Whose birch?

20 years after Ukraine, Russia awarded the title of the hero to a participant in the assault on the Reichstag Alexei Berest. We tell you what battles go on the historical front

On July 17, Vladimir Putin awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumous) to Alexei Berest, the Lieutenant of the Red Army, who commanded that the Reichstag took and put the victory banner at him.

On August 12, Putin’s assistant Vladimir Medinsky handed the medal “Golden Star of Hero of Russia” to the grandson of Berest. The ceremony was held at a military museum in Moscow. On August 14, the grandson with the grandfather’s award was solemnly met in Rostov. The memory of the participant in the assault on the Reichstag was promised to perpetuate the glory of the Victory Museum in Poklonnaya Gora. At the same time, in Russia they tried not to remember that Berest is a native of Ukraine and already has the title of Hero of Ukraine. He is the only person to whom the hero’s gold stars are assigned, both Ukraine and Russia.

Holodomor, UPA and Soviet heroes in one bottle

In 1999, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation tried to introduce birch bark to the title of the Hero of the Russian Federation posthumously, but in the end the government did not support : the Beresta Beresta was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for the assault, and was not awarded twice in one feat.

However, Berest was recalled by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. On May 6, 2005, “For a fighting courage in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, personal courage and heroism manifested in the Berlin operation and establishing the Banner of Victory over the Reichstag” a decree of the President of Ukraine Alexei Beresta was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine with awarding the Order of the Golden Star (posthumous). Unusual formulations about the "Great Patriotic War" and "Banner of Victory" in today's Ukraine, although the decree is still valid.

Yushchenko was the first of the Ukrainian presidents to begin to pursue a systemic historical policy, taking a memory policy in Poland and the Baltic countries as a sample and maintaining the condemnation of the USSR communism and policy. Under him, the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory was created; A law that announced the Holodomor 1932–1933 adopted. genocide of the Ukrainian people; In Pechersk, a magnificent memorial complex of the Holodomor-Genocide museum in the form of a candle was built over the Dnieper, and a monument to a girl with spikelets was installed in front of it, called the “bitter memory of childhood”.

It is symbolic that the main place of perpetuating the memory of the Soviet crime of the Holodomor was the space between two memorial objects, which were considered not entirely Ukrainian-the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (then partially controlled by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate) and the Soviet monument of eternal glory on the grave of an unknown soldier. Thus, the Pechersk landscape seemed to Ukrainized with the landscape. At the end of his presidency, having already lost the first round of elections, Yushchenko scandalously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to the leader of the revolutionary faction of the organization of Ukrainian nationalists (OUN) Stepan Bandera, which caused condemnation even in the European Parliament and helped Viktor Yanukovych.

Why did Yushchenko, who raised anti -communism on the shield of historical policy, heroized Alexei Berest? Probably, the answer should be sought in the family history of the Third President of Ukraine. His father, Andrei Yushchenko, was a Red Army soldier, prisoner of war, a prisoner of Nazi concentration camps, and after the war he collaborated with the OUN. In the historical worldview of Yushchenko himself, the heroism of Soviet soldiers, crimes of Nazism and Stalinism and the struggle of the nationalist movement coexisted. No wonder he repeatedly, although unsuccessfully, tried to publicly reconcile veterans of the Red Army and the Ukrainian rebel army (UPA).

Of great importance for Yushchenko was the fact that Berest was his fellow countryman, a native of the present Sumy region (this was even specially emphasized in the decree).

In addition, in the early 2000s, many Soviet veterans remained alive, the organization of veterans of Ukraine, headed by Army General Ivan Gerasimov, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine from the times of Vladimir Shcherbitsky and the People’s Deputy of Ukraine, was influential. Yushchenko, like his predecessors, tried to listen to the opinion of veterans and General Gerasimov.

Therefore, based on his historical policy on anti -communism and memory of Soviet crimes, the third president of Ukraine could not do without mentioning the heroism of Ukrainians as part of the Red Army and awarding veterans. In 2005, the title of Hero of Ukraine was awarded not only Berest, but also Anatoly Movoenko (1915–2012), a participant in the war, the chairman of the Nikolaev regional organization of veterans of Ukraine.

In 2006, immediately three participants in the fight against Nazism received the title of Hero of Ukraine posthumously: machine gunner Mikhail Vasilishin (1910–1945) “For personal courage and heroism manifested during the force of the river. Obser in the Visl-Oder Operation of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 ”; The executed Gestapo Kiev underground Tatyana Marcus (1921–1943), in 2009, a monument was erected on the territory of Babyeu Yar; Anatoly Shapiro (1913–2005), commander of a separate rifle battalion of the 100th Infantry Division, participant in the liberation of the Aushwitz concentration camp on January 27, 1945. In 2007, the Golden Star of the Hero of Ukraine was awarded to General Kuzma Derevyanko (1904–1954), a Ukrainian who signed an act of surrender of Japan.

