Be that as it may, the personage of an aged relative
seems to grow in our memory
as we are told of a past time and society.
Maurice Halbwachs
“Historical Memory and Collective Memory”
1950
On May 9, 2015, Russia will hold celebrations in memory of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Second World War (in Europe). Even the youngest veterans are approximately ninety years old now. It seemed reasonable to expect, optimistically, that the change of generations would bring appeasement...
Africa was affected by both world wars. The African continent, which seemed so far away from the European political conflicts, was compelled to take a very active role in both wars. However, the contribution made by Africans to the victory over fascism remains largely underappreciated.
For Africans, World War II began in 1935, when Italy invaded Ethiopia. In a sense, the war continued – in the form a battle for independence – long after 1945, when Africans demanded that their contribution to the...
The 70th anniversary of the end of World War II is a major celebration for the United Kingdom. The British people commemorate the victims of this world war. Though, in the spring of 2015, the British public was preoccupied with the election campaign (the general election was held on the eve of the VE Day celebrations, on 7 May 2015), Britain celebrated the 70th anniversary on a large scale. Like in most European countries, Victory Day in Britain is celebrated on 8 May – the day on which Winston Churchill...
Britain, as an ally in the anti-German coalition, made an invaluable contribution to the victory in World War II. As in the rest of Europe, Victory Day in the United Kingdom is celebrated on 8 May, not 9 May. This is a day of remembrance celebrated every year with annual parades and events dedicated to those killed in the terrible war of 1939-1945. Yet, for Britain, World War II is inseparably linked to World War I, which was just as tragic for the United Kingdom. The reason for this is commented...
The fates of Sweden, Norway and Denmark during the Second World War were different. Sweden opted for neutrality, whereas Denmark and Norway fell victims to Nazi aggression. Each Scandinavian nation has its own historical memory of the events that took place in those years. And they celebrate the end of the war on different dates: on May 5, Denmark celebrates a national holiday associated with the liberation of the country from its Nazi occupants; the majority of the Danish territory was liberated...
..., this memory is clearly different from that in present-day Russia. This is particularly true for the former Soviet republics which were occupied by the Germans during World War II or which witnessed fierce combat. In a number of post-Soviet states, WWII is no longer seen as an unambiguous battle of good against evil, or of defender against aggressor.
Victory Day revised
This is just as true for Ukraine. Already in the early post-Soviet period, a tendency emerged towards changing the perception of ...
... However, of course, this does not mean that American society and the state as a whole are indifferent to the events that took place 70 years ago.
REUTERS/Toru Hanai/Pixstream
Alexander Panov, Dmitry Streltsov:
The Repentance Dilemma: Modern Japan and
WWII
In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the World War II Memorial Act into law, establishing a monument in Washington in memory of the 405,000 American deaths that the US suffered. In May 2004 during the presidency of George W. Bush, a majestic monument ...
The Great Patriotic War has deeply scarred the memory of people across the vast territorial expanse of the former Soviet Union. However, as time passes, and veterans pass away, the event is increasingly viewed as a subject in a textbook, which raises the need to keep the memory of the war alive within the population.
On the eve of the 70-th anniversary of Victory Day, most post-Soviet countries held large celebrations culminating in the May 9 military parade in Moscow. All the Central Asian republics...
The post-Soviet South Caucasus countries have not yet accumulated sufficient experience in conducting their own “festive and commemorative” policies. Before they became independent countries as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia shared symbols and festive dates with all the other republics (the majority of these dates were associated with the establishment of the Soviet power there). The experience of national statehood after the disintegration...
Since Alexander Lukashenko came to power in 1994, Victory Day, the memory of it and its symbols have become an integral part of Belarusian statehood and the ideology of the Belarusian state. Back then, 20 years ago, when many ex-Soviet countries were aggressively revising the Soviet legacy, the people of Belarus and the Belarusian leadership definitively determined Victory Day as a sacred day for the country.
There are many reasons for this. There is the price Belarus paid for the Victory: one in...
