Thoughts on Victory Day
Take a look at the updated photo gallery from May 9 celebrations at the Victory Monument in Riga
RIGA – In the last few days, I’ve been wrestling with the question of appropriateness of the Victory Day celebration. On one hand, the cruel regime of Hitler was replaced by the lesser evil Stalin when the Allies achieved the victory in distant 1945. On the other hand, for many Russians here in the Baltics and even for some Latvians whose family died in the war, it’s a very important, and a very personal holiday.
The official dictum uttered by the former president Vaira Viķe-Freiberga says that Latvians have nothing to celebrate on May 9 as their country ended up occupied for the following 50 years. But the war, in fact, was over in May 1945. Germany surrendered and the European continent saw no large-scale military conflict again for many years. That’s a historical fact.
While it was almost impossible to spot an ethnic Latvian at the Victory monument yesterday, I saw some. Ethnic Latvians also fought the Germans on the Soviet side. Numbers are insignificantly low, but I’m not sure how many people have to die for a cause to make a holiday appropriate.
And here, in Latvia, almost every Russian family has lost at least one relative in the war. My great-grandmother’s brothers died fighting the Germans. Natalia Antonova writes:
My grandmother started crying on the phone:
“I don’t want you to ever know what it’s like to hear the shelling and know that it’s coming for you.”
War is banal and blind and savage and ultimately meaningless. But there is still something to smile about today, at least for me. If only because its survivors had children, and those children had children, and one of them was me, and another one was my beautiful baby brother. And there’s a reason why we’re here, and we’ll spend the rest of our lives finding out what that reason may be.
And it appears to me by making May 8 or 9 just another day, we void the sacrifices made by those who gave their lives in that banal, blind, savage, and ultimately meaningless war.
I spent most of yesterday at the Victory monument, roaming around, watching people, snapping photos. For a while, it seemed that Riga had turned into Daugavpils, a Russian-dominated Latvian town. It seemed Riga turned into little Russia. A red SUV drove around with a large Russian tricolor (Russians, like Texans, like things big). Russian embassy emissaries were everywhere organizing the 10-hour long concert for the public. The percentage of people wearing sports track suits was the highest at the Victory park than in another other part of Latvia.
In the morning, it reeked of the Soviet nostalgia with a lone portrait of Stalin and red banners. In the evening, youth came out with Russian tricolor and appear to be more patriotic about Russia than Russians across Latvia’s eastern borders. I saw only one man wearing a Latvian hockey jersey and a ribbon of St. George.
I couldn’t understand the ubiquitousness of the Russian flags. At any time, you’d expect the Russian national anthem blast through the speakers. The organizers should have thought to promote a healthy patriotism toward the country they find their homes, Latvia, but I suspect any Latvian national anthem would have been greeted with boos from the large crowd and give more work to the police.
After a short interview in the afternoon, I couldn’t refuse getting a drink with two men twice my age. It’s impolite. One man, Viktor, now teaches computer science at a local school, having worked as an engineer most of his life. His trade is no longer needed in Latvia and he couldn’t adapt to the new way of life after Gorbachev’s reforms. A non-citizen, he moved to Latvia from Russia, just like many others. He likes to compare Russians and Latvians.
“See this monument. This ain’t Milda,” he told me, referring to the nickname for the Freedom Monument a revered site for many Latvians.
The anger at this country, at the apathy of the government, at prevalent corruption and theft, and – frighteningly of all – hatred toward everything Latvian is enormous. For them, the anger trumps over any other emotion. Perhaps, this anger at callous, flippant attitude of the authorities toward those who fought on the “wrong side” – politically speaking – during the war drives many, many people to remember this Victory Day by laying tulips at the feet of the monument.
And throughout the day, even as late as 10 p.m., people kept pouring in to lay flowers.
Loudspeakers blared Soviet-era war music and thousands, young and old, trooped to the war monument honoring Red Army soldiers who fell in World War II. Parents with children, teenagers, many veterans – carrying a bouquet of flowers – flooded the square near the monument under a watchful eye of police.