In 2008, General Gerasimov died, and Yushchenko no longer awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to the Second World War and fighters with Nazism. On the occasion of his death, the couple Yushchenko expressed condolences with the following words: “A man and honor left us. The life path of Ivan Alexandrovich - the defender of the Motherland, the military leader, the public figure - was full of deep love for his native land, hard work for its prosperity. "

Unjustly offended Ukrainian

But not only the birth in Sumy, the need for compensation - a kind of memorial anesthesia for living veterans of the Red Army after the heroization of the OUN and UPA - and respect for General Gerasimov determined the decision of Viktor Yushchenko to award Alexei Beresta. Obviously, the role was played by the fact that the hero’s life path was an illustration of injustice in the Soviet system.

The birch bark family suffered from the Holodomor of 1932-1933. Parents and seven of his sixteen brothers and sisters did not survive this terrible tragedy. And the teenager was on the street, homeless, then got into the orphanage.

And in the subsequent life of Berest, there was a lot of injustice. It is not known exactly why he was deleted from the list to confer the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The most popular version: Marshal Zhukov did not like political workers and therefore deleted his last name.

In 1948, birch bark was subjected to the then practice - to the “court of honor”, ​​which was accused of binary and abuse of alcohol with subordinates. Dismissed from the army, he moved to the homeland of a new wife to the Rostov region, where he worked as deputy director of machine-tractor stations, then headed the filmmaking department of the Neklinovsky district. In April 1953 he was convicted for 10 years for theft, but he was soon amnestied. In Rostov, the served punishment was taken only by a loader at the factory.

Throughout his life, he had a heavily experienced resentment and lack of demand in the post -war life. And the death of birch bark became a combination of heroism and tragedy, like his whole life. On November 3, 1970, he saved the girl from under the wheels of the train, but he clung to his trousers for the composition.

Unjustly offended Ukrainian was returned to the Pantheon of the heroes of the nation by the “real Ukrainian president” - unlike predecessors, the first to be completely independent of Moscow. Such an image was created by Viktor Yushchenko his supporters.

On a par with the participants "

Officially, the Russian authorities did not react to the heroization of birch bark in Ukraine. Although, according to the Russian media reports, Yushchenko refused the request to reburial Berest’s dust to the alley of fame in Kyiv. The relatives living in Rostov (widow, son, daughter, grandchildren) were categorically opposed). “I believe that someone now needed political dividends,” said the 80-year-old widow of the hero Lyudmila Berest. - Relatives, cadets of the police school, students of school No. 7, named after his name, take care of his grave at the Rostov cemetery. We will not let him turn his dust! " In Ukraine, this initiative was not publicly discussed.

After a full -scale invasion of Russian troops in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the history of the Second World War literally came to life before our eyes, and the warring parties began to use the history of that war.

Russian propaganda initially considered “Switch” as a continuation of the Great Patriotic War against the “Ukrainian Nazis”. In a speech on Victory Day in Moscow in May 2022, Putin told Russian soldiers that they “defend what fathers and grandfathers, great -grandfathers fought for”, that is, for the homeland and defeat of Nazism. In Moscow, the Victory Museum opened the wall of the Heroes "Switch". At the foot of Mamaev Kurgan in Volgograd will be built a monument to the participants " 2025 was declared in Russia the year of the defender of the Fatherland in honor of the winners over the Nazism and participants in the war against Ukraine.

Of course, Nazi Ukraine cannot have “our heroes”. Therefore, in the same speech, Putin mentioned that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation “fight on their land”, “where the heroes of the Great Patriotic War - Nikolai Vatutin, Sidor Kovpak, Lyudmila Pavlichenko stood to death.” Ukrainians Kovpak and Pavlichenko, who expelled the Nazis from Kyiv and who died at the hands of the UPA Vatutin can not have anything to do with “Nazi Ukraine”.

According to Putin, these are “ours”, Russian heroes, for the USSR is Russia. And since the USSR fought against the Nazis, all opponents of Russia are automatically enrolled in the Nazis.

Soon they also remembered the birch bark. On November 3, 2022, a rally of his memory took place in Rostov-on-Don. The event was held at the site near the Selmash station, where Berest received fatal injuries, saving the child from under the wheels of an approaching train. But the case of the hero star reached only in 2025.

