Audio content: Participants in Moscow’s Victory Day celebration tell the story of their family’s connection to the war.
Video content: Images of the “Immortal Regiment” Victory Day event in Moscow.
Links to two videos below.
My first blog post concerned the remarkable “Immortal Regiment” event that has become a popular part of Russia’s annual Victory Day (День победы) celebration on May 9. Two years later, the event has only grown in scale, and so I thought I’d offer some fresh material drawn from the most recent iteration of this popular parade. While many people associate Russia’s Victory Day celebration with the traditional Soviet military parade (the military parade still occurs; for images, see this video), the “Immortal Regiment” is a very different event, one based on the mass participation of regular citizens. The point is that people walk while carrying portraits of family members — parents, grandparents and great-grandparents — who participated in the “Great Patriotic War” (or, “Great Fatherland War,” Великая Отечественная Война), as World War II is known in Russian. The event allows even those ancestors who did not live to see the end of the war, or who were far away from major cities when Germany surrendered, to symbolically participate in a victory parade. The event mixes happiness and sorrow as Russians celebrate a historical moment of great national pride while preserving the memory of the immense sacrifices made to defeat the Nazis.
The “Immortal Regiment” is a new phenomenon in Russia. The first Immortal Regiment was spontaneously organized by journalists at an independent TV station in Tomsk in 2011. (The station, ТВ2, no longer broadcasts — like most other non-government-affiliated media outlets, it was gradually shut down in 2014.) The Tomsk event was soon picked up at the federal level and began to receive government support. “Immortal Regiment” marches now occur in cities across Russia and in former Soviet republics or nations with significant Russian populations. Vladimir Putin joined the event in Moscow for the first time in 2015 and this year once again walked at the head of the Immortal Regiment. Official estimates are that 850,000 participated in this year’s event in Russia’s capital, where the route runs down Tverskaia Street to Red Square, and that eight million people marched across the country.
The main symbol of Victory Day in Russia is the Ribbon of St. George (Георгиевская лента). You’ll see almost all of the marchers wearing this black-and-orange-striped ribbon. Originally part of a military decoration, the ribbon is now a general symbol of Russian national pride. Marchers also sang some popular songs associated with the Great Patriotic War, such as the beloved “Katiusha.” Cries of “ура!!” periodically coursed through the massive crowd (e.g., video two, 14:30). Russia’s spring weather, of course, can be quite variable: last year it was so warm that organizers handed out free water along the route to forestall any medical problems, but this year marchers stood in line for hot tea and kasha instead, as the weather was almost winter-like.
Russian people, of course, have a variety of attitudes toward Victory Day celebrations. A Facebook friend of mine wrote about the complex “matrix” of feelings he experienced as he saw some people on their way to a parade: his great-grandfather, he wrote, would probably have fought bravely in the war, but was murdered in Stalin’s purge of military officers in the 1930s, and his grandmother fought the Nazis in the partisan resistance, but by the time he was old enough to hear her stories she was unable to tell them. In any case, the videos below communicate the immense sacrifices made by millions of ordinary Soviet citizens as they fought the Nazi invasion and finally pursued Hitler’s army to Berlin.
The material featured below is drawn from the major federal Channel One (Первый канал) and from the independent channel TV Rain (телеканал Дождь).
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Russian Transcript
Video One
2:05-2:35
Девочка: Я знаю про этого прадеда, что он прошел всю войну на фронте с первого его дня. А про этого я знаю, что он… был… командиром пулеметного взвода.
Мальчик: Саша воевал с Японцей [sic.]
Журналист: Сколько тебе лет? Скажи, пожалуйста.
Мальчик: Пять.
Подросток: В возрасте восемнадцати лет его призвали. То есть, в тысяча девятьсот сорок третьем году. Ааа… и он сразу отправился на Белорусский фронт.
3:25-4:20
Some people came with whole collections of family photographs:
Женщина: Это мой отец. Вот это его дядя. Они остались живы после войны. А старший брат, он пропал без вести.
Мужчина: Это, вот, три брата. Все остались живы. Один потерял память и потерял семью.
