70 years Since the Great Victory!
By André Vltchek
To Be Russian 70 years since the great Victory, 70 years since the Soviet people saved the world by smashing Nazism, 70 years since they, almost immediately, joined yet another fight, against Western imperialism and colonialism.
27 million Soviet people, mainly Russians, lost their lives defending our planet against Hitler’s hordes. Then hundreds of millions of others dedicated their lives to building a much better, and egalitarian world.
Without the Soviet Union, without the Russian people, there would be no freedom, no independence for Asian, African and the Middle Eastern countries. There would be no revolutions possible in Latin America.
This is why the West hated the Soviet Union, and that is why it hates the Russian people. It lost its colonies, it lost its propaganda war, and it lost its monopoly on defining everything under the sun.
On May 9 1945, the entire world changed. Humanity began moving forward, again. Slowly, unevenly, often making terrible blunders and detours, but forward nevertheless! Colonial shackles began breaking. People on all continents were dreaming again, about true freedom, equality and the brotherhood of men. That beautiful red flag flying from the roof of Reichstag in Berlin made these dreams possible.
The Soviet people had proven that human dignity and freedom are worth any sacrifice. The Victory Ode was written with their blood, in the most generous way, so it could inspire generations to come!
But the greed and nihilism of the West refused to die. The obsession with controlling and plundering the world had reached an unimaginable peak. All the forces of the Empire were mobilized. Light and hope were confronted by darkness and cynicism. Beautiful and pure dreams were antagonized by corruption. In an orgy of dirty tricks and deceptions, the Soviet Union was destroyed.
In one single historical moment, the oppressed of the world lost their most powerful guardian.
What followed was complete horror. The Empire began destabilizing one country after another: in Africa, Asia, in the Middle East and even in the former Eastern block. Millions of people were destroyed, exposed, unprotected, totally abandoned.
Fascist hordes thought that this time, finally, they had won. In Moscow, Yeltsin, an alcoholic and lackey of the West, began shooting his own people on the street, and bombing his own Parliament. That was “democracy” the newspapers in Paris, London and New York wrote almost immediately. This was what the West dreamed about: a weak destabilized Russia, mad, drunk, on its knees, at mercy of the Empire.
I travelled to Moscow and Siberia. I saw Russian scientists in Novosibirsk selling their libraries in the bitter cold, at metro stations. I saw old war veterans begging, and selling their medals. I saw Russian workers starving, their salaries unpaid for months.
Then something happened. Russia never kneels for too long. It rapidly detected the lies coming from abroad; it recognized the trap. In just a few, short, dreadful years the Russian people experienced life under the fascist boot of the Empire. It was like a war. Life expectancy went to dogs. Country lost tens of millions.
Russia had to raise or die, as always in its history. It rose. Indignant and determined! And as always in the past, when it stood up to confront the evil, it was doing it not only for its own people, but also for all humanity!
Russia has regrouped under new Russian flag. It is not perfect and not as ‘socialist’ as many of us would like it to be, but there is a great Soviet inertia in Russia’s foreign policy, as there is great pride and determination to improve the world, to protect the weak.
70 years since the Great Victory! This year, Russia is not only celebrating an anniversary. It is rejoicing over its rebirth.
André Vltchek (born 1963) is a novelist, philosopher, investigative journalist, filmmaker, photographer and playwright. He has covered dozens of war zones and conflicts from Bosnia and Peru to Sri Lanka, DR Congo and Timor-Leste. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in Asia and Africa..
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