Victory Day is celebrated on May 9 - in 2019 the 74th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War will be celebrated.
Victory Day is a holiday marking the end of a murderous war that claimed the lives of millions of soldiers and civilians.
The Victory Day will forever remain in history and will always remind of those bloody events and the great defeat of the fascist troops.
Victory Day
The Great Patriotic War, an integral part of the Second World War (1939-1945), began at dawn on June 22, 1941. On this day, Nazi Germany treacherously attacked the Soviet Union, violating the Soviet-German treaties concluded in 1939.
In the hostilities, which lasted almost four years and became the largest armed conflict in the history of mankind, during various periods of the war, from eight to 13 million people fought simultaneously on both sides, from seven to 19 thousand aircraft, from six to 20 thousand tanks and assault guns, from 85 to 165 thousand guns and mortars.
The occupiers planned to win a quick victory, but miscalculated - Soviet troops exhausted the enemy in bloody battles, forced him to go on the defensive along the entire German-Soviet front, and then inflicted a series of major defeats on the enemy.
Nazi Germany signed the act of unconditional surrender May 8, 1945 at 22:43 Central European time (at 00:43, May 9 Moscow) in the suburbs of Berlin - it came into force on the same day at 23:01.
The ninth of May, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, was declared Victory Day over Nazi Germany and “a day of national celebration.”
The first Victory Day was celebrated like no other holiday in modern history. Celebrations and crowded rallies took place everywhere. Orchestras played in the parks and squares of cities and villages, popular theater and film artists, as well as amateur art groups performed.
On this historic day, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Joseph Stalin addressed the Soviet people. Late evening
Moscow was illuminated by the Victory salute - 30 victorious salvoes were fired by thousands of anti-aircraft guns, which at that time was a grandiose spectacle.
After the Victory salute, dozens of planes dropped garlands of multi-colored rockets over the capital, and numerous sparklers flashed in the squares.
Brief history of the holiday
The first Victory Day in history was celebrated in 1945 - a military parade was held on Red Square in Moscow in honor of the victory in the Great Patriotic War on June 24, which was hosted by Marshal Georgy Zhukov.
An event that will forever be remembered world history- the deposition of Nazi banners and standards - they were thrown onto the platform near the Mausoleum, happened precisely at this parade.
Victory Day on May 9 was an official day off until 1948, then it was abolished for many years, although holiday events, dedicated to victory, were carried out in all populated areas huge country.
The Victory Day holiday became a non-working day again only in 1965.
The holiday, in the period between 1965-1990, was celebrated on May 9 very widely - military parades taking place on Victory Day clearly demonstrated the full power of the Soviet army and the latest achievements in the field of development military equipment.
Many countries after the collapse of the USSR, including Georgia, continue to celebrate Victory Day on May 9.
The Victory Day holiday in Russia for several years, after the collapse of the Union, lost its solemn status. Military parades on Victory Day with the participation of military equipment and military aviation on Red Square in Moscow traditionally began to be held on May 9, 1995.
The geography of cities where the holiday is celebrated is gradually becoming wider and wider. Victory Day on May 9 is celebrated especially solemnly in the hero cities of Russia.
European countries celebrate Victory Day in World War II on May 8, the day when Germany signed the act of surrender, Central European time.
Joy with tears in my eyes
The Second World War and the Great Patriotic War are the largest battles in terms of scale and ferocity. It became a tragedy for the inhabitants of many countries of the world, bringing human losses unprecedented in history and countless suffering to millions of people.
During the hostilities, which lasted almost four years, in the USSR alone, 1,710 cities, more than 70 thousand villages, 32 thousand factories and factories were destroyed, 98 thousand collective farms were plundered - the total cost of these destructions was 128 billion dollars.
We know about the war from the stories of the older generation and from history books, but these terrible events were a reality for millions of people. The war brought a lot of grief - millions of soldiers and civilians died.
The Soviet Union lost a total of 25.6 million citizens, according to other sources 29.6 million people. At least 13.7 million of the war victims are civilians.
