IVAN MAKAROV ⟩ «Victory Day» – widows applaud Putin, who sent their husbands to death

Russian President Vladimir Putin presents the Gold Star of the Hero of Russia medal to 1st Lt. Mikhail Izbakiev's mother, Marina Izbakiev, and his widow, Anna Mitkova. Photo: IMAGO / Alexander Kazakov

• By now, «Victory Day» has also become a celebration of the destruction of Ukraine.
• Eighty years have passed, but there is still no end in sight for this war.

The approaching calendar day, May 9, has always been depressing for Estonians. Not for everyone, because we had Arnold Meri and we have Oudekki Loone, but still: large masses of Russian people noisily celebrated what for Estonians symbolized death and repression, Ivan Makarov writes.

Had this spectacle not escalated year after year, there might not have been Bronze Nights or the looting of Tallinn. But the Russian world has this characteristic that there is always too little, more is always demanded – the tolerance of other nations is exceeded, and now the borders of neighbors are also crossed. It is difficult to predict what would have happened if the Dozorians* had not started organizing increasingly militant rallies in the heart of the Estonian capital and attacked the Estonian flag there, so that Andrus Ansip's government said that this is enough, and moved the symbol of occupation to the cemetery.

As a journalist accredited to the Riigikogu told me at the time, the money for subversion was brought from Russia to their embassy in boxes. And I myself heard the late Sergey Dorenko celebrating live on Echo of Moscow that he has constant direct contact with the guys in Estonia, that everything is ready, a nationwide uprising of Russians is starting, give it your all, brothers... Back then, Russia was still in the era of at least apparent democracy, and a question a listener had phoned in with was also broadcast: but what will happen to the Estonians? Does the host propose to cleanse Estonia of Estonians? Dorenko hesitated for a moment and then mumbled, well, not quite...

«Victory Day» was not celebrated in the USSR for a long time, because it was a day of sadness, but then what Russian dissidents characterize with the nuanced word «pobedobesie» (victory frenzy) began. The drums beat louder and louder, the calls «we can repeat!» sounded louder and louder. Children in pilotka caps were driven to mass graves, and Kalashnikovs were brought to kindergartens. The most heinous was such a horrifying invention, taken over from savage tribes practicing death cults, as the parade of the Immortal Regiment, where ominous convoys of descendants carried portraits of dead ancestors. Some were random faces, some actually killed Estonians.

By now, «Victory Day» has become a celebration not only of the former military success of the USSR, but also of the destruction of Ukraine. Putin is already on icons, so the time is not far off when people will start believing that he won World War II. Russians have been taught that their ancestors did nothing for thousands of years except fight Nazism, liberate other nations, and save the world.

A few days ago, this nation saw a video of the widows of Russian soldiers who met their end in Ukraine applauding Putin for sending their husbands to their deaths. It was unnaturally horrifying, although the boasting of mothers and fathers who had lost their children to a cruel, senseless war about the Ladas the state had given them in place of their dead sons was also bloodcurdling.

Eighty years have passed, but there is still no end in sight for this war.

*Nochnoy Dozor (Night Watch), a pro-Russian activist group in Estonia