Entertainment for Stalin's successors

Let me say something too, because I cannot tolerate this any more.

May 9 is the day when the Kremlin and Minsk celebrate Stalin's victory over people, not the victory of people in the war.

Why do we have this bacchanalia 70 years after the Victory? This day has never been celebrated in such a way before. So hysterically. This is not because it's the 70th anniversary. This is not because fascism was defeated. This is because an acute need for the celebration of the victory of Stalinism arose. It is the triumphal victory, judging by recent news from Russia and Belarus, where monuments to Stalin are being installed, his military “genius” and “talent” of a manager are being praised and newspapers with his portraits are being printed.

Putin and Lukashenka, or remnants as “comrade Stalin” would have called them, celebrate their unbelievable luck and victory over their nations. Why do these two have the strongest hysterics about Victory Day?

It is not only because they want to privatise it. It is also because they want to glorify their idol, who declared himself the winner in the war, their father and teacher Joseph Stalin, a tyrant who destroyed millions of people in the country he ruled with repression and fear. They want the same obedience from their nations and the same fear in the countries where they accidentally took the highest posts.

Expensive military parades with ridiculous ribbons, mock veterans and tanks will be held in Moscow and Minsk on May 9. What for? Only to entertain Stalin's successors – Putin and Lukashenka.

To rattle their sabre before the eyes of free Europe, to threaten Ukraine that decided to return to free Europe. None free people will participate or watch these parades. It is crucially important for Stalinists. According to them, it was the war not for freedom but for the victory of Stalin's totalitarianism.

Free people run today to Germany that condemned Nazism and repented. They will be in Europe, from Westerplatte to all European capitals.

From long ago, probably since my school years, when I began to learn the truth about the war, I marked May 8 as the Day of Victory over fascism and May 9 as the date accepted by the Soviet people. People deserve this holiday despite manipulations with dates organised by Stalin's authorities that didn't want to celebrate the victory together with Europe.

It annoys me that Lukashenka, Stalin's successor, steals this event from people in my country. But it doesn't change my attitude to this day. I have people to remember, people to commemorate and people to bow to.

I don't have a place for remnants and their mock bikers in my memory. But I always remember the boys of Pointe du Hoc and the guys who organised the Asipovichy sabotage act. I always remember my Belarus that defeated fascism.

I know firmly that both days (May 8 and 9) will merge together and we will celebrate May 8, because that war was “for our freedom and yours”.

Andrei Sannikov, leader of European Belarus civil campaign