The VE-Day of May 8 went barely noticed in Latvia. The president and other high-ranking officials attended a ceremony at a military cemetery. For the country with many days of mourning (June 14, March 25, December 4) – no flags signified a day of commemoration. In fact, the whole day was very subdued.
The end of the war signifies the beginning of peace. Tens of millions of people died in that war. Those who returned found their cities, towns and villages in crumbles. One gentleman told me he had spent three years at a concentration camp in Germany. If it hadn’t been for the Russians, who knows what would have happened, he said.
My family own family was lucky, I guess. Only two of my distant granduncles died in the war. My great-grandfather along with my grandmother nearly became victims if it hadn’t been for a technicality. The Nazis killed 200-300 men, women, and children of the village of Audrini in January 1942. My family lived next-door in another village. Audrini was burned to the ground. About 30 of the Audrini villagers were publicly shot in the Rezekne market square, and the remaining villagers were transported to the nearby Anchupani Hills where they too were shot.
These stories are many. The war impacted almost every family in Latvia – whether they ended up packing their suitcases and boarding for Germany, or decided to remain in the occupied Latvia.
The end of this awful war is hard not to commemorate.
May 10th, 2008 at 13.53
Alek,
Couple of things- “end of this awful war is hard not to commemorate,”- agreed, but who gets to decide how it is commemorated? russians and russian politicians only? My wife’s family in Gulbene suffered and they choose to say “that phase of the war ended, but a new one started (the russian occupation).” To them the war only ended with russian withdrawal. And they mean it.
And the lonely complaints of an occupier (sorry, but no matter how you frame it the older man you talked to didn’t move to Latvia, he moved to occupied Latvia and doesn’t have any “right” to expect that these changes don’t require work on his part) are sad, but that bitterness is misdirected. It actually should be directed at the manipulative russian politiicans (both the ones here and in russia) who throw gasoline on that fire. I admit that I have little empathy for his feelings.
I teach at one multi-national firm where they are expected to adapt to local culture when they travel to home office in Scandinavia and then also expected to adapt to Scandinavian culture when they have visitors from head office. How fair is that? When does LV actually have the right to demand those who occupied should adapt if they choose to stay? LV has provided a path to citizenship and participation- I think that is enough.
Another thing “lesser evil Stalin.” Lesser evil? By whose standard? Ukrainian? Latvians and others deported? Sorry, but is just historical accident that put Hitler and Stalin on opposite sides. Some measures would say that simply by staying power, Stalin was the greater evil.
May 10th, 2008 at 15.07
A small addition- Maybe I missed it, but where is the story about LVs disrupting this commemoration? Imagine for a moment that a group of LVs in Moscow gather in a public place on 9 May to commemorate the beginning of the occupation. What would be the authorities reaction? At the least a thinly veiled (govt supported, though not openly) opposition from some lovely bolshevik group. Sorry. The commemoration (I would say celebration) in uzvaras parks was not prevented or disrupted, that is as it should be in a free society.
May 10th, 2008 at 15.10
We need to learn to make a distinction between political rhetoric and significance. Politicians here and abroad will hijack this holiday to promote their idea and ideals. But it doesn’t mean people horde to the monument to listen to them speak. Or that they’ll muster some votes.
Second of all, who gets to decide how it is commemorated? Who gets to decide how any day is commemorated? The government that is run by ethnic Latvians does not even acknowledge that it’s a day to be commemorated. I’m not expecting it from any Latvian, but I’m expecting some acknowledgment from government officials. Alas, it wouldn’t be a politically safe remark to make.
And what does it do to those millions of people, including Latvians, who died during that war? Or Latvian navy that fought the Germans during the war. The account is here in Latvian, and a brief version in English? Does the government, which as I continue to remind you, run by ethnic Latvians not spit into the grave, as Elizabete put it, of those who laid their lives in the struggle against fascism?
May 10th, 2008 at 15.12
And I’m not saying that the government disrupted it. We’re a free country with principles of democracy.
All I’m saying is that lack of political acknowledgment of sacrifices by people who gave their lives fighting this war is swept under the rag by not even displaying Latvian flags on any of the two dates.