Женщина: В Бессмертном полку моей семьи больше двадцати ветеранов. В первые годы войны погиб родной дедушка Бердышев [?] Михаил Иванович. Другой дедушка, Кузнецов Александр Андреевич труженик тыла.
Мужчина: На фронт ушло шестнадцать человек. Вернулось, к сожалению, только семь человек.
Мужчина: К сожалению, с фронта вернулось из пяти человек только двое.
Женщина: Это родные братья моей бабушки из большой семьи Фурмановых. Только Фёдор вернулся живым.
Мужчина в форме: В наших руках портреты наших четырех дедов, которые все принимали участие в Великой Отечественной Войне и, самое главное, вернулись из нее.
4:30-5:30
Despite the war, people still met and fell in love:
Женщина: Они чудесным образом познакомились в госпитале. Бабушка была медсестрой. Они были молодые и красивые и влюбились друг в друга. Потом война их развела. Но они чудесным образом после войны опять встретились и не расставались уже больше никогда.
Девушка: Познакомились на фронте. И даже поженились на фронте. Я им… Я их… Я горжусь этой любовью, что это знак, что любовь побеждает даже войну.
Женщина: Они познакомились в сорок втором году на фронте. Мама служила в полку — ночные ведьмы, так все в истории его знают.
Журналист: Они познакомились на фронте и поженились тогда же?
Женщина: Она поженились тогда же. И прожили долгую и счастливую жизнь.
Женщина: Моя мама появилась на свете одиннадцатого мая тысяча девятьсот сорок пятого года. Через два дня ей исполнится семьдесят два года. Она ровесница победы, ребенок победы. Вот, поэтому, конечно, место любви было на войне.
6:40-7:50
People remember stories of their ancestors’ heroism:
Женщина: Дедушка был связистом. И однажды во время боя взрывом повредило кабель связи. Они очень много времени, конечно, потратили и замерзли совершенно неимоверно, но нашли все-таки разрыв. Дедушка принял единственное верное решение в тот момент. Он захватил оба конца зубами и весь бой, весь бой он держал в зубах.
Журналист: То есть, руками уже не было сил держать?
Женщина: Не было. Руки закоченели так, что они даже сжать и соединить никак не могли.
Девушка в форме: Мой дед, в тыс… двадцать второго февраля тысяча девятьсот сорок пятого года, участвуя в партизанском отряде, ликвидировал немецко-фашистскую курляндскую группировку, продежурил на боевом дежурстве, передавая более трехсот пятидесяти боевых приказов под огнем противника.
Женщина: Идет тяжелый бой. И командир был тяжело ранен. И дедушка увидел, что на командира идет, на раненного идет немецкий тяжелый танк. Не минуты не раздумывая, дедушка, рискуя своей жизнью, бросился буквально под танк и выдернул командира и утащил его на плечах в укромное место, передал в руки санитарам.
Video Two
Link to video at Телеканал Дождь
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17:30-19:05
Владимир Роменский, корреспондент Дождя: Расскажите, кто у вас на портрете?
Женщина: У меня мои родители, Дробышев [?] Семен Ефимович и Дробышева Елизавета Николаевна. Они воевали. Они прошли до Берлина, дошли вместе. Мама погибла очень рано, папа дожил до восьмидесяти лет. Гм, что вам еще сказать? Мы их помним, любим и внуки и дети мои, и я конечно.
Роменский: Сегодня без внуков?
Женщина: Да, сегодня без внуков. Погода чуть-чуть подвела. Нет, вечная память, вечная… память, память, память. Так что, всего доброго вам, всего хорошего.
Роменский: Расскажите про саму акцию Бессмертный Полк, почему решили в ней принять участие. Она же не в первый год проходит.
Женщина: Я три года хожу и три года участвую в этом… в этом мероприятии. Так что я, мы их чтим, помним и хотим чтобы больше молодёжь знала о наших родителях и о своих дедах и чтила память, и дорожила, что эта земля святая. И что в принципе, в принципе мы бес… мы, мы непобедимые, наша страна, наш народ просто-просто непобедим.
Роменский: Спасибо вам большое еще раз. С праздником.
23:45-25:40
Роменский: Здравствуйте!
Музыкант: Здравствуйте.
Роменский: Вы пришли на Бессмертный Полк с гитарой. Вы артист.
