Why Victory Day is ours and only ours

On May 9, as usual, along with more than appropriate publications on the next anniversary of the Great Victory, dedicated to the feat accomplished by the Soviet people and the colossal sacrifices that were brought by them on the altar of saving mankind from the horrific evil of Nazism, they will certainly appear in the Russian - in the foreign) information space, performances of a completely different kind.

One of the most beloved topics of those who raise their hand to sacred is the question that the celebration of Victory Day in Moscow in recent years has been gathering fewer and fewer "foreign guests" from among our alleged "allies" in that war. Hence, far-reaching conclusions are drawn - regarding the "international isolation of Russia", reaching the point that "representatives of the world community" no longer wish to share with it the celebrations, which are undoubtedly the main and most significant for our country. And here the question arises: "Should we share our Victory Day with anyone at all ?!" Is there even the slightest reason for this? And isn't it time, finally, to put an end to this question, in order to once and for all deprive the slanderers and provocateurs of the reasons for slander?

Victory has a thousand fathers ...

The most diplomatically and restrained such conversations can be called a drop of poison, which quite certain individuals and forces simply cannot but try to pour into the minds and hearts of our compatriots on this truly national holiday. However, Vladimir Putin, without daring, called such attempts "disgusting speculations on the Victory" and you can't put it better here. According to available information, a bill has already been submitted to the State Duma introducing a ban on denying the decisive role of the Soviet Union in the victory over Nazi Germany. Well, better later than never.

However, in order to understand all the justice and necessity of this decision, first it is necessary to get rid of a whole heap of historical myths and absurdities heaped up in the public consciousness. Including, alas, and the efforts of quite conscientious domestic historians and cultural figures, primarily of the Soviet period. And, first of all, to abandon the postulate that the Great Patriotic War was a confrontation between the USSR and Nazi Germany, instilled in us, as they say, "from a young age". Well, or if we take a little broader - the states that were part of the Anti-Hitler coalition and the "Axis countries - that is, the satellites of the Third Reich." Until the bitter and shameful truth about who really was whose ally and comrade-in-arms in that great war is announced to the whole world, we will continue to wander in the labyrinth of mossy clichés and delusions, beneficial, in the first place, enemies of our country. We are already paying too much for our adherence to this “historical rubbish” - it’s time, perhaps, to get rid of it completely.

It is thanks to the extremely primitive perception of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War, squeezing them into squalid schemes reaching the childish "ours against the Germans" in the West today they are trying to turn things around in such a way that it is Europe "not sparing itself fought against the Nazi hordes", and the Soviet Union all this time he was almost an ally of the Nazis, concluding all sorts of "Ribbentrop-Molotov pacts" and only then, having severely paid for his own mistakes, was forced to enter the war with the Third Reich. And if so, then both of these states can easily be “put on the same level”, turning them into the culprits of the Second World War and deleting from the number of its winners. Well, rightfully so - it was necessary to listen favorably to tales about the "allies", "the role of the Second Front", the European "resistance" and "anti-fascists" longer, and even support them in every possible way. Only now are we coming to finally truly and objectively assess all these things. Well, let's get down to it ...


First of all, let's talk about the Coalition. At the time of its creation, the anti-Hitler bloc included 26 states. They actually fought against the Third Reich ... two of them: the USSR and Great Britain! Yes, the Coalition also included the United States, China, British dominions (such as India, Australia, New Zealand and others), a number of countries in Africa and South America ... However, by the end of World War II, the Germans were “opposed” (that is, they officially declared war on Germany ) already 53 countries! Where did so much come from? Everything is very simple - its yesterday's allies, such as Finland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and even Italy, turned against the Third Reich. Will we class them as "victors of Nazism" and invite them to the parade ?! The phrase "Victory has a thousand fathers and only defeat is always an orphan" is attributed to US President John F. Kennedy, but something similar was uttered by Tacitus in the days of Ancient Rome. People do not change…

The real war began in Russia

Talking about "desperate resistance to the Nazis", European historians simply lie without blushing. Only Norway, with which the Wehrmacht had spent two months before its final surrender, tried to depict something more or less similar to that. However, this was solely due to the fact that the British intervened there and due to the geographical specifics of this northern country. The main "forces" of the Norwegian army, according to the objective assessment of historians, the Wehrmacht defeated in 24 hours ... France "held out" for a month, which, given the presence of its strongest armed forces on the continent at that time, was generally a sheer disgrace. There is no need to talk about the rest of the "warriors": Poland was defeated in 27 days, Greece surrendered in 24 days, Yugoslavia - in 11. And these are the "champions". The Belgians "resisted" the invasion for 8 days, the Dutch - 7. Luxembourg surrendered in a day, Denmark "fought" for 6 hours ... Well, there were also Czechs who did not even rock the boat in front of Hitler.

Border outposts of the USSR, the suppression of which in "Barbarossa" was allotted 40 minutes, held out some for weeks, and some even for months. That is, longer than entire European countries. Yes, the Wehrmacht suffered losses during all the above operations. However, what were they? We can glean the exact figures from the statistics kept by the Central Bureau for Recording the Losses of the Armed Forces, which operated under the General Staff of the Supreme High Command of the German Armed Forces. The entire "war" in Europe, from the first to the last shot, cost the Wehrmacht and the SS 94 thousand killed, 143 thousand wounded and 24 thousand missing.