May 10th, 2008 at 15.17
Alek,
I think that you answered your own question when you noted that govt officials did may an official commemoration on 8 May. This is a complicated question, but I cannot blame LV govt officials for not joining in on the orgy of bellicosity that 9 May is. It in no way spits on the grave of brave LVs of all kinds who fought for their homes to not get under the red tent. How precisely would a LV presence at the incredibly soviet monument in Riga promote the memory of LVs? The gathering yesterday was russian. It was not about “the allies” it was russian. Any LV presence there would have been jeered. My god- pictures of Stalin for goodness sake! Stalin was and the russians were on the “wrong side” at the beginning of that war. They invaded the Baltics and Poland as Hitler entered Poland- any mention of that yesterday?
May 10th, 2008 at 15.25
I did indeed mention the May 8 commemorations. But I also said they were subdued. Compare the May 8 events with, say, any of the many commemorative days in the Latvian official calendar. It’s like a very different event. How often is the Allied victory mentioned by government officials as a positive thing?
I wouldn’t expect the officials to go to the Victory monument last night. Nor is it what my beef is about. My beef is about the overall attitude of the Latvian government when it comes to the end of the Second World War. It creates an impression that if they could get away with it, they’d never ever recognize the fact that Allies – including the Soviet Union – won the war, or that many of their own civilians and soldiers gave their lives to defeat fascism.
May 10th, 2008 at 15.32
We can talk about everything that was wrong with yesterday’s celebration - the Stalin portraits, red flags, Russian embassy, no remorse, need to talk about the Stalin crimes, etc. These are all valid and important points that need to be considered by the Russian community, I wholeheartedly agree.
But it does not justify the official opposition, or rather apathy to VE-Day and thus a complete disregard for the loss of lives of people who fought on “the wrong side.”… as if they didn’t matter… Taking the black-and-white attitude isn’t going to solve it on either side.
May 10th, 2008 at 15.37
Come to think of - even traveling to Audrini by a high-ranking Latvian official would say that those people didn’t die in vain…
May 10th, 2008 at 15.39
Sorry, but given the reality of how it all ended and then began (occupation), why would you expect anything but subdued recollection? I guess from my perspective the LVs are on a third side- neither on the winning or losing (german etc.) side. The war’s final consequences did not really resolve until 1991. The LV govt does acknowledge, in a quiet and reasonably circumspect way, the sacrifices of soldiers. And, at the risk of provocation, which war would you have the ussr win- the war against hitler? or the war to enslave/occupy LV, LT, EE and others? To LVs (at least many that I know it is the latter. They say that the best that they can do is to stay away from the russian celebrations, if they approached to talk about the complications they would only incite. Who wants that? I personal find solace in the fact that LVs stayed away and didn’t disrupt. In my imagined analogy of an event in Moscow, you can be darn sure that the russians wouldn’t stay away.
Please, the russians don’t have the right to set the frame for understanding this event. And yes, that is the way it seems.
May 10th, 2008 at 15.44
Of course we have the analogous event every year when the legionnaires march. Where are the russians then? Why not let the elderly LVs have their commemoration of the fight against communism?
May 10th, 2008 at 15.46
A couple of thoughts - we use Russia now as a standard for democracy? That the fact that a similar pro-Latvian event in Moscow wouldn’t be tolerated by Russians somehow shows Latvians in a better light? I don’t think it’s really relevant what would or would not happen in Moscow in a fantasy analogy.
What relevant is the people. It’s always about the people. And I believe the government is doing disservice to the memory of those people by softly whispering that their sacrifices are still being remembered. If it’s like that on the national level, I cannot imagine what it’s like in schools where I suspect nothing is mentioned about ethnic Latvians who fought against the Nazis.
I think the occupation that followed the war doesn’t justify the subtle way of commemorating the end of the last world war. I think there’s a place for both as contradictory as it may sound because Latvia has been worn out by history.
May 10th, 2008 at 15.48
The March 16 event has nothing to do with it. This isn’t the contest of which is the better nation, Tom. And it’s not as black and white as you’d like to present it.