The purpose of the idea was revealed in his post on the day of the presentation of the award Medinsky: “Istor. Justice is restored ... now A. Berest is on a par with the heroes of Svo. "

Ukraine refuses its heroes?

There is an opinion that Russia has successes in assigning a victory in the Second World War, including thanks to Ukrainian historical policy aimed at oblivion of all the common pages of the past two countries, including Ukrainians - heroes of the Second World War as part of the Red Army and fighters with Nazism.

At the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022, the Ukrainian authorities used the memory of the Second World War to mobilize resistance. On May 9, 2022, Vladimir Zelensky said : “Our enemy dreamed that we refused to celebrate on May 9 and the victory over Nazism,” but “We will not let anyone annex this victory, we will not let it assign it.” The President returned the Soviet name “Hero City” and appropriated it to ten cities that suffered from the Russian army, including Buch and Mariupol. And on social networks, not only the song about the "dad" Bandera was flooded, but also the modernized Ukrainian translation of Nikolai (Mykola) Bazhan "Holy War":

*Get up, Core proud,

Get up, Tvi Twobiy!

The Kremlin is the same orc.

Z rachists on biy!*

*Hatred is noble

Nay hvili zrina,

Ida Viina Narodnaya,

Sacred by Viina.*

However, gradually in Kyiv a different point of view prevailed, which identified Russian troops with the Red Army. The writer Andrei Kokotukha said that the expulsion of the Nazis is a repeated occupation: “The invader changed the invader. Alien against the predator. "

The publicist Mikhail Dubinyansky believes that Hitler and Stalin are officially considered in Ukraine as two equally cruel dictators; Like two equivalent sources of evil. But in fact, a different approach begins to practice. The Stalinist USSR is often perceived as the main evil of the twentieth century, against whose background the Nazi third Reich looks a secondary evil. The reasons are that “with the Third Reich, modern Russia can only be compared by drawing parallels between Hitler and Putin. But the Soviet Union is considered a direct predecessor of modern Russia; An earlier embodiment of the same Empire of Evil. In other words, the Third Reich is an abstract evil that remained only on the pages of books and films about a distant war. And the Soviet Union, which adopted the guise of the Russian Federation, is an evil that continues to kill Ukrainians and therefore more dangerous and terrible. ”

As a result of the identification of the USSR and Russia, an revision of the past is unfolding . And in the new coordinate system, it is possible to glorify the warriors of the SS division “Galicia” and the persons who collaborate with Germany, and the Soviet heroes of the war are subject to deglorification: the monuments erected in their honor are dismantled, and the urbanonyms dedicated to them are renamed.

The authorities supported the spontaneous process of destroying monuments related to Russia and the USSR that began in the spring of 2022, which were declared markers of colonial Russian domination in Ukraine. In December 2024, in the center of Kiev in the Park of Eternal Glory, busts were dismantled to Ukrainians: partisan commanders Sidor Kovpak and Alexei Fedorov, the younger general of the army Ivan Chernyakhovsky, who died at the age of 37, Marshal of armored troops Pavel Rybalko. Although they were all established after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In 2024, the objects of toponymy were renamed, named not only in honor of the Ukrainian Soviet commanders and partisan commanders, but also ordinary participants in the war, ordinary soldiers, partisans and underground. The hands of Ukrainian iconoclasts have not yet reached Alexei Berest. Only in the city of Rozhishch, Volyn region, Beresta Street was given a new name - in honor of the deceased fighter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Vyacheslav Zenets. But in Shostka of the Sumy region, in honor of the hero of the assault on the Reichstag, they renamed the street of the Soviet playwright Alexander Korniychuk. The streets and lanes of birch bark are preserved in Kyiv (in 2015, as part of the decommunization, the former Krylenko Street was named in his honor), Vinnitsa, Krivoy Rog, Sumy, Kremenchug, Khmelnitsky and other settlements. So far, there are no initiatives to demolish the monument to Alexei Berest, solemnly opened in August 2005 in the city of Akhtyrkoy, Sumy region.

To date, birch bark and a well-known pilot of World War II, Ukrainian Ivan Kozhedub remain the only participants in the Second World War as part of the Red Army, widely immortalized on the toponymic map of Ukraine.

For a long time, time will tell. But since 2022, in his appeals to the Day of Victory over Nazism, Vladimir Zelensky no longer mentions the name of Alexei Berest. In appeals on May 9 , 2020 and 2021 , his name was called along with other Ukrainians - participants in the Second World War on the side of the countries of the anti -Hitler coalition: those whom Ukraine can and should be proud and which "inspire the modern generation of Ukrainian defenders."

