As Russia rallies the troops to mark Victory Day, it's using the past to try to justify its war on Ukraine

When Russia celebrated the 60th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany with a parade of patriotism and pageantry in 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush was sitting beside Russian President Vladimir Putin along with the leaders of France and Germany. 

It was the first time a U.S. president was at the Moscow event to honour the 27 million Soviet soldiers and civilians killed along the brutal eastern front in the Second World War. 

Back then, it was framed as proof of Russia's international clout and its place among the world's great powers. 

This year, most leaders from Western nations are actively boycotting the event which they see as a propaganda spectacle, but several others will be attending, including the presidents of China, Brazil, and Venezuela. It is unclear if any U.S. officials will attend.

"The countries that are sending leaders are not, broadly speaking, those that actually were part of the European theater of World War II," said Sam Greene, a professor in Russian politics at King's College London and the director for Democratic Resilience at the Center for European Policy Analysis.

"[Putin] is attracting a crowd to his geopolitical project of the moment."

The Kremlin, which continues to push its vision for a multipolar world in a challenge to the West, has so far refused to agree to the U.S. proposed 30 day ceasefire in Ukraine, and instead is using Victory Day to frame its current war as a righteous battle that Russia has no choice but to wage. 

Reframing Victory Day 

On Thursday in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Putin said that both countries stand committed to "honouring the memory of the war years and standing against the resurgence of neo-Nazism and militarism today."

It is a juxtaposition that has been deliberately made in the media and through the patriotic displays installed across the country. In dozens of Russian cities, billboards have been erected showing what's been described as "heartwarming" reunions after the end of Second World War, which Russia refers to as the Great Patriotic War.  

For the past few years, other billboards have lined city streets urging men to sign up for what Russia calls its "Special Military Operation" in Ukraine. Earlier this week, one of the channels produced a report where a soldier fighting in Ukraine interviews a veteran who fought for the Soviet Union. 

The narrator remarks that "only a moment in time" separates the two men, and that the young Russian soldier will be spending May 9 on the front line "where he will continue to defeat the enemy and bring Victory closer."

Greene says it's a deliberate effort to frame what is happening in Ukraine as a just fight, in an attempt to quell any public frustration at how long the war has been going on — or even anger over the fact that Russian cities are now frequently attacked by Ukrainian drones. 

Little public criticism

Given its harsh crackdown on any opposition, there is very little protest or dissent when it comes to Russia's war on Ukraine. People speak more freely outside of the country, including those who are at one time fought for the Red Army and served the Soviet Union. 

When it comes to opinions inside Russia, CBC News searched through Russian social media platforms, where public conversation about the anniversary mostly centred on a sense of pride and a faith in the eventual victory in the current war. CBC hasn't been able to report from inside Russia since the government closed down the broadcaster's bureau in the spring of 2022. 

In one public forum where people were speaking about Russia's plan to mark Victory Day with a three-day ceasefire, a move which Kyiv saw as a manipulative stunt, some voiced distrust that Ukraine would agree to it, while others said they wanted Russia to fight harder. 

"I don't understand Putin's logic or perhaps he miscalculated our strength," said one commenter.

"If he's already started this, it needs to be finished."

In another group, when one woman suggested that world leaders arriving in Moscow for the parade akin to a "feast during the time of a plague," other commenters piled on attacking her and questioning her loyalty.

Under Russian law, anyone can be punished for comments that deem discredit, which is why criticism is rare and patriotism abounds. 

Greene says historically the conversation around Victory Day used to centre around loss and sacrifice, and a much used Russian phrase was, "Let there be no war." 

Today, he says, it's not uncommon to hear another phrase or see it affixed to cars on bumper stickers: "We can do it again." 

This could be taken to mean we can go all the way to Berlin again, but some make a broader interpretation, and see it as a warning to all of Europe and the U.S. 

"[Victory Day] changed from a conversation about memorializing ... into a more aggressive militaristic posture."

A hero of Leningrad, now in Kyiv

It's a transformation that is particularly difficult to reconcile for those few survivors who fought for the Red Army or volunteered for the Soviet War effort and now find themselves living out their remaining days in cities under attack again. 

Tucked away in her apartment in Kyiv are the medals and awards that 98-year old Ludmyla Varska received from the Soviet Union for her service during the brutal siege of Leningrad, the Russian city now known as St. Petersburg. 

Several hundred thousand civilians were killed, about a third of the city's population, during a two-year blockade by Axis forces which led to widespread starvation.

Back then, Varska was a teenager and used buckets of sand to help extinguish incendiary bombs, which were designed to ignite and set fire to buildings. 

When the bombs hit, she and her mother and brother would run up to the attics and roofs on their streets. 

Now, with poor hearing, she rarely wakes up when the air raid sirens wail in Kyiv at night. But when she does hear them or the air defence explosions, she's left shaken and scared. 

"This is just awful," she told a freelance crew working for CBC News on Thursday. 

"I don't even understand … many Ukrainians speak Russian, and there are a lot of Ukrainians in Russia."

'Everyone is losing'

Varska says most of her family was killed in the Second World War and she ended up moving to Kyiv in the 1960s with her husband. Despite the awards, she never attended a victory parade in Russia, but understands why there are commemorations to honour history..

"Let them celebrate … we should celebrate because we won," she said

Now, she says it feels like everyone is losing.

"Why is this happening … it is very bad."

In a village just outside of Kyiv, 99-year-old Kuzma Samchenko believes the world is on the cusp of the next great war. 

He was called up to fight with the Soviet Forces as German troops swept into Ukraine in 1941.

"During the war I was trying not to shoot because the soldiers on the other side were sent to war just like I was," he said to CBC News during a phone interview. 

His raspy voice grew agitated as he said he doesn't blame the soldiers that are being ordered to march forward, but the politicians from both countries. 

"Innocent people are the ones dying in this war."