Victory Day Comemmoration

May 9, 2009

The branch activity comemmorating the Day of Victory was my favorite part of celebrations. The local branches put on an amazing program for the veterans, complete with a slideshow of pictures from the war and stories from those who had fought, or who had family who had fought in the war. Marina invited me to the activity, so I sat with her. She explained to me as the stories were told, that those who had ended up in concentration camps because they had been captured were put in labor camps in Russia when they returned. She talked about how shameful that was. From what I remember in my Russian classes, Stalin did this out of paranoia. He was afraid that the soldiers had been too exposed to foreign influence and would spread these ideas in Russia, so they were sent to Russian labor camps to be re-Sovietized. Marina said more than once how wrong she felt that was, and that she was so sad that their veterans had been treated so badly by the very people they fought for.

After the slideshow was finished, a musical number was performed by two sisters of Peruvian descent whose parents had moved here before they were born. They sang a beautiful song about a memorial to the Soviet soldiers in Bulgaria. Marina, visibly touched, turned to me and said, "They call this holiday, "with tears in your eyes." A second song was performed with some joining in. Marina had to leave at this point, but wanted to show me something before she left--she took me down the hall where there was a board with pictures of her and her husband's families who had served in the war. Copies of letter were posted, and she took the originals out that she had in her purse. She showed me that one of them was a death notice--the most terrifying letter to receive--notifying family that a soldier had fallen in war. Other documents included letters to families, orders to a different front, and military enrollment papers.

This is a very emotional holiday for Russians. As my friend Maxim told me, "All were affected by this. We all lost someone close to us in the war. This is the most serious of holidays, and the most important to remember."

I then met Marina's husband, and before they left, she took her orange and black ribbon (I had seen many on the street wearing these same ribbons) and pinned it on me. After Marina left, I returned to the program.

Veterans of the area were given flowers, and one stood up to tell stories of her experience. She was quite a character. She told of how she had helped point out where some enemies were shooting from, and how all had considered her so smart and helpful. When the person conducting the program tried to stand up and have her sit down (as her allotted time had long ago expired), the veteran reprimanded her and told her she wasn't finished with her stories, and I'm pretty sure she called her a German, to which the woman feigned shock and sat down. All of us looked at each other and chuckled. She finally did sit down, only to stand back up when a musical number was announced. She grabbed the microphone and said, how about if I sing one of our songs? She started into it just as the other number's background music started up. They turned it off and let her sing. The woman I was now sitting by turned to me and said, "She's quite an active grandma isn't she?" Then the other number was allowed to go on. Everyone joined in with clapping and singing. Some karaoke started up later on with songs from the war.

The activity was great, and ended with some hardy, traditional Russian food--buckwheat, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes.