Not a victorious victory: what the front-line soldiers kept silence about when they were asked about the war

It is impossible to find out what the price of this Victory really was from official reports, but it is possible from the mean stories of the front-line soldiers themselves, who would have looked at today's “celebrations” with complete misunderstanding if they had lived to see them. Why? Because they knew the truth, but this truth was so scary that they could not talk about it. The journalist Alexander Sokolov wrote about this in his blog , citing one of the most terrible evidence of what was happening in the war:

"Quarantine. Fewer people get access to official rituals and crazy performances of looters.

And this is good.

Against this background, the strained shocking of impressionable "defilers" has swelled, which it is impossible to remember the fallen on that day, and "victory around." Alas, this is also a victory, only an inversion. This is not good. :(

* * *

It happened, I know a lot about that war. In childhood, she was just nearby, with many familiar circumstances, testimonies, living and still young men and women, who lived in the front and rear. My peers had to be very unknowing, so as not to miss all this in themselves and through themselves, although there are enough of them.

My first Victory Day in Moscow was in the 66th. In May of the 65th I was with my grandmother, and they still have not received clear instructions and manuals from the Center. Yes, everything is like a movie about those days: embarrassed, life-beaten people with planks and orders, suddenly for a day in the center of attention and official celebrations. And films, books, memoirs, solemn meetings and casual conversations with veterans. One way or another, the bitter crumbs of the truth about the war could not be censored.

And for thirty years I haven’t learned anything new about this and apparently I don’t recognize it. In general, that war settled in me as part of my personal history, my history, the history of my family and people.

That’s why, probably, today's victory is not clinging to me, because I don’t want to talk about the war, as the front-line soldiers did not want at a time when the front-line soldiers were still alive. Who to talk to? who does not understand, you cannot explain to him. And who understands, those words are useless - you can just exchange a look, like, mean gesture. Only few of them remain, every year less and less.

In short, today is our day, my dears.

A day of remembrance and mournful unity of those who received grief and pain, shame and pride, victory and loss, despair and overcoming those terrible years.

And let it never happen again..."

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