Translated material
Not our victory
The closer Victory Day is, the more disgusting my heart feels. Maybe I'm just taking things too personally. For me personally, this is a really big holiday. This is how it happened in our family. War and Victory were always treated with great respect, and our grandfather with his countless orders was an example and pride for everyone. Therefore, the ugly vulgarity into which the anniversary is being turned saddens me to the extreme. Everywhere you look.
You turn on the TV - there are serials, all of them, about the war. And one is stupider than the other. This is a shame, because once upon a time we had absolutely brilliant films about war. And now it’s like a Hollywood movie about Russians, where Russians look like anyone, just not us. They just don’t know what we are like, and they don’t really want to know, making films not about us, but about their idea of us, not about the Second World War, but about their idea of it. So today we film in the same way, parodying both ourselves and our history, and, in a good way, making money on a topical topic.
And, of course, these days the DTV channel makes a special impression in the evenings. On the occasion of the holiday, there is a logo in the form of the Order of the Patriotic War. So, against the backdrop of this Order of the Patriotic War, people are having intercourse on the screen and writing each other SMSs like “I want you”, “Be mine”.
You turn off the TV, go outside, and the street is blocked. There are places in the city that you can no longer reach either by car or even on foot before the end of the “celebrations.” To visit elderly parents who have the misfortune of living in the center, you must, in the words of the capital’s police chief Pronin, “prove that they are your parents”! For two weeks now, due to endless parade rehearsals, Moscow has been paralyzed in the evenings, and I can’t imagine what, other than a stream of swearing, this could cause.
The parade has already become an object of ridicule - I mean the trucks that will carry veterans across Red Square. Instead of an exact copy of the famous military ZiS-5, nicknamed Zakhar, the result was not only not Zakhar, but a product that looked more like a Wehrmacht truck! But people - with the exception of special veterans on these quasi-crews, as well as other specially selected citizens - cannot get into the center of the festivities. Take a walk at home or in the yard, or even better, leave Moscow. The heads of foreign states will have fun instead of you. After all, it was they, if you have forgotten, who won the war. They should be the main characters of the holiday, the main consumers of all the beauties of the celebration.
Still, the attitude towards foreigners in our country is amazing. On the one hand, distrust, suspicion (there is nothing good to expect from them), and on the other hand, ingratiation, throwing dust in everyone’s eyes, service out of turn only at the highest level with a smile instead of swearing. It seems that the 60th anniversary of the Victory was arranged for them, that their compatriots, as usual, only prevent the authorities from doing everything as it should be. But since, unfortunately, there is nowhere to put us, “Muscovites and guests” will be driven into reservations at their place of residence. Let them watch TV. Or Jean-Michel Jarre. The forgotten showman, eight years ago, when the 850th anniversary of Moscow was celebrated, was a well-known artist, and now Russia, apparently, is the only place where he is always welcome, considered a star and ready to fulfill any of his demands.
In general, it turns out as always, and I’m not even sure that they wanted it to be better. No - we wanted it as always, and it will turn out the same. God grant it doesn't get worse. In the meantime, the only action going on or taking place these days was the action with St. George ribbons on cars - in memory of the war and as a sign of respect. Every time I see such a car, I internally rejoice. Both “Lada” and “Mercedes” are very different cars, which have only this one thing in common. This is a spiritual impulse, not under duress or according to orders, it unites people who are strangers to each other, makes it possible to feel that this is not just a Victory, but Our Victory. And our holiday.