For comparison - on the very first day of the Great Patriotic War, the irrecoverable losses of the invaders amounted to 23 thousand people! Less than a month after the start of hostilities against the USSR - by mid-July 1941, this figure was already estimated at 100 thousand. The flow of coffins from the East to the Third Reich was so powerful and inexhaustible that Adolf Hitler himself, speaking in the Reichstag in December 1941, was forced to admit that during the war with the Soviet Union, the German army only lost more than 162 thousand people killed. Together with the wounded and missing, the figure reached more than 767 thousand people. Two digressions should be made here. First, the vast majority of both the then military experts and historians at a later time considered these data to be godlessly underestimated (the Americans argued that during this period only the number of killed Nazis exceeded 1 people). Secondly, the Fuhrer, without a doubt, in his speech only mentioned "true Aryans", and it was not only they who attacked our Motherland, which will be discussed in detail below.

According to somewhat more accurate data, the German ground forces operating on the Eastern Front had already lost about 1942% of their personnel by the beginning of August 45. And one more thing ... No matter how many Germans died during the occupation of European countries before the invasion of the USSR, the ranks of the Wehrmacht and the SS were more than replenished with residents of these very countries! A specific comparison - according to the previously mentioned Central Bureau, in the process of the capture of France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg, as well as the defeat of the British Expeditionary Force, German troops lost more than 45 thousand people killed. So - after the end of the Great Patriotic War, there were in Soviet captivity: the French - more than 23 thousand, the Dutch - more than 4.7 thousand, the Belgians - more than 2 thousand, the Luxembourgers - more than 1600. But these are only prisoners!

"Allies" and "Sufferers"

Together with Nazi Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania also declared war on the Soviet Union in June 1941. Slovakia, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Croatia, Spain officially opposed us. Their warriors trampled our land, burned, killed, plundered. And then this audience "smoothly moved" to the camp of "those who fought against the Third Reich", quickly declaring war on the already dying Nazi reptile, literally in the last days of its vile existence. There were also those who did not officially oppose the Soviet Union. Subsequently, they moaned very loudly (and moan to this day) about the “horrors of Hitler’s occupation”, and some of these countries, like France, also managed to “cling to” the victors. But what about the fact that all these "non-combatants" most diligently provided, supplied and paid for the Wehrmacht's campaign to the East, thereby, albeit indirectly, bearing responsibility for the bloody crimes that the invaders committed on Soviet soil, in the destruction of our cities and sat down, killing Soviet people ?! This topic is huge and, unfortunately, is still extremely sparsely covered. I will try to limit myself to the most specific figures in order to give the fullest possible picture of the contribution of "united Europe" to the Nazi atrocities.

Closing the topic of personal participation in the campaign against the USSR by the allies of the Third Reich, let me remind you that on June 22, 1941, every fifth soldier who invaded our land was not a German. By the second month of the war, the number of German allied troops on the Eastern Front had increased to 30%. However, with regard to the armament and material and technical equipment of the invading army, there are much more eloquent data. One weapon, without any problems captured by the Wehrmacht in Europe "on the march", would be enough to equip 200 divisions! In particular, we are talking about the armament of 92 French divisions, 30 Czech, 22 Belgian.

However, this is only what the Germans got safe and sound in warehouses and arsenals, which no one thought to blow up or destroy in any other way (material values ​​after all). And what about those millions of weapons, equipment, ammunition and equipment, which literally all of Europe was assiduously and diligently stamping for Hitler? 90 Wehrmacht divisions traveled exclusively in foreign vehicles. Only the Czech Republic and France replenished the armored hordes with 10 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns. Hundreds of enterprises in France, Belgium, Holland, Czech Republic, Austria and other countries plowed without a breath for "Great Germany" and its army. Raw materials from many states, including those considered "neutral", were flowing to them.

The Center for Military economics As of the spring of 1944, the contribution of the Third Reich directly to it by all European countries amounted to more than 81 billion Reichsmarks! Only the Czech Republic "went to great lengths" on military supplies, estimated at almost 14 billion Reichsmarks. The number of foreign workers who worked in purely military enterprises for the benefit of the Reich at the time of the attack on the USSR exceeded 3 million people. "Occupied" and "resisting" France conscientiously "unfastened" 20-25 million Reichsmarks for the maintenance of their own occupiers every day! There are many more figures and statistics of this kind. However, what has been said above is more than enough to draw a conclusion - the Great Patriotic War, and the Second World War, was also won by the Soviet Union. The Soviet people won in it! And the point ...

This is our Victory Day - and only ours. Joyful, bitter, unique and the most important Day. It is in our veins that the blood of real winners flows, and it would be blasphemy to “share” with someone our pride and the glory of our ancestors. Especially when we are talking about representatives of those countries who, by and large, should have communicated with our people only in the form of repentance. Only the same can be said about the former "fraternal republics", where today the feat of the Great Patriotic War soldiers at the official level is consigned to oblivion and trampling. We are obliged to preserve our Memory and the Victory of our glorious ancestors for centuries - but untainted by those who have never had and have nothing to do with it.

Happy Victory Day!