MOSCOW, May 9 (Victor Litovkin, RIA Novosti military commentator) - What I want to describe defies words-you ought to see it, live or at least televised.
The 60th V-E anniversary parade filled vast Red Square chockfull. The stalls gathered VIP visitors from the world over-among them delegates of more than fifty countries, of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Union, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and other topmost international organizations. All guests rose as one man to greet Great Patriotic War veterans as they appeared. The hearty applause was what even the brightest stars hardly ever had-it lasted long, and deafened the engine roar of parading military vehicles and the thunder of brass bands.
Blushing with the unaccustomed honors, the surviving veterans were following along the stalls, all across the huge square, in wartime army trucks. Not only the parade gathering but the whole wide world was bowing to the valor of Soviet people of whatever ethnic backgrounds-officers, soldiers of the ranks, war effort toilers of the rear, and guerrillas who fought in Russia or in other countries' Resistance-all who, together with their Allied comrades-in-arms, saved their country and the world from nazism, that monstrous evil, with its most formidable army of the 20th century.
There were top-notch dignitaries among the Red Square guests-US President George W. Bush, President Jacques Chirac of France, Gerhard Schroeder, Germany's Federal Chancellor, Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, President Moshe Katzav of Israel, and a great many leaders of other countries, some thoroughly democratic, others less so. No one of all those VIPs appeared to care the least of the Lenin Mausoleum just behind their back, and the graves of Joseph Stalin and other communist bigwigs arranged along the Kremlin wall nearby.
There are days when, as during World War II, all antagonisms and ideological differences recede far into the background, ousted by a life-and-death cause. The world was to clean itself of the nazi plague in the 1940s. Today, it is to put an end to international terrorism and mass destruction weaponry proliferated. This is a sacred day, when we all commemorate victory over nazism. We are bowing to WWII veterans, our fathers and grandfathers, dead and surviving-the people who won liberty and independence for their countries, promoted the collapse of the global colonial system, and gave the entire human race a chance to vanquish poverty and undernourishment, and to make free progress. The world has yet a long long road to travel to those sublime goals.
As we follow that road, we ought never to forget that if nazism, with its man-hating ideology and practice, had won the war, none in the whole wide world-be it Russia, the USA, the UK, China, Japan or Germany, or any other country-would have the slightest opportunity to make any such progress.
Russian soldiers routed a formidable war machine-600 divisions of Germany and its satellites, and 75 per cent of all enemy war technologies engaged in the entire WWII theatre. That was 70,000 aircraft, 50,000 tanks and assault guns, 167,000 other artillery pieces, and more than 2,500 naval vessels-warships, and transport and auxiliary ships. The Allies would never have won the war if not for their mutual assistance with manpower, arms and food. What mattered no less, the Allies demonstrated firm moral solidarity and willpower of steel that made it possible to repulse and rout the enemy.
International comradeship in arms against nazi tyranny, and overwhelming gratitude to WWII soldiers was heard in the public and VIP applause that thundered in Moscow's Red Square. Indicatively, the Russian capital was chosen as heart of V-E anniversary celebrations, though there were many deserving tentative venues-Washington, D.C., Paris, London, or Berlin, to name but few. The choice of Moscow reflected final global recognition of Russia's tremendous contribution to the Allied cause, and unprecedented sacrifice it made for a victory of a global historical purport. True, there are skeptical speculations on that point, yet they are waved aside as former antagonists make it up and cooperate for a new and sublime goal-a free democratic world.
We can only regret that certain shortsighted and inexperienced political leaders have rejected the Russian President's invitation for reasons of their own, some plausible, others mere pretexts, and failed to appear at this wonderful celebration. They have not merely missed the rare occasion to mix with top leaders of the world's foremost countries and greet victorious veterans. Willingly or unwillingly, they have joined hands with politicians whose ambitious schemes were thwarted with the triumph of the global civilized community over nazism.
Biased and shortsighted policies, an uncultivated mind, and a lack of noble feelings hit back on their carriers, who would not rise above their passing emotions and a historical inferiority complex. But let bygones be bygones-we have celebrated the V-E anniversary, and that matters most.
Soldiers of Russia's Great Patriotic War, whether they live in or outside Russia, know that they vanquished nazism, and the memory of their feat of glory is evergreen. The whole world reveres them. They received from leaders of the world's foremost countries an ovation and heartfelt gratitude for staunch and selfless valor. The veterans have lived a life of worth and dignity, and their offspring take justified pride in the fathers and grandfathers.
