Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Victory Day Slowly Ebbs From Public View

Victory Day Slowly Ebbs From Public View
 
By Stephen Boykewich 
 
Veterans embracing as they attend a Victory Day parade Tuesday on Red
Square. Veterans also gathered near the Bolshoi Theater and in city parks.
 
 
In the back lanes of Victory Park it might have been any spring day --
rollerbladers weaving between strolling families, children scrambling over
decommissioned tanks, crewcut boys holding hands with girls in high heels.
Click here to see photo essay :
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/photos/photo-essay/2006-05-10/page1.html
It was just what many World War II veterans said last May 9 they feared:
With last year's 60th Victory Day anniversary past, the veterans would be
all but forgotten.
But on the park's central square, with tens of thousands of Victory Day
celebrants in view, it was clear their fears had not been entirely borne
out.
"I'm alive thanks to these people," said Yelena Petrova, a woman in her
early 30s, after handing a flower to a beaming veteran. "I had two
grandfathers who served in the war, so I know how much it means, and I
come here each year to tell them that."
As in years past, Victory Park drew the largest crowd of veterans and
well-wishers for the day's celebrations, which mark the Soviet defeat of
Nazi Germany on May 9, 1945. As many as a half-million people were
expected in the park over the course of the day.
 
Petrova was one of hundreds of visitors handing out flowers and offering
congratulations to veterans as they passed.
"They've been throwing flowers at me all day -- I can hardly carry them
all," said Vera Savluk, 83, with a laugh. She shifted a bunch of flowers
in her arms and tucked back a wisp of white hair. A half-dozen military
medals were arrayed on her sweater.
"The celebrations this year are as good as they've ever been," Savluk
said. "There were so many people on Red Square, I can't imagine where they
all came from." 
Several dozen veterans were among the spectators at the official Victory
Day celebrations on Red Square. While they were noticeably absent from the
military procession, several shared the stage with President Vladimir
Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, among others.
Last year's procession included 4,500 veterans waving from military
transport trucks to an audience that included U.S. President George Bush,
German Chancellor Gerhard Schr&#1066;der and other heads of state.
"Of course, it was different last year. It was the 60th anniversary," said
Boris Klypkin, 83, standing tall in his blue dress uniform bedecked with
medals. 
As Klypkin spoke, a crowd of photographers and other onlookers gathered
round. The veteran, who said he had battled German troops from the Moscow
region to Berlin, said he regretted that veterans did not have a larger
role on Red Square this year.
"It's all right," he said. "We'll wait for the 65th anniversary."
A more melancholy note was sounded by veteran Mikhail Krasovsky, 89,
escorted through the park by three generations of his family.
"There are fewer and fewer of us every year -- age is taking us,"
Krasovsky said. "The government understands this very well. They know how
important it is to celebrate properly."
There are 1,054,938 living Soviet veterans of World War II, including
1,008,740 in Russia and 91,865 in Moscow and the Moscow region, according
to the web site 
www.Pobediteli.ru
 (nota: sull'home page del sito c'e' una
bella rappresentazione multimediale dell'intera guerra dal giugno 1941 al
maggio 1945)
The Victory Park celebration included a traditional concert by the
Mariinsky Theater Orchestra featuring works by Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitry
Shostakovich and other Russian composers. The concert was attended by
20,000 listeners.
Speaking after the afternoon concert, Mayor Yury Luzhkov expressed his
"thanks to those who saved our country and our people from total
destruction."
"Our gratitude is eternal," Luzhkov said. "It will live in our people
forever."
A second, smaller stage set up by the park's military museum had more
eclectic entertainment. Singers performing Soviet war songs shared stage
time with a teenaged hip-hop dance troupe and a Rockettes-style kick line
strutting their stuff to "New York, New York."
The American tune was not entirely out of place. "I can say gladly that we
fought and suffered together with the Americans during the war," Klypkin
said. "After our victory in Berlin, I went to Manchuria and fought
alongside the Americans there. I have only the warmest feelings toward
them."
But he worried about a fading appreciation at home for the huge sacrifice
made by the roughly 25 million Soviets who died for their country during
the war.
In his frequent trips to elementary and high schools to speak to young
people about the war, Klypkin said he sensed a waning understanding of the
enormous toll the war took on ordinary Soviet citizens.
In many parts of the park, the scene seemed to bear out Klypkin's
concerns. For every young person congratulating veterans, kissing their
cheeks and pressing flowers into their hands, there seemed to be two more
absorbed in conversations on mobile phones.
At least one group of young people, however, seemed to be at little risk
of underestimating the veterans' contribution.
"Russia had the best military in the world, and it still does," said Yegor
Udarov, 15, a student at Moscow's Georgiyevsky Cadet Academy.
Udarov was one of eight young cadets in sharp dress uniforms who had come
from the official celebration on Red Square.
He said it was no surprise many young people had little understanding of
the war. "Most young people today are only interested in getting drunk,
looking for fights, then going out and getting drunk again," Udarov
lamented.
 
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 lamented.
Lo so, Serghei. Una cosa orrenda. Ma tu non deprimerti. Hai tanto 
lavoro da fare qui su IPI.
LOL.
Am.

amalric ha scritto:



specie cercare di acculturare dei frontebassa del BNP come te che i libri
di Storia li usano per non far traballare i tavoli di casa...


 di Storia li usano per non far traballare i tavoli di casa...
Gia'. Dov'e' finita la mia Enciclopedia dell'URSS?
LOL
Am.

 Gia'. 
e ora corri a studiare la "storia" su 
http://www.bnp.org.uk/