The assignment of the title of Hero of Russia remained almost unnoticed in Ukraine. Only the MP Maxim Buzhansky, who occupies the position of the dissident on historical policy, but completely loyal to President Vladimir Zelensky and the head of his office, Andrei Yermak on other issues, reacted acutely. Buzhansky wrote that Russia "raider" Ukrainian history, "taking away from it the victory in the Second World War." And at the same time, he criticized Lviv’s city head Andrei Sadovoy, calling him Putin’s ally for the destruction of Soviet necropolises on the hill of Glory and the Lychakovsky cemetery, as well as the proposal to exchange the bodies of the intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov, Major Stepin Putin (whose entire guilt before the Lviv authorities lies in the “unsuccessful” surname) and other Soviet soldiers.

Ukrainian authorities are trying to rectify the situation

In January, in Ukraine, discussions were updated about the attitude to the Second World War and the contribution of Ukrainians to victory. This was facilitated by the external factor: the desire of the Russian authorities to appropriate and minimize the contribution of other Soviet republics, as well as statements by US President Donald Trump, which Russia helped to win in the Second World War, but at the same time lost 60 million people (he kept silent about the deposits and losses of other republics).

Народный депутат София Федина (фракция «Европейская солидарность») написала , что накануне 80-летия освобождения узников Аушвица нужно напоминать миру, что первыми в ворота концлагеря, разрушив их, въехали на своем танке уроженцы Украины Игорь Побирченко и Анатолий Шапиро. Депутат Максим Бужанский ответил , что такие люди, как Федина и ее партия, «глумились над памятью собственных военачальников и бойцов, сносили памятники Ковпаку, Черняховскому, Малиновскому, Лелюшенко и Рыбалко, просто унижали и уничтожали свою историю, причем историю своих побед, сломали монументы победителям нацизма по всей стране, следа не оставили». Обвиняли таких же советских солдат и офицеров, как Побирченко и Шапиро, в «оккупации Украины». А потом «захотели свою долю пирога побед, внимания и успехов, и побежали устраивать флешмобы, как пишет София Федина — исправлять очень важный аспект давно проигранной информационной войны».

В ответ на заявления Трампа народный депутат и экс-глава Украинского института национальной памяти (УИНП) Владимир Вятрович написал , что «искаженная оптика, через которую погибшие в борьбе с нацистами во Второй мировой украинцы становятся русскими, не дает возможности правильно видеть российскую агрессию и останавливать ее сейчас». «Если не отстоим место для украинцев в прошлом, можем исчезнуть в будущем», — резюмировал политик.

Однако многие украинские эксперты и комментаторы в социальных сетях обвинили в сложившейся ситуации акторов нынешней исторической политики. «У наших фанов “Нахтигаля” ( воинское подразделение, созданное органом военной разведки и контрразведки Германии — абвером — из украинских националистов для войны против СССР. — Прим. авт. ) сразу стало подгорать, почему [Трамп] не вспомнил Украину. Так вы ж сами вычеркнули Украину из лагеря победителей во Второй Мировой войне. Нельзя ж орать об особой роли дивизии СС “Галичина” в борьбе с Советами и возмущаться, что Трамп не заметил вклад Украины в победу антигитлеровской коалиции. Тут надо или признать, что у нас был такой этап в истории со всеми его минусами и плюсами, или перестать делать удивленные глаза, что нас нет на карте мировой истории. Так мы ж сами 20 лет себя оттуда выпиливали… Проспект Шухевича закономерно приводит на конечную остановку “Вас не было в Ялте и Потсдаме”», — написал политолог Юрий Романенко.

27 февраля группа «Глобальная Украина» обнародовала обращение ученых, политиков и общественных деятелей «К 80-летию победы над нацизмом». В нём, в частности, критикуется игнорирование подвигов украинцев в составе Красной армии, а также требование некоторых иконоборцев ликвидировать все военные памятники, что «лишает Украину роли в победе над нацизмом, отдавая все лавры России».

Подписанты, среди которых историки Ярослав Грицак и Геннадий Боряк, экс-главы УИНП Владимир Вятрович и Антон Дробович, глава фракции «Слуга народа» в Верховной Раде Украины Давид Арахамия, руководители университетов, ученые, политики и общественные деятели, также отвергли притязания России на монополизацию победы.