On Victory Day, wreaths are laid at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, near Eternal Flame- it burns in memory of fallen heroes.
According to tradition, on Victory Day they visit places where battles took place, monuments of military glory, graves of fallen soldiers, where they lay flowers, as well as hold rallies and ceremonial passage of military units.
On Victory Day, veterans, of whom there are fewer and fewer every year, gather in the central squares of cities, meet with fellow soldiers, and remember their fallen comrades.
The memory of the fallen, respect for fearless veterans and pride in their impossible feat will live in our hearts forever.
Every fifth person who fought in the Great Patriotic War was awarded - 11,681 soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and 2,532 people are full holders of the Order of Glory.
The material was prepared based on open sources
"Who military surrender", which ended the war in Europe, was signed on the night of May 6-7, 1945 in the building of the Polytechnic Lyceum of Reims, where the headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force was located.Why do we celebrate Victory Day on May 9?
Ken O. Preventive memory correction. Why is Victory Day on May 9?// Case. - Apr 24 2004
* * *
So, the re-signing of the same Reims capitulation in Berlin has the same meaning as the “repeated first wedding night” - at the numerous requests of relatives who did not have time to attend the “first” one.
With the ceremonial removal of the red-dyed (supposedly only five minutes ago) sheet.
And Stalin canceled the celebration of “Victory Day” correctly (they began to celebrate only under Brezhnev in 1965. Because it is illogical to celebrate while two countries are still at war.
The end of the war comes only as a result of the fact that after the surrender of one of the parties, an agreement to end the war (on peace) is signed and all prisoners return home.
Despite the cessation of hostilities in May 1945, the USSR continued to be at war with Germany (and that is why it was able to officially hold in captivity a mass of German prisoners of war who worked for free for the USSR) right up to 1955.
“The war with Germany ended only on January 25, 1955, with the adoption of a corresponding decision by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR” - (http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Day).
This is the "corresponding solution":
Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated January 25, 1955 No. b/n “On ending the state of war between Soviet Union and Germany."
Date of adoption: 01/25/1955
And Russia (as the legal successor of the USSR) is still “at war” with Japan... Since 1945, a peace treaty has not been signed.
History has preserved the information that our troops hoisted a red flag over the Reichstag in Berlin on May 1. The countdown starts from this date, because... the process of negotiating an armistice on the part of Germany began, but I.V. Stalin demanded complete surrender on the part of Germany, so the first act of surrender was signed on May 7, 1945. Our government was not satisfied with the signing of the act by a person who did not have full authority to do so, and therefore this act was not generally recognized. On May 8, 1945, the second act of complete surrender of Germany was prepared and signed.
Many Western countries prefer to celebrate Victory Day on May 8, because... at the time of signing the second act it was signed May 9, 1945 at 0:43 Moscow time, and in Berlin at that time it was still May 8th. However, having accepted the surrender, the Soviet Union did not sign a peace treaty with Germany, that is, it formally remained at war with Germany. As a result, the war with Germany ended on January 25, 1955, with the publication by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the decree “On ending the state of war between the Soviet Union and Germany.” For 10 years after Victory Day, both countries were legally in a state of war.
By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 8, 1945 “On declaring May 9 a Victory Day,” it was established that May 9 is the day of national celebration - the VICTORY HOLIDAY. May 9 is considered a non-working day. On that day in Moscow there was a magnificent fireworks display, a grandiose event at that time, about 30 salvos were fired from a thousand anti-aircraft guns, people rejoiced, sang and danced, hugged and remembered those who did not live to see this day, on their faces along with smiles tears of joy glistened.
For reasons of saving funds allocated for the celebration of Victory Day, the authorities considered first of all to direct funding to the restoration of destroyed cities, villages, Agriculture, therefore, in 1947, May 9 was recognized as a regular working day. And only in 1965 in honor of the 20th anniversary Great Victory, May 9th was officially restored as a national holiday. Festive parades and fireworks, congratulations to war veterans, and concerts in honor of Victory Day have been resumed in all cities of the Soviet Union.
