May 9th and the Immortal Regiment

Today was Victory Day in Russia. Many celebrate this day full heartedly. Investment in festivities on a national and personal level can probably be considered greater than any other holiday in Russia throughout the year. WWII has touched this country in a very tremendous and lasting way. To give an insight I'll briefly tell my family's experience. My mom is Russian and from St. Petersburg. My father is Armenian and from a Georgian village and his family was not at all involved in the war. So this is relevant for only one side of my family.

My great Grandfather died fighting in the war. My great grandmother was left in charge of two children, one 4 years old and one 6 years old at the start of the war. She lived with them in St. Petersburg, and managed to not only survive herself through the blockade, but also save both of her children from starvation. My own grandmother and her younger brother witnessed death, sickness and the depraved desperation of humanity from famine and cold at an early age. They lived to be functioning adults, raised their own families. My mother, growing up, spent a lot of time with her grandmother, who told her many stories of her experience in the war. My own grandmother has told me many stories about her experience in the