Contrary to “inside information”, including by Western ministers and “intelligence sources”, there were no military parades in Ukrainian cities following a last-minute assault – unless one calls so the pathetic gathering by a few dozens of Donbass separatists in Mariupol. There was no declaration of the state of war that would have allowed Putin to send conscripts to the front, to call
on men below 27 who did not serve in the army, or other reservists. Putin didnot claim any victory in Ukraine, even partial, just claiming that Russia wanted to make its utmost to prevent a new global war. The content of this short speech obliged Western commentators to back pedal after days of speculations which went on up to the last minute before the ceremony. Those efforts had two unexpected: to expose internationally the limits of Western analysis about Russia; and to project Red Square to worldwide attention, with Putin in the main role.
Shorter, stronger
In fact, the concision of Putin’s message reinforced the impact to his core, and worrying, message. He made clear, to all the world, that he really believes that the West has been for years plotting to install a puppet regime in Kiev, even, if needed, with the help of neo-Nazi forces, to finally weaken, even destroy,Russia. So, according to him, threats to Russia’s security and needs to de-nazify the European continent, left Russia with no choice but direct intervention in Ukraine. He acted, and will act, according to those convictions.
The message was of course tuned to Russian audience, not only to international attention. Notably when he saluted the participation of soldiers who fought in Ukraine, whose fight he put on the same level that the fight of their grandfathers against German Nazism.
Popular feelings
For all its international implications, 9 th May is the most Russian popular holiday. Russians can watch with pride the televised retransmission of the military parade, but they enjoyed much more the moment when families and groups of friends take the streets, visit parks, gather on river’s banks, in all cities and villages. As veterans were passing away, the duty to keep memory alive, felt on younger generations. They can, for instance, take part in cortege of the “immortal battalion”, of ordinary citizens carrying the pictures of family members who fought WWII, a collective action that kept its emotional power, despite the Kremlin’s recuperation, in 2015, of a rare citizen’s initiative.
Today, all Russian families were expecting something special, reflecting their preoccupations about a war that is still officially a special operation. They did not want a president showering medals on the chests of Russian fighters back from Ukraine for a brief apparition in Red Square. Hence Putin’s salute to “our armed forces who are fighting for our Motherland, for its future” against an “unacceptable threat” from “a neighbour backed by the West”. He also answered to more prosaic questions, unveiling a programme of financial and moral support for the families of the deaths, including for the education of their children; medical treatments and pensions for the wounded. It has been promised in the past, but at least he looked sensitive to popular fears. He also insisted on the fact that responsibly for the military conflict are not to be found in Russia, setting his speech in line with the evolutive narratives of WWII, in USSR, in Russia, and in the West.
National identity
Putin has always been obsessed with national unity in periods of crisis, quoting examples from the past, in this case during WWII. In 1945, the parade was composed of soldiers back from the horrors of the front, proud and happy to be alive, but returning to a devastated country, facing human losses everywhere they will go. At the Mausoleum, Stalin was enjoying his new international stature, and the image of great military leader who “made victory possible”. The common fight against the “fascists” had literally created the Soviet identity,after years of revolution, purges and forced assimilation. It was a bonus, but was aware of the risks for of a prolonged “comradeship” between millions of people who discovered that they can act as individuals. Ex-servicemen, in a still rural society, often coming from villages destroyed by forced collectivisation, had been less impressed by foreign rich cities than by “real” farms.
It took 20 years for Leonid Brejnev to declare 9 th May a national holiday, with big military parades, using for his own goals that Soviet identity forged during the war. Later on, Yeltsin’s vision of 9 th May celebrations was reflecting his will to distance Russia from relics of the Soviet past while contributing to Russian new identity. Putin and Medvedev turned the clock back, and used the tribune to clarify Russia’s relations with allies in WWII, or that with the former Soviet republics. From 1992, those had organised their own parades (not in the Baltic states), but their presidents continue to attend both Victory Day events in Moscow and in their own capitals. One can read the level of bilateral relations through their presence or absence in Moscow, and decision to switch Victory Day from 9 to 8 May, siding with the West away from Moscow.
Rupture
For the Kremlin, the ultimate imbrication of international and national dimensions came in May 2005, for the 60 th anniversary of the victory. The ceremony was attended by 50 heads of states; some of them, including President Bush, met Putin separately. As incredible as it might look today, Putin and Ukrainian president Yushchenko, elected after the first Maidan, agreed to createa bilateral commission to discuss fields of cooperation.
Ten years later, Westerner leaders refused invitations and scaled down official representations to protest against the occupation/reintegration of Crimea. Russia was even excluded from joint celebrations of armistice or liberation of camps.