Moscow Victory Day parade, 2020. Photo courtesy the Kremlin/Wikimedia Commons.

On May 9, Russians will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, or as they call it the “Great Patriotic War.” Leaders from around the world will attend the celebrations in Red Square, although Western politicians will be notably absent. Congratulating the Russians on their military victories is not something that many in the West are nowadays willing to do.

The original “Patriotic War” was that fought by Russia against France in 1812. The name reflected the belief that Napoleon’s defeat was a product of the general efforts of the entirety of the Russian population, who had demonstrated their patriotism by bitterly resisting the French invaders. Likewise, the title “Great Patriotic War” is highly significant. While the Communist Party and its leader Joseph Stalin liked to take credit for leading the Soviet people to victory over Nazi Germany, they had to admit that this was not something that they were able to do alone.

Thus in his victory speech of May 9, 1945, Stalin spoke of “the great sacrifices we made in the name of the freedom and independence of our Motherland, the incalculable privations and sufferings experienced by our people in the course of the war, the intense work in the rear and at the front… I congratulate you upon victory, my dear men and women compatriots! … Glory to our great people, the people victorious!” This was, in short, the people’s war, and likewise it was the people’s victory.

It is worth bearing this in mind in the context of widespread discussion of how the Great Patriot War has become a central element of state ideology under current Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and of how Putin has it to justify the war in Ukraine. For example, political........

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