For several decades, Victory Day and the parade in its honor became the principal propaganda holiday of the Russian Federation. It is here that the killing of the living is justified for the sake of the memory of the dead. This year, the parade was canceled in several cities across Russia, but it was still held in Moscow. In this article, we will explore how the event went and why it seemed more like a reminder of the first major defeat.
The 29th
For the first few years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia did not hold the Victory Parade on Kremlin Square, but since 1995 the tradition has been restored. On May 9, 2023, the 29th parade took place.
This year, the event was closed to the public, so Russians could watch the military and equipment on state channels. Preparations went very quickly, plans changed, and the risk of complete cancellation remained until the last moment. However, cancellation would mean admitting that everything is going awry in the country if even a “holy holiday for all of Russia”, as Medvedev said, cannot be held.
Anti-records
Victory Parade 2023 will go down in history as a anti-record breaker in several areas:
– Number of participants. Only 8000 people were involved in it. This is the smallest number of soldiers in the last 15 years.
– Number of units. Not all associations that were involved last year could now afford parades. For example, the 4th tank division suffered significant losses in the Kharkiv direction last fall and still has not been able to recover.
– Lack of aviation. The air show has always been the “highlight” of the parade on Red Square. But not this year. The lack of aircraft was explained by a drone attack on the Kremlin, which took place 100 meters from the podium of the President of Russia.
– Orphan tank. There was also no large amount of tracked vehicles. Only one T-34 tank appeared, which can rather be considered a museum exhibit, because it was the main tank unit of the Second World War.
– Interest reduction. According to data from the Victory Parade this year, the lowest number of Internet users and TV viewers watched it in the last 15 years.
There is sustainability
The only thing in which this year’s parade was no different from others was propaganda. Putin used a number of clichés in his speech:
– The West provoked an armed conflict;
– the western world destroys the traditional values of normal people in order to establish the norm of robbery and violence;
– Ukraine is a bargaining chip, no one needs it.
Judging by the dynamics, the Victory Parade has completely lost its relevance. Wondering if there will be at least one more such event in Russia.