May 10th, 2008 at 15.57
Of course we don’t use Russia as a standard of democracy, but as long as Russian politicians of all kinds use 8/9 May as a hammer (and sickle for that matter) I think that what happens (or might happen) in the “motherland” (just ask my former students) is relevant. As long as there are those who see Russia as the “palace on the hill” I think that we should remind them that it is lots better here.
And, you imagine wrong about the schools. My wife teaches in a Riga regional school and they do talk about the complexity of WWII and those who fought on all sides.
May 10th, 2008 at 15.59
In fact my son has heard one such ethnic LV at great length talk about what he is most embarassed by- being conscripted by the Soviets and fighting against the Germans. His great Uncle is alive and fought against the Germans. His great grandfather was conscripted by the Soviets and never returned and was never accounted for.
May 10th, 2008 at 16.05
Who says black and white. I would never deprive the people of their right to celebrate in the park at the obscene monument. The war was a confused time and many did what they had to. I see that and remember (solemnly) those who survived and those who died.
March 16 is quite relevant. It is the opposite side of your question. Why don’t the Legionnaires have the right to remember doing what they believed to be correct? I disagree with them, but I see the difficulties that they faced.
As far as I can tell nobody wears a white hat here. Not Americans or Brits (we abandoned the Balts and others), not Russians and not many Latvians. But. as far as I can tell the only self-reflection has come from the Americans, Brits and Latvians. When does the successor state to the USSR actually think about it?
May 10th, 2008 at 16.17
It may not be a contest of which is the better nation but it is a contest of loyalty. If LVs either go along with or do not challenge an interpretation (as set by Russians) that the victory is one that is a simple thing of victory over hitler, then they concede the rest of the point. No occupation. That is not true- there was an occupation. The remembrance is as it should be and Russians in LV need to understand that LV did not voluntarily join the USSR and that many of them came as a result of an occupation. That is important. I think that LV politicians do well to stay away and to remember in silence and with solemnity. It is about loyalty to a truth. There is some black and white here. The people who died may not have been fully responsible for it, but they died in, at least partial, service of subjugating people.
We should remember the deaths of all of those who died in all wars. War is madness. But when do we actually come to acknowledge what they died in service of?
May 10th, 2008 at 16.38
Traveling to Audrini would be a good thing. Remembering the horrors of war and working to prevent them is always positive. But it would not say that they did not die in vain.
Of course you are right in saying that LV govt officials have a responsibility to the whole nation, but not (to me) at the risk of trying to buy loyalty by pandering.
In some ways the official LV understanding of the end of WWII probably should be either that 8 or 9th was the beginning of the third occupation or that it didn’t really end until soviet troops fully withdrew. Simple truth.
May 10th, 2008 at 17.50
“My beef is about the overall attitude of the Latvian government when it comes to the end of the Second World War.”
Sorry, but I think your beef is poisonous. The end of the Second World War here, to put it simply, was the replacement of one totalitarian occupation by another, earlier one — both regimes having colluded to destroy Latvia. There’s nothing to celebrate. On this day (well, 8 May), I always read the Ērmanis poem in which he cries whilst those around him (in the European capitals) rejoice. There was no rejoicing in Rīga, for obvious reasons.
May 10th, 2008 at 17.58
P.S. The date itself is a gift from Stalin –
http://lettonica.blogspot.com/2007/05/glory-to-imperial-behemoth.html
/P
May 10th, 2008 at 18.03
As I read your article I am struck by the fact that the only one who seems to see Victory Day as a commemoration of the defeat of Nazi Germany is you. By your own account we have Russian Tricolors flying everywhere and Soviet nostalgia. Where exactly do you see Victory Day as commemoration of the defeat of Nazi Germany? Wouldn’t it be more accurate to describe it as Russian Victory Day? And is it really that hard to understand why its so difficult for Latvians to take part in such a celebration?
I have a lot of respect for those who gave their lives in the defeat of Germany. My family wasn’t quite so lucky. My father lost an eye and two brothers in the fighting. I am, and always will be greatful, for the defeat of Nazi Germany. However, Victory Day is not, nor has it ever been, a celebration of that defeat.
