Brace for May 9

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In the West, May 9 usually passes without much notice. In Russia, however, it marks the surrender of Nazi Germany and the end of World War II in Europe. Russia’s Victory Day is a time for military parades and solemn remembrances, something like if the United States rolled Veterans Day and Memorial Day into one gigantic military-patriotic celebration. And even that wouldn’t capture what Victory Day means to Russians and to the Kremlin authorities; the United States, after all, did not suffer the near-death experience of losing 27 million people.

It is also a day for speeches, and Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to give one. During the Cold War, Sovietologists would pay attention to such public declarations, looking for clues to Kremlin policy. Over the past few decades, this kind of analysis fell by the wayside: Going to Putin’s meetings and asking him questions directly was