Almost 70 years have passed since the end of the Great Patriotic War, we, the new generation, continue to honor with dignity the memory of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers who laid down their lives in the name of our future. In all cities there are parades, demonstrations of military equipment, laying of fresh flowers at memorials and monuments to the soldiers who defended our country from the German invaders. And it doesn’t matter what date we celebrate Victory Day, the main thing is that we remember and honor those who shed blood for us, our future, on Russian soil.
Second World War, in fact, was global. Battles took place on three continents. In Europe, in Asia and even a little in Africa. And the battles of this war ended on different continents at different times.
In Europe, World War II ended on May 7, 1945 at 2:40 a.m. Central European Time. It was at this moment that in the French city of Reims, representatives of the German military command signed the Act of Unconditional Surrender. On the German side, the Act was signed by General Alfred Jodl. On the Allied side, General Walter Bedell Smith accepted the surrender, and on the Soviet side, Joseph Stalin’s representative at the Allied Command, General Ivan Alekseevich Susloparov. According to this Act, the surrender of Germany came into force the next day, May 8, 1945 at 23 hours and 1 minute Central European Time. The agreement was drawn up on English language, and only this agreement was considered official.
General I.A. Susloparov (1897 - 1974) from the summer of 1944 he was in Paris (already liberated from the Germans at that time) and was the Soviet representative at the headquarters of the Anglo-American troops. This was not his first business trip to France. In 1939, Susloparov already served as a Soviet military attaché in Paris. As befits this position, he was not only involved in diplomatic activities, but also led the Soviet intelligence network throughout Western Europe.
On the evening of May 6, 1945, I.A. Susloparov was invited to the headquarters of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower announced that General Jodl had arrived in Reims to sign the surrender. D. Eisenhower invited the Soviet representative to sign the act of surrender on behalf of the Soviet Union. Thus, General Susloparov was destined to go down in history.
Naturally, General Susloparov knew well what subordination was and who really should go down in history. He immediately sent the text of the future Act to Moscow and began to wait for orders from the Supreme. But by 2:30 a.m., when the agreement should have been signed, there was still no response from Moscow.
Meanwhile, the dilemma that arose before the general was not an easy one. As a representative of the USSR, he could not refuse to sign the surrender. Indeed, in this case, Germany, having made peace with England, the USA and France, could continue to fight on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union. On the other hand, signing the act in Moscow could be regarded as an abuse of power. It’s not worth saying what troubles this would have threatened the general with, it’s clear enough.
Susloparov signed the Act of Surrender on behalf of the USSR. But at his request, a clause was added to the text of the Act stating that, at the request of one of the allied states, the signing ceremony could be repeated. In this case, both Acts could be considered equivalent.
How the general looked into the water! After the signing ceremony ended, a response came from Moscow. Stalin demanded another ceremony to sign the surrender. This time - in the suburbs of Berlin, Karlhorst. Another ceremony of signing the Act of Unconditional Surrender took place on May 8, 1945 at 22:43 Central European Time. In Moscow at this time it was already 0 hours 43 minutes on May 9.
Naturally, in Soviet time They talked mainly about this ceremony, and only it was shown in the cinema. The fact that the Act of Unconditional Surrender had already been signed in Reims a day before this day was not mentioned.
This was precisely the reason for the discrepancy in the celebration of the end of the war in Europe and the Soviet Union. Europeans celebrated this day the day after the signing of the Act in Reims, that is, May 8, 1945. The largest celebration took place in London, where millions of Englishmen gathered at Buckingham Palace. They were greeted from the balcony by King George VI, Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister William Churchill.
In the Soviet Union, May 9, 1945 was declared Victory Day. This date marked the order of the Supreme Commander numbered 369, announcing the victory over Hitler's Germany. On the evening of May 9, 1945 in Moscow and other major cities A stunning fireworks display thundered. The end of the holiday was the Victory Parade, which took place a month and a half later, on June 24, 1945. May 9 was declared a non-working day.
