Remember when the Russians ‘liberated’ Berlin in 1945, ending World War II? The iconic image of a Soviet soldier raising the Soviet flag over the Reichstag became a staple of popular culture as well as historical memory. It was the culminating point of the wartime Alliance of the ‘Big Three’, with Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and ‘Uncle Joe’ Stalin hanging out together like old friends and deciding the fate of the world.
Well, forget it. It is old news. This year, the Russians celebrated Victory Day on May 9 as usual with a big military parade in Moscow’s Red Square, but European and North Americans mainly stayed away. Europeans, in turn, did not invite the Russians to their celebrations on May 8 and 9 in which the Soviet contribution to World War II victory, and even to some extent the war itself, were being sidelined in favour of a new narrative about European union and democracy.
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