Here in the United States Victory Day passed with nary a mention. I think the United States played a role in the defeat of Germany as well. Are they somehow disrespecting the sacrifices made by Russians, or Allied troops? What about France, England, etc.
I think Tom raises a valid point about March 16. Its about the symbolism of the days. I think Latvia and Latvians have come to terms with what March 16 means (or at least the half hearted attempt is there) to others. Russia and Russians are still to come to terms with what Victory Day means to Latvians.
May 10th, 2008 at 19.12
Actually, very interesting thoughts. To answer them all would make an excellent post. In fact, I might just write one.
May 10th, 2008 at 19.45
Here’s a good citizenship/good post-occupant idea from Estonia for Latvia’s Russians for next year 9 May to demonstrate their positive commitment to their beloved country Latvia : “More than 50 000 volunteers came out on May 3, 2008 to participate in Estonia’s big clean-up day organized by the civic initiative known as Let’s Do It!…” (US State Dept. - Estonia)
P.S. Only 1,000 Russians in Estonia gathered to celebrate “Victory Day.”
May 10th, 2008 at 21.06
“We didn’t liberate anyone, we weren’t even able to liberate ourselves…”
Yelena Bonner (Russian human rights activist and wife of Andrei Sakharov)May 9, 2007
May 11th, 2008 at 3.51
Just a ‘brain-storm’ idea :
Perhaps Latvians, on future May 9ths, should wear sack-cloth and cover their hair with ashes (as in Biblical times). With weeping and wailing, singing of mournful hymns, beseech God to forgive those, who in the name of the Soviet Union, killed, raped, robbed, their way across eastern Europe (and do this in the presence of all the Russophones who gather at the so-called Victory Memorial). The Russians should be educated and reminded time after time, what happened. What’s wrong? Seems like the whole lot has ‘Stockholm Syndrome’. If the Latvians are so horrible, if life is so intolerable in Latvia—-I’m sure mother Russia would welcome her Russian-speaking children with open arms (or not?).
If Russians (under the auspices of the Soviet Union) had help to defeat Germany then, returned their soldiers to within the pre-1939 borders of the USSR. If they had respected the rights and self-determination of the countries they had previously overrun, I think us Balts would have looked upon them in a much kinder light.
Also so many Americans (and other ‘westerners’) seem to forget that Stalin certainly helped Hitler out in the beginning in 1939. Who helped to divide Poland a couple of weeks after the Germans invaded that country? The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was what help to start the war and the whole bloody mess!
On the other hand, to be fair, Latvians should condemn and repent for those fellow countrymen who collaborated with the Nazis, killing our Jewish brothers and sisters. But I do clearly understand why many Latvians had to or were willing to fight with the Germans, though I have no delusions of what a German victory would have meant to us and our Baltic Cousins, it would have been a disaster as would it have been to the rest of Europe, if not the whole world!
I’m sorry to be rambling here….my thoughts are probably not very coherent. It’s very easy to condemn people and what they did 60+ years ago……we should ask ourselves, “What would I have done?”. I pray God that this should never happen again, but I have my fears looking at the state of the world.
May God grant that those who feel strongly for Latvia, love her and want to see her survive and prosper, rise up to do all that they can to help our ’skaista dzimtene’!
May 11th, 2008 at 6.27
Aleks, we have this same discussion about Estonia and 1945 occuring every year. The thing is, like Giustino (Itching for Eestimaa) emphazises on this occasion that in 1944 a Estonian government tried to reestablish the state. The Estonian tricolore was pulled down in autumn 1994 replaced by the Soviet flag. There was no Nazi flag at that short time period. I have to agrree much with Peteris here. And since I am living in Korea it is more obvious that after May 1945, the Soviet troops did not act as an liberator either. Even Koreans , though victimns of the Japanase occupation were not safe. I still try to get some numbers from the Soviet liberation of Korea. Beside this there was already the total deportation of Koreans from the Far East Soviet Union in 1937/1938 already. Nothing to celebrate from that view.
May 11th, 2008 at 10.35
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