«ИСТОРИЧЕСКИЕ ФАКТЫ СВИДЕТЕЛЬСТВУЮТ:
— немецкий нацизм победила не Россия, а народы СССР, среди которых украинскому народу принадлежит выдающееся место, а также западные союзники;

— главные человеческие и материальные потери в той войне понесли не Россия или Германия, а оказавшиеся между Берлином и Москвой страны и народы, прежде всего Украина и ее жители;

— больше всего коллаборационистов с нацистами дала именно Россия: через армию Власова и другие коллаборационные отряды прошли до 800 тысяч человек;

— сталинский советский режим сыграл важную роль в победе над гитлеровским немецким нацизмом, но оккупировал Центральную Европу, и его военные преступления в Европе никогда не были осуждены;

— нынешняя Россия как наследница преступного советского режима использует те же методы агрессивной внешней политики: прямая военная агрессия, тайные операции и террористические акты, вмешательство во внутриполитические процессы, поддержка крайних левых и крайне правых “пятых колонн” и т. п.; войны в Грузии и Украине являются следствием терпения этой политики.

Призываем украинское общество и государство принять такое видение и активно распространять его через все возможные каналы западных обществ. Профессиональные дискуссии и публикации, выставки и другие события, уличные акции и дипломатические саммиты в ближайшие месяцы должны утвердить роль украинского народа как одного из победителей нацизма и противостоять российской пропаганде», — говорилось в обращении.

Однако это заявление осталось почти незамеченным в Украине и не прекратило войну с памятниками участникам Второй мировой войны. К тому же многие подписанты лично причастны к политике декоммунизации и деколонизации, приведших к ситуации, которая угрожает Украине исключением из условного клуба стран-победительниц во Второй мировой войне и помогает России приватизировать победу над нацизмом.

Украинские власти видят проблему и стараются ее исправить. Накануне 80-летия победы над нацизмом глава Офиса Президента Украины Андрей Ермак в ответ на утверждения об исключительном вкладе России в победу выдвинул концепт «Украина — кровь и хребет советского фронта». В своем телеграм-канале чиновник написал , что «без помощи США, без устойчивости украинского фронта и без стратегического давления со стороны Британии победа во Второй мировой войне для СССР была вообще недостижима, и она произошла бы исключительно благодаря усилиям союзников, которым пришлось бы освобождать от гитлеровцев оккупированные части Советского Союза».

8 мая Ермак продолжил троллинг российских властей. «В этот день памяти и победы над нацизмом хочу еще раз написать, что наибольший вклад в уничтожение Гитлера сделали украинский народ, США, Великобритания и другие союзники. Москва была бы оккупирована и уничтожена...

Без США у Москвы не было бы ресурсов. Без Украины — не было бы армии. Без Британии — Гитлер не отвлекался бы на Запад. Миф о “самостоятельной победе СССР” и русских — это политическая конструкция, созданная для утверждения поствоенного гегемонизма Москвы», — написал глава Офиса президента Украины.

Комитет Верховной Рады Украины по вопросам гуманитарной и информационной политики вместе с Национальным музеем истории Украины во Второй мировой войне инициировал информационную кампанию «Наша Победа: Украина во Второй мировой войне». Ее цель — напомнить об основных событиях, фактах и итогах войны для Украины, акцентировать внимание на значимости вклада украинского народа в победу над нацизмом и ее высокой цене. На территории музея была зажжена чаша «Огонь Славы», которую не использовали несколько лет, состоялась презентация выставочного проекта «Наша Победа».

В нынешнем году украинские власти в публичных высказываниях старались избегать уравнивания нацизма и коммунизма и подчеркивать вклад украинского народа в победу, его потери и страдания. Однако из практически всех высказываний власть имущих вытекало, что сама по себе победа над нацизмом интересна им только в контексте нынешней войны с Россией и опровержения претензий последней на исключительный вклад в разгром гитлеризма. Никто из них в этот день не поделился своей семейной историей, не рассказал о родных и близких, воевавших против нацизма в составе Красной армии, боровшихся в партизанских отрядах или подполье, трудившихся в тылу… Власти старались избегать упоминаний Красной армии, ее полководцев и партизанских командиров-украинцев и даже рядовых героев, в том числе и Алексея Береста.

Принятый 21 августа закон Украины «Об основах государственной политики национальной памяти Украинского народа» требует удалить всю советскую символику (в том числе изображения советских орденов и медалей) с мест памяти Второй мировой войны, включая места захоронения красноармейцев. Это недальновидное решение станет очередным поводом для российской пропаганды обвинять Украину в «нацизме» и присваивать героев-украинцев, чтобы поставить их в один ряд с «героями СВО».