It became the end of the Great Patriotic War for the USSR, which lost about 25 million citizens in the four years of fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interestingly, until its 20th anniversary (May 9, 1965), Victory Day was not a major holiday, unlike, for instance, May 1, and was considered a work day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apart from the anniversaries in 1965 and 1985, Victory Day celebrations in the Soviet Union did not feature a military parade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This tradition started in 1995.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Update: In October 2012, Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree that would extend the Victory Day Celebrations from Thursday, May 9, 2013 to Sunday, May 12, 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Communicating openly through our screens can be really enlightening, but those people who prefer insulting or just hating another for political or whatever reasons ruin the experience. In my case, I keep hearing from the haters the word \u201cold\u201d thrown my way, i.e. \u2013 \u201cYou\u2019re just old and over the hill and washed up\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m unfollowing you\u201d or \u201cYou voted for Trump, you should be ashamed\u201d or \u201cHow much is Putin paying you?\u201d, etc. There\u2019s no end to hate, and it doesn\u2019t get us anywhere. After several years, I\u2019m beginning to think that USAID or NED (National Endowment for Democracy) or one of these George Soros fronts working for the Government pays a group of pinheads, who I assume are human beings \u2013 maybe they\u2019re bots \u2013 to post these reminders of ugliness with the intention of soiling my memory and driving away meaningful conversation. But the same verbiage, year after year \u2013 that gets old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the record \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Yes, I guess I\u2019m old. I\u2019m 78 and slowing down. I do less, but I enjoy it more. I still like meeting people and seeing friends more than ever \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. I did not vote in \u201916, \u201920, or \u201924 for your b\u00eate noire, \u2018the orange man.\u2019 I voted for RFK Jr. on the California ballot, although he told us not to throw away our votes in a swing state. California is hardly a swing state \u2013 and hardly matters, as the election is called way before California or Hawaii (haha) even closes. Some democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. And, for that matter, here\u2019s a bunch of old people films I\u2019ve quite enjoyed recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n a. \u201cThe Leisure Seeker\u201d (2017) with Hellen Mirren and Donald Sutherland. A wonderful and wise journey across America with two great actors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n b. \u201cA Walk in the Woods\u201d (2015). Same formula with Redford and Nolte. Almost as good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n c. \u201cYouth\u201d (2015) with Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel, Jane Fonda, Rachel Weisz. A classic from Paolo Sorrentino. Caine, brilliant. Keitel, shocking. The movie, incredible — to be watched more than twice and with a stunning aria from the Korean soprano Sumi Jo at the close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n d. \u201cThe Rewrite,\u201d which I missed in 2014 and my son brought to my attention. A charming Hugh Grant, better than ever, reverses the fate of his last years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d love to see more \u201cold\u201d stories, if any of you have favorites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. As to my being Mr. Putin\u2019s \u201cboy,\u201d anyone who knows my work understands I\u2019ve always been independent in my films since I made my reputation in 1986 with \u201cPlatoon,\u201d and this includes the documentaries, such as \u201cUntold History\u201d and \u201cPutin Interviews.\u201d No one has ever owned me or told me what to think, and I have enough saved up to make it to my grave without having to take money from anyone, especially not the \u201cdictators\u201d I\u2019m supposed to be working for. Each subject has merited my historical curiosity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And as to Mr. Putin, who has led his country now for some 25 years, I respect him because I respect Russia. And I believe strongly in its right to defend itself, insofar as it\u2019s obvious that our Western warmongers like the Biden gang and NATO and the neocons all over everywhere believe in war and have been pecking away at the Russian homeland for decades now, and brought us to the very edge of world war for no reason other than their unyielding paranoia that Russia wants to take over the world that we want to take over. Poisonous paradox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a matter of fact, I\u2019m going to Russia with a small group, including ex-CIA expert on Russia Ray McGovern, on May 9th to honor the 80th anniversary of their enormous sacrifice in defeating the forces of fascism in WWII. The world owes them a great debt, and distorting that history is probably the worst propaganda the United States and NATO have created in their hunger to destroy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was a soldier once, let me remind you, who served my country honorably in one of its most useless wars and learned, from the suffering I saw, the meaning of peace. And I\u2019ll vote for peace always and against anyone, including Messrs. Trump, Biden, Bush, and Ms. Clinton \u2013 those who think our role in the world is to dominate it and impede or hurt any other country that\u2019s seeking prosperity for its citizenry and contributing to this world with new technology, etc. \u2013 and that includes China, Russia, and Iran, who, I keep repeating like a frustrated schoolmaster, are not our natural enemies. Reexamine your prejudices and deepen your history. I will always fight for peace and understanding until the day I die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1.\u0391\u03bd\u03ac\u03c1\u03c4\u03b7\u03c3\u03b7 \u03b1\u03c0\u03cc Oliver Stone (@TheOliverStone) Victory Day marks Germany\u2019s surrender to the Soviet Union in 1945. It became the end of the Great Patriotic War for the USSR, which lost about 25 million citizens in the four years of fighting. Interestingly, until its 20th anniversary (May 9, 1965), Victory Day was not a major holiday, unlike, for instance, May 1, and was considered a work day. Apart from the anniversaries in 1965 and 1985, Victory Day celebrations in the Soviet Union did not feature a military parade. This tradition started in 1995.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1670,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666\/revisions\/1670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"🦉\"](\"https:\/\/fonts.gstatic.com\/s\/e\/notoemoji\/16.0\/1f989\/32.png\")
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