But two years later this day off was canceled. Instead of Victory Day, December 31, the day of the New Year holiday, was made a non-working day. Victory Day became a holiday again only in 1965.
May 9 was celebrated as Victory Day in all Soviet republics. In 1991, after the collapse of the USSR, many former republics Having become independent states, they moved this holiday to May 8 and began to celebrate it as a day of memory and reconciliation.
Why is Victory Day celebrated on May 9 in Russia, and on May 8 in Europe? It must be said that May 9 was not even the last day of hostilities. Scattered throughout Eastern and Central Europe German groups continued to resist. On May 10, Soviet troops took a bridgehead on the Putziger Nehrung Spit, near Gdansk; On May 11, Courland was taken under control; and only by May 14 was the pursuit of the last German formations retreating to the west completed.
In fact, the end of hostilities has absolutely nothing to do with it. On May 7, at about 3 a.m., in Reims (France), the German command, represented by General Alfred Jodl, signed the Act of Unconditional Surrender.
The Act provided for the complete and widespread surrender of Germany to the forces of the Allies and the USSR and was passed by the representative of the Soviet armed forces, General Ivan Susloparov, and the Allied (i.e., US and British) Expeditionary Forces, General Walter Smith. General Francois Sevez (France) signed as a witness.
The next day, that is, May 8, 1945, the press of the allied countries triumphantly announced the long-awaited victory over Nazism.
The surrender came into force on May 8, at 23:01 Berlin time, but shortly before the specified time, another act was signed in Berlin (or rather, in its suburb - Karlhorst).
In Western and Russian historiography, there are several points of view as to why Germany had to surrender twice, but none of them seemed convincing to me. Soviet and Russian historians call the procedure in Reims “preliminary,” and the procedure in Berlin “final.” In the West, many consider the Reims Act to be the final capitulation, and the Berlin Act to be its ratification. It is not clear how the preliminary capitulation differed from the final one, just as it is not clear why ratification was needed. After doing a little research, I came to the conclusion that the “dubbing” was caused by bureaucratic mistakes on the Soviet side and the costs of both the Nazi and Soviet adherence to symbolism.
The German command preferred to surrender to the allies rather than to the Soviet Union, and therefore hurried to Eisenhower’s headquarters, located in Reims, France. Formally, it surrendered to the Soviet Union, which was clearly stated in the text of the act and which was secured by the signature of General Susloparov, but for the Germans it was important that the act of surrender did not take place on German territory and not on the territory occupied by the Soviet (more precisely, still Red) Army.
Stalin accepted the surrender de facto. But immediately after the signing, the same Stalin, who loved ceremony and pomp so much, gave a telegram, stating in it that Susloparov did not have the authority to sign the act (for some reason he was unable to do this a couple of hours earlier: perhaps the telegraph was closed for lunch or for dinner). The Supreme Commander-in-Chief considered that, for the sake of symbolism and ceremonies, the surrender should take place in the enemy’s stronghold, in Berlin, which had been defeated by Stalin’s troops, and not in some Reims, where the French treated the Americans already ready to rest with wine.
No one could argue with Stalin, and on May 8 a new act was adopted. This time, on the Soviet side it was signed by Marshal Georgy Zhukov himself as a representative of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, on the German side by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and two other less significant commanders, and on the Allied side by Marshal Arthur William Tedder (Great Britain) ) as a representative of the command of the Allied Expeditionary Forces (i.e., the US and British armies). General Carl Spaatz (USA) and General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny (France) put their signatures as witnesses.
I managed to get only one scan of the Russian text of the “Act of Military Surrender” (it, like the English one, had official force). The text has been reproduced, and judging by the scan, the name of General Spaats was mistakenly printed in it as Silats. I wonder if now any of the parties can declare on this basis that the Russian version of the act is invalid, since General Silats did not sign anything?