Музыкант: Да, да, да. Я артист. Но мы поднимали просто дух людей, чтобы вместе пройти с Бессмертным полком, чтобы люди вспомнили старые военные песни, вспомнили своих родных, близких, потому что в каждой русской или советской семье… вот, все люди причастны к этому великому событию, ко Дню Победы.
Роменский: Я видел несколько музыкальных коллективов пока мы следовали вдоль Тверской. Я так понимаю, что мэрия специально приглашала каких-то людей и с гармошками, и с аккордеонами и с гитарами для того, чтобы ну вот, действительно они помогали людям петь военные песни.
Музыкант: Ну, потому что… да, да, да. Ну, я думаю что, знаете, когда вот фонограмма это очень здорово звучит но когда люди в живую соприкасаются с этим и поют сами песни, они вспоминают каждый по-своему, в душе вспоминает, вот о близких, о погибших и… Слава всем, кто защищал нашу родину. Вот самое главное. Что если бы не они, то мы не были бы сейчас счастливыми.
Роменский: Расскажите про человека, который у вас на портрете.
Музыкант: Это мой родной дед. Я и наша семья его искала практически всю жизнь. В две тысячи двенадцатом году я нашел, значит, в братской могиле, это под Старой Руссой. Северно-западный фронт. Вот… а, дед мой воевал очень, погибнул [sic., =погиб] в сорок втором году. Рано. Осталось четверо детей. Двое выжило — моя мама и сестра. Ну, светлая память и деду и всем его однополчанам, кто, значит, с ним… кто-то, может быть, не дошел до победы, не знаю, вот. Слава героям! С Днем победы!
Роменский: Спасибо вам. И вас с праздником.
Музыкант: Спасибо.
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English Translation
2:05-2:35
Girl: I know about this great-grandfather, that he went through the whole war [i.e. was in it from the beginning to the end] on the front, starting on the very first day. And about this one I know that he… was… the commander of a machine gun platoon.
Boy: Sasha [i.e. Aleksandr, the man on the portrait he is holding] fought with Japan [the boy apparently mixes up the words for “Japan” and “Japanese”].
Journalist: How old are you? Tell me, please.
Boy: Five.
Youth: At the age of eighteen he was drafted. That is, in 1943. Aah… and he immediately set off for the Belorussian front.
3:25-4:20
Some people came with whole collections of family photographs:
Woman: This is my father. This here is his uncle. They remained alive after the war. And the older brother — he went missing [lit. “disappeared without news”].
Man: These, here, are three brothers. They all remained alive. One lost his memory and lost his family.
Woman: In the “Immortal Regiment” of my family there are more than twenty veterans. In the first years of the war my grandfather Mikhail Ivanovich Berdyshev [?] perished. The other grandfather, Aleksandr Andreevich Kuznetsov, was a worker on the home front [lit., “in the rear”; he had some job related to the war effort].
Man: Sixteen people left for the front. Unfortunately, only seven returned.
Man: Unfortunately, out of five people only two returned from the front.
Woman: These are my grandmother’s own brothers from the large Furmanov family. Only Fyodor came back alive.
Uniformed Man: In our hands are portraits of our four grandfathers [the word “дед” can include great-uncles, unless one specifies that it is a “родной” дед as some of the previous speakers did], who all took part in the Great Fatherland War and, most importantly, returned [home] from it.
4:30-5:30
Despite the war, people still met and fell in love:
Woman: Amazingly [lit., “in a miraculous way”], they became acquainted in the hospital. Grandmother was a nurse. They were young and beautiful and fell in love with each other. Then the war separated them [lit., let them apart]. But, miraculously, after the war they met again and from then on never separated again.
Young Woman: They got acquainted on the war front. And even got married on the front. I… to them… I am proud of this love, and that it is a sign that love conquers even war.
Woman: They got acquainted in ’42 on the front. Mom served in the regiment — the “Night Witches” [female aviators], that’s the name everyone knows it by in history.
Journalist: They got acquainted on the front and got married right then?
Woman: They got married right then. And lived [lit., lived all the way through] a long and happy life.
