the Far East, more than 1,500 boys and girls from the lower classes are marching through the city center as "great-grandchildren of victory". Governor Oleg Kozhemyako personally led the "first children's parade in the region" and announces that at the head of the children's columns are marching participants in the fighting in Ukraine. "Today, children whose fathers are fighting at the front are marching in the parade columns. We are rightly proud of the courage and bravery of our fighters and know for sure that the enemy will be defeated, as in the distant 1945."
In Russia, for 80 years, May 9 has been celebrated as "Victory Day" in Russian families - sincerely and with personal memories. But the holiday is increasingly being used by the state for ideological purposes and identity creation, Russian-born political scientist Alex Yusupov of the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation said in an interview with DW.
Over the past two decades, the Kremlin has learned to "militarize this day, or rather activate it, because it has become etched in the collective memory of many Russians as something that has actually united the country. It has become a tool for mobilizing the regime."
For years, it was marked as a day of mourning
The Kremlin uses significant dates, such as this 80th anniversary, to draw historical parallels between the Soviet Union as the winner of World War II and today's Russia and the current Russian government, and also to demonstrate its power and legitimacy.
Moscow political scientist Ilya Grashenkov of the Center for the Development of Regional Policy also emphasizes to DW how important Victory Day is - not only for Russian families, but above all for the Russian state. "Over the past twenty years, the state has done everything possible to be an integral part of this holiday. For Putin, the victory in World War II is a constant on which the entire Russian state is based and of which he himself as president is a part," Grashenkov says.
For millions of ordinary people, May 9 remains "a holiday with tears in the eyes", adds Grashenkov, recalling that for years after the war it was celebrated as a day of mourning without a military parade.
For independent political expert Abbas Galyamov, who lives in Israel, the parade is actually "superfluous" when Russia is waging war against Ukraine. "Parades are a substitute for war. They are necessary in peacetime, when the army is not fighting, but still wants to show off," he tells DW. However, since the Russian army has not yet achieved its main military goals in three years, the parade in Moscow seems "frivolous". "Before 2022, everyone thought that Russia was significantly stronger than Ukraine. Suddenly it turned out that this was not true. We cannot talk about some kind of high-quality military art", says Galyamov.
"To look as international as possible"
For President Putin, it is important that the event in Moscow with the military parade on Red Square looks "as international as possible". The message of Victory Day is that Russia has paid a very high price for peace in Europe.
Abbas Galyamov calls the parade "a universal tool" both for the outside world and for Russian society itself: "Propagandists will say that they are continuing the glorious traditions of the heroes of the victory in 1945. But Russian society is unlikely to be influenced by this narrative".
The parallels between then and now are too deliberate, and the comparison between World War II and today's war in Ukraine is categorically not in the Kremlin's favor. "In three years, the Russians have not even managed to establish full control over the regions they claim - let alone take Kiev," says Galyamov.
Nevertheless, the Moscow elite will manifest itself as the winner on May 9, 2025. The Kremlin is trying to show that Russia today is the same good power on the planet as it was eighty years ago, says Alex Yusupov of the "Friedrich Ebert Foundation".