At the time of signing, it was 22:43 in Berlin, 21:43 in London and Paris, and 0:43 in Moscow, i.e. May 9 has already arrived. The Allies had two reasons to celebrate the victory on May 8: if we consider the Reims Act to prevail, then according to it the surrender came into force on the 8th; but if we assume that the Berlin Act prevailed, then it also came into force on May 8: in general, an eight is an eight everywhere, not a nine.
But in Russia (and after it in the CIS countries) they did not think so, believing that the date of surrender should be determined by Moscow, and not local time. In this we see another example of the fact that not only the logic of the Russian person is very different from the Western one, but so are his ideas. Perhaps in 1945 the memories of the Julian calendar and the “old style” were still fresh. Perhaps they have not yet forgotten that Christmas in Rus' is celebrated later than in the West. After all, it is more rational to follow the time of the place in which the event occurs than the time of the place in which this event was learned Yu etc. Therefore, in air and other tickets, the time of arrival is indicated at the place of arrival, and not at the place of departure (by the way, the latter is not entirely true in relation to some types of Russian transport: I remember that I did not get on the return minibus flight from Helsinki to St. Petersburg precisely because The return time was indicated in Moscow, not Helsinki time).
The capture of the Winter Palace by the Bolsheviks took place in the late evening of November 7, Moscow, or rather St. Petersburg, time (October 25, old style), but in Siberia, on Far East and Primorye, by that time November 8 had already arrived. Therefore, the Day of Harmony and Reconciliation, as the Day of the October Revolution is now for some reason called, east of the Urals cannot be celebrated on the 7th. But there are 24 time zones on earth, and if you follow this ridiculous rule, great confusion will arise. In New Zealand, it turns out that the twin buildings collapsed not on September 9, but on September 10. In California, Christmas will have to be celebrated on December 24, and so on.
And today, both Russian journalists and public opinion believe that there was a fundamental necessity and great meaning in the secondary surrender of Germany. The Russians still feel that the Allies were trying to steal victory from Soviet people that the West did not take into account the interests of the USSR when signing the act in Reims, that Great Britain and the USA had nothing to do with it at all and did not deserve to be considered real victors, because much fewer British and Americans died in the war than Soviet people.
For centuries, Russians have been offended by the fact that insidious westerners always and everywhere deceive the Russian people, who, as is known, are distinguished excessive gullibility and simplicity of soul: everywhere they don’t give him something, they cunningly push him out of the market of ideas and achievements, they deprive him of laurels either for the invention of radio and television, or for the discovery of Antarctica. But what surprises me is not even this, but how little the journalists who wrote about the double capitulation understand the issue. Apparently, they drew information from other, similar journalistic retellings and callbacks. In some places, General Susloparov is named only as a witness to the signing, and not as a participant; in some places it is stated that the act ensured the surrender only of the Allied troops, and not Soviet troops; in some places Reims is considered a German, not a French city (an article by Sergei Turchenko in the Free Press (free from whom?) is an example of such resentment, incompetence and anti-Western bias. It turns out that almost none of the authors even bothered to read the text of the Reims Act .
But let's return to the second signing. Maybe the fact is that Stalin, being a great enthusiast of planting Soviet esotericism, was also not a stranger to numerology? It is possible that, having been born on December 18 (not 21, as was commonly believed in Soviet historiography), he had a passion for the number 9 (the sum of one and eight) and therefore considered May 9 a more suitable date for the holiday. But most likely, there was only one reason for Stalin’s actions - not to share the holiday with the West.
It is curious that now, 68 years later, when there is a hysterical reappraisal national history(Russia, as you know, has an unpredictable past), and especially the editing (under the leadership of Medinsky) of facts related to the Second World War, when some Russian veterans demonstratively refuse military awards, others ask for American citizenship, and still others receive compensation from the government Germany, the legitimacy of the chosen date for celebrating the victory is not questioned by anyone. The whole country continues to live in the world of mythologies created by the Stalin era.
However, the choice of date does not detract from the significance of the victory won by the Soviet Union, and there is no point in moving the holiday to May 8, although it is possible that someday they will do this in Russia.