WWII Victory Day: Russia Warns Against Distorting History, Calls for Soviet Deaths to Be Recognized As Genocide

By Ferdinand Olise

Russia has marked its 81st anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, noting that May 9 holds a special place not only in the historical memory of the peoples of the former Soviet Union, but also in the global political and moral calendar of humanity.Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday, at a press briefing dedicated to the 81st anniversary of the Great Patriotic War, specifically the genocide of the Soviet people, the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Nigeria, Mr. Andrey Podelyshev, said the day symbolizes the end of the most destructive and bloodiest war in history which is the Second World War, and at the same time marks the triumph over the ideology of Nazism and racial hatred.He called on the international community to formally recognise the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union during the World War II as an act of genocide.”For Russian citizens, this is not merely a day of military glory. In many ways, it is a deeply personal experience, because almost every family has its own story connected with the war: the fate of soldiers who fought on the front lines, home-front workers, prisoners of concentration camps, residents of besieged Leningrad, and children of the war.”This memory is passed down from generation to generation, shaping a responsible attitude toward our historical heritage and its objective understanding.At the same time, the significance of May 9 goes far beyond national memory.

According to Ambassador Podelyshev, the victory over Nazism became a turning point that defined the contours of the modern international order, noting that after the Second World War, the foundations of international law were laid, the United Nations was created, and the universal principles of the inadmissibility of aggression, genocide and racial discrimination were formulated.He further stated that the Victory Day is not only a day of remembrance, but also a day of responsibility for preserving the truth about those events, for preventing its distortion, and for passing historical truth on to future generations.Underscoring a particular concern of systematic destruction of memorials, he said, in Poland and the Baltic States, the demolition of monuments to Soviet liberators and victims of Nazism has become State policy. “Under the slogans of “decommunization”, the authorities are destroying memorials in places where Soviet soldiers gave their lives for the freedom of Europe. This is not merely the relocation of cultural heritage sites, but a symbolic revision of the historical role of Europe’s liberators. It is a blatant attempt to physically erase from European memory the fact that their right to life was paid for with the blood of the Red Army soldier.”Alongside the demolition of monuments, in a number of European countries pedestals are being raised for those who served the Nazis. Yesterday’s mass murderers are today presented as “freedom fighters”.We cannot remain silent when annual marches in honour of Nazi collaborators are held in the Baltic states, and when in Ukraine the cult of Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych has been elevated to the level of state ideology.”Let us call things by their names. These were militants of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, who carried out the monstrous Volhynia massacre, where thousands of peaceful Polish women and children were killed with axes and scythes.”These were the punishers of the 118th Schutzmannschaft Battalion,collaborationist police units under Nazi control, formed mainly from ethnic Ukrainians who locked up and burned alive 149 residents of Khatyn, including 75 children.

These were Ukrainian volunteers from the Nazi Galicia Division, who became “famous” not on the battlefield, but in mass killings of civilians.”Today, their heirs in Ukraine wear the same symbols, and not only at “peaceful parades”. On the side of the current Kiev regime, the notorious Azov and Aidar battalions continue to fight recognized as terrorist organizations on the territory of the Russian Federation which, even before the start of the Special Military Operation, had already distinguished themselves by their brutal crimes against civilians on the territory of Ukraine.He said that these include campaigns of violence against the people of Donbass for eight years, people who were not ready to recognize the results of the 2014 Maidan coup d’état, as well as the horrific burning of activists in the Trade Union House in Odessa on May 2, 2014. And through all this, the West pretends not to notice this renaissance of Nazism.Ambassador Podelyshev further said that modern historians have calculated how many peaceful Soviet citizens fell victim to this ruthless Nazi policy of extermination, noting that even by the most conservative estimates, based on historical facts, this number is around 14 million people. “This horrific figure exceeds that of the consequences of the Holocaust, as well as the genocide of Serbs and Roma. It is based on archival data, witness testimony and records of thousands of mass graves on territories liberated from occupation. “One of the most characteristic forms of these crimes was organized campaigns of mass killings of civilians. It has been proven that no fewer than 7.4 million peaceful Soviet citizens were deliberately killed — shot, burned, and, just think about it, buried alive.”Forced labour in concentration camps and inhuman treatment led to the agonizing deaths of another 2.2 million people among those deported for forced labour to Germany. “Mass mortality among prisoners of war was the result of a deliberate refusal to observe even the basic norms of humanitarian law.More than one million children and teenagers were placed in concentration camps. “According to the plans of the leadership of the Third Reich, most children from the USSR were to be eliminated. They became forced blood donors, biological material for monstrous experiments, child slaves and human shields during military operations.”Among the residents of occupied territories, more than 4.1 million people died prematurely. They died as a result of the general deterioration of living conditions, disease and hunger.But the figure of 13.7 million does not include all victims of the crimes of Hitler’s regime. As a result of the largest war crime in history — the Siege of Leningrad — more than one million people died. “Every year we learn new names and surnames, and we continue to refine the number of victims of that monstrous “action” carried out by the Nazis against a peaceful city.Can Soviet prisoners of war who died in Nazi camps also be considered victims of the genocide carried out by the Nazis? “Around 3.1 million Soviet prisoners of war — approximately 60 per cent of their total number — were deliberately exterminated through starvation, exhaustion and torture.” By comparison, the death rate among Allied soldiers from the United States, Britain and France who ended up in German captivity was at a completely different level — 3 to 4 per cent.”Demographers estimate the overall population loss of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War at 30 to 40 million people, according to various assessments.

We will never be able to give an exact figure, but the scale is terrifying. It is from this figure that one should begin calculating the real losses, the scale of the tragedy and the real genocide of the Soviet people.”, he said.The Ambassador therefore emphasised that preserving the memory of the Great Patriotic War is not only a duty to the past, but also a responsibility to the future, adding that the stability of tomorrow’s world depends on how consistently we defend historical truth today.