Commanders and divorcing

The undertaking of Luzhkov with portraits of Stalin is akin to the cheap front of the Soviet driver, who was sculpting the leader of the leader on the windshield. This is how good he is, a good -thought -thought -out man, although he was born a conformist and played on the lowest instincts of the crowd. The temperamental Moscow mayor, apparently, is not aware that it was Stalin who canceled the celebrations on Victory Day. By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 23, 1947, on May 9, it was declared a working day. Instead, citizens received a day off on January 1.

And even earlier, on May 7 of the same year, they made a working day on September 3 - Victory Day over Japan. In another case, on another occasion, the day off was not compensated. (During the restoration of the Victory Day over Japan, the Sakhalin Regional Duma has long been struggling with the support of a number of plots of the Federation.)

Different hypotheses were expressed about Stalin's motives, the most ridiculous of which is savings. It seems to me that Stalin was afraid that the cult of victory would replace his own, that the genuine winner - the people - will overshadow the glory of the winner of the imaginary. He was afraid of the marshals who had imagined the marshals and who were fighting off the hands of officers, Russian women, who tossed on the digging of anti-tank ditches, whose childhood passed in bombing shelters, evacuation and occupation, collapsis-disabled casualties on home-made catals, was afraid of the memory of the victims ...

Probably, he more than once regretted his famous toast for the health of the Russian people, who had such a resonance around the world. “Our government,” said the future Generalissimo (this title was awarded to him two days later), “there were many mistakes ... Another people could tell the government: you did not live up to our expectations, go away, we will put another government that will conclude peace with Germany and provide us with peace. But the Russian people did not go to this, because he believed in the correctness of the policy of his government ... thanks to him, the Russian people, for the Russian people, for the Russian people, for the Russian people, for the Russian people This is trust! " In order for the genius of all time to recognize its mistakes - this has not happened yet. He did not forgive the people with this minute weakness. I never forgave anyone.

The custom to demonstrate their military power and military prey originated, of course, even in prehistoric times, when men and spears dragged a mammoth they had score in their cave, and women and children admired the spectacle. After a skirmish with the neighboring tribe, they dragged the prisoners and their property - skins and stone axes. Egyptian victorious processions can be seen in numerous images. And we know about how the Roman triumphs were organized in all details. Noble captives passed by the amazed Romans-kings and princes of conquered countries, carried precious trophies, including works of art, led exotic animals ... Sometimes, due to the abundance of production, the triumph continued for two to three days.

If Stalin followed the ancient tradition in full, he would have to include not only the captured German generals and sergeals in the Red Square, but also German missilers and nuclear men, dismantled German plants and laboratories, museum collections of paintings, engravings and books, and each soldier had to take the Singer sewing machine or sit on height Trophy bicycle.

When Stalin demanded that the Rural coal basin entering the British occupation zone at the Potsdam Conference, supplies the whole of Germany, including the Soviet zone, but refused to supply the ruble with food from his zone, Churchill exclaimed: “But how are the workers in the Ruh to produce this coal if they have nothing to eat food from?” Stalin calmly replied: "If Germany lacks bread and food, she will buy it." And in response to the replica of the British prime minister that Germany in this case will not be able to pay reparations, said: "He will be able to pay, Germany still has a lot of something left."

But at the Victory Parade, Stalin limited himself to defeated enemy banners - showing his prey at that time was already indecent, because he did not take it away from the Nazi regime, but from the German people.

In America, the word "parade" is associated primarily not with the march of military columns, but with a motley procession on the occasion of a wide variety of holidays - thanksgiving, St. Patrick's Day, Chinese New Year, flowering of Japanese cherries, Halloween. Military personnel take part in them only in the composition of the wind orchestras, the oldest, honored and well -known of which is the Marine Corps orchestra, created by the decision of Congress in 1789. To participate in the festive parade, the musicians put on the form of the war for independence - caftans, wigs and triangles, do not walk, but seeds and whistle on flute in the entire Ivanovo (all of the Pennsylvania, should be said in this case) Yanke Doodle - a song in which there are as many militarism as in the Chizhika -Fuck:

*Yanka-Dudl climbed into the saddle,

He took the form hiking.

The feather was stuck in a hat:

"Ah, how fashionable!"

Yanka-Dudl well done

Do not yawn, buddy!

You will be a reference fighter

And the young ladies are pleasant.*

(Translation by I. Zubanova)

When I first saw a change of guard at the grave of unknown soldiers in the Arlington National Cemetery, I was disassembled by laughter from innocent pleasure: I threw my rifle and twisted in my hands and at the same time dancing and spinning in different directions, like a circus jugler. It was then that it occurred to me that the combat techniques of the US Army were beginning, perhaps, where Russian receptions.

And for sure: in both armies they fell from Prussia, where the notorious drill was the basis of combat effectiveness.

The XVIII century Army in popular literature is usually depicted caricature, which contributed much to the passion for the Prussian orders of the emperors Peter III and Paul I. If it were a caricature, Frederick II would not have won the seven -year war of brilliant victories, which were thrilled by European courtyards. It is true that Frederick did not attach the slightest meaning to the morale of the troops. He made a bet on discipline. The soldier was turned into a machine gun, uniformly reacting to commands. The famous goose step - Ganseschritt - was the basis of the control of the army on the battlefield.

In the American army, the Mushtra was introduced by Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Schoben , a participant in the Seven Years War, who received the rank of major general in the colonies and the post of general inspector general. He became the author of the first drill charter of the US Armed Forces. But already in 1812, the charter lost its combat significance - only the ceremonial remained. From the military parades in the Annals of American history, a Washington large review of the troops on the occasion of the end of the Civil War in May 1865, the Victory Parade in New York on January 12, 1946, dedicated to the return of the glorified 82nd airborne division (in fact, it was Ticker-Tape Parade-solemn travel on the Fifth Avea with Serpentine and confetti, as in the meeting of polar explorers or astronauts in Moscow), as well as on the occasion of the successful completion of the “storm in the desert” in 1991.

There is something archaic in military parades. George Orwell aptly wrote about this in 1941 - that is, when, it would seem, all his strength should be directed to the mobilization of the fighting spirit. “One external, but very reliable indicator of the social atmosphere in the country is a ceremonial step in the army,” he wrote in the essay “ England, your England .” “The military parade is actually a kind of ritual dance, something like ballet, he expresses a certain philosophy of life ... The demonstration of military force going beyond certain frames is possible only in those countries where ordinary people do not dare to laugh at the army.” (Translation by V. Golyshev)

So we will not fetish neither parades nor the symbols accompanying them. Do not be like the savages in combat coloring. Everyone has their own Victory Day. Personal, deeply intimate. Not even a holiday, actually.