May 9- Victory Day

Living in another country carries its challenges of cross cultural understanding. One of the good ways to understand another culture is to pay attention to their festivals. In Russian the word for festival is "Праздник" (Prazdnik). There are many, many prazdniks in Russia. Not all of them are public holidays. The most popular Prazdniks are the Soviet ones. This is because they sunk deeply into the psyche of the nation throughout the 20th century. There are some new Prazdniks such as Independence Day. (Huh? Independence Day? It's strange I know, but true. Boris Yeltsin actually declared Russia independent from the USSR in 1990. This was one of the big nails in the coffin of the USSR. So Russia celebrates this as a post communist holiday.) But many of the Soviet holidays exist. May 9th is the third most important prazdnik in Russia. (December 31st is the biggest, followed by March 8th- International Women's Day: a combination of Valentines Day and Mother's Day roled into one.)

Now I do not think it is wrong to remember war and the fallen of the war. I just spent a lot of time postulating about ANZAC day and the importance that plays in Australian culture. But I do have a problem with "celebrating" it. No matter how you look at it, war is wrong. This brings up the conundrum of ethics. The term, Australian "Defence" force, could be seen as double speak- are they a defence or an attack force? This is largely up to the government of the day, but I think that Defence force is the ideal and that it is still good to have one.

26 million Russians died in World War 2. This is a terrible tragedy. World War 2 was the darkest hour that this world has known, for as long as we can remember. There is nothing to celebrate about World War 2. Yet the war in Russia is referred to as the "Great Patriotic War." Russia's "victory" in this war over Germany, continues to be glorified today. There is no overt acknowledgement of the fact that Stalin and Hitler were both evil despots and that Stalin happily threw as much human fodder as he could into the war. "Victory" was propagandised in the Soviet Union, and today it still has not lost its lustre. But how can anyone win when 26 million Russians died?

Yes it was right to fight Hitler. Churchill was a hero for taking a stand, and he did before anyone else was prepared to. But war is always the lesser of two evils. It would have been wrong for Churchill to stand idly by and do nothing. But I still think that the most "ethical" approach was Dietrich Bonhoeffer's, the plan to assasinate Hitler. This does not mean that it would have been a holy thing to kill, but the least evil of all the alternatives.

The argument that "the ends justifies the means" is always easily taken apart. Even though the end goal is right, there are many ways to get to that goal. It is therefore prudent to take the path of least evil towards the goal. In war, the most ethical approach is actually to capture the enemy, without taking life, if that is possible. If in the process of capturing the enemy self defence is necessary, then that alone is a justified, anything more is wrong. I am not naive enough to think that things are as black and white as my theory of ethics goes, but this is the ideal to attain.

If war is therefore only right under very narrow parameters, I know of no war in history where both sides are not without blame. This of course does not mean that wars such as world war 2 should never have happened, but it still means it was a dark and tragic event. Under these parameters (which I believe to be close to a sound basis of ethics- please feel free to argue), I find it abhorrent that Russia celebrates their victory in the "Great Patriotic War" with such glamour and gusto. Every Victory Day is marked by fireworks on a large scale. In my opinion, it can only be marked as a solemn event. Yes, Russia held off Hitler, and that is a good thing, but still millions died and this is a tragic thing.

Something equally as abhorrent is the fact that Stalin is viewed by many as a hero. It was Stalin who led Russia to "victory." sadly many remember him in a postive light because of this. But Stalin was possibly also the most evil tyrant in history, responsible for millions of more deaths than Hitler. He should be remembered with nothing else but disdain and disgust. It saddens me that many in Russia do not see this and that like an abuse victim, the abuser is remembered as a good man.

The day before "Victory Day" a babushka greeted Melody...
Babushka: "С праздником" (S prazdnikom- which means "have a good festival").
Melody turned around and said: "which prazdnik?"
The babushka had a look of shock and horror on her face, as if to say "how could you not know about this most important of Russian holidays?"
Melody replied, "yes I know it is Victory Day tomorrow, but which prazdnik is it today?"
The Babushka retreated: well I might not see you tomorrow, so I thought I would congratulate you today.

Never let it be estimated how important this day is to Russians. Do not under estimate how much their approach to it shocks me and I desire healing for this nation so that they could see the world through different eyes.