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...
Spain’s participation in the Second World War is not all that easy to assess. Officially, Spain was not among the combatants, this often being forgotten when the country is assigned the status of an ally of Germany. Indeed, the Spanish people, under the leadership of Franco, who held definitely fascist (not to say Nazi) views, assisted Germany and its allies with weapons and soldiers, but refused to act openly on the side of the Axis.
At the same time, Franco continued talking to the allies...
If more far-reaching and serious political events did not occur in the world, considerably more attention would be devoted in Russian scientific circles and media to the attitude of Central-Eastern European countries to the Red Army’s victory in the Second World War. After all, in all the countries liberated by the Red Army in 1944–1945 a particular microcosm of emotions has now arisen that is pitiless towards oppressors and full of sympathy for the peoples that suffered.
On 4 April 2015...
The May 8–9 holiday is a far too complicated affair, and somewhat inconvenient to be a widespread celebration across the Balkans
The attitude to Victory Day in the Balkans can at best be described as positive to neutral. This date certainly exists in the public and media space. Remembrance events are held, and speeches are made.
Local news feeds
feature reports of the “grand military parade in Moscow”, and yet in most cases it is shown as a kind of spectacle, in recognition of modern...
The attitude of India and its population to the Second World War is substantially different to that which exists in Europe. There were no military battles on the Indian territory, the country’s existence was not put in doubt, but the war itself led to the proclamation of India’s independence.
It is the last aspect which attracts the Indian public most. In this respect there is especial interest in the actions of the Indian National Army, which fought on Japan’s side.
In September...