Woman: My mom appeared in this world on May 11, 1945. In two days she’ll be seventy-two years old. She is the same age as the victory, is a child of the victory. So, therefore, of course, there was a place for love during the war.
6:40-7:50
People remember stories of their ancestors’ heroism:
Woman: Grandfather was a communications worker. And one time, during a battle, a communications cable was damaged by an explosion. They, of course, spent a lot of time and froze absolutely unbelievably, but they did find the rupture. Grandfather made the only correct decision in that moment. He grabbed the two ends with his teeth and the whole battle, the whole battle he held [them] in his teeth.
Journalist: That is, there wasn’t strength anymore to hold with his hands [i.e. he didn’t have the strength anymore…]?
Woman: There wasn’t. His hands were so stiff that they couldn’t even squeeze or join [the cables] at all.
Young woman in uniform: My grandfather, in nineteen… on February 22nd, 1945, partaking in a partisan division [i.e. the unofficial resistance], he liquidated a German-Fascist group in the “Courland Pocket,” served a tour of duty, conveying more than 350 battle commands under enemy fire.
Woman: A heavy battle is raging. And the commander was severely wounded. And grandfather saw that moving toward the commander, toward the wounded man, was a heavy German tank. And not reflecting for even a minute, grandfather, risking his life, literally threw himself under the tank and yanked out the commander and dragged him on his shoulders to an isolated spot, gave him over into the hands of the medics.
Video Two
17:30-19:05
Vladimir Romensky, correspondent for TV Rain: Tell me, who is on your portrait?
Woman: What I have is my parents, Cemen Yefimovich Drobyshev [?] and Elizaveta Nikolaevna Drobysheva. They fought [in the war]. They went through all the way to Berlin, made it there together. Mom died very early, Dad lived to eighty years of age. Hm, what else should I tell you? We remember and love them, my grandchildren and my children and me too of course.
Romensky: Today [you are] without the grandchildren?
Woman: Yes, today without the grandchildren. The weather let us down a bit. Anyway… eternal memory, eternal… memory, memory, memory. So, all the best to you, everything good.
Romensky: Tell me something about the Immortal Regiment event itself, why you decided to take part in it. After all this is not the first year it is happening.
Woman: I’ve been coming for three years and for three years have been taking part in… in this event. So, I… we honor and remember them, and would like for the youth to know more about our parents and about their grandparents, and for them to honor the memory, and treasure it, that this is hallowed ground. And that, in principle.. in principle we are… we, we are unconquerable, our country, our people is simply unconquerable.
Romensky: Thank you very much once again. Holiday greetings.
23:45-25:40
Romensky: Hello!
Musician: Hello.
Romensky: You came to the Immortal Regiment with a guitar. You are a performer.
Musician: Yes, yes yes. I am a performer. But we simply were raising people’s spirits, so people could walk along together with the Immortal Regiment, so that people would remember the old war songs, remember their relations and loved ones, because in every Russian or Soviet family… well, all people have some connection to this great event, to Victory Day.
Romensky: I saw several musical groups while we were following along Tverskaia Street. As I understand it, the mayor’s office intentionally invited some people with Russian accordions and with [a different type of] accordions and with guitars for the purpose… well so that they really would help people sing the war songs.
Musician: Well, because… yes, yes yes. Well, I think that, you know, when it’s a recording that sounds really great but when people come into contact with in in real life and sing the songs themselves, they remember, each in his own way remembers in his soul, about loved ones, about those who perished and… Glory to all of them, who defended our motherland. There’s the most important thing. That if not for them, then we would not be happy right now.
Romensky: Tell me about the person who is on your portrait.
Musician: That is my very own grandfather. I, and my family, we searched for him practically our whole life. In 2012 I found [him], like, in a common [lit., “brotherly”] grave, that was near Staraya Russa. The northwest front. So… my grandfather fought a lot, perished in ’42. Early. He left four children [lit., “four children remained”]. Two of them survived — my mother and [her] sister. Well, bright [or “blessed”] memory to my grandfather and to all his regiment mates, who, like, with him… some of them, perhaps, didn’t make it to the victory, I don’t know. Glory to the heroes! Happy Victory Day!
Romensky: Thank you. And holiday greetings to you.
Musician: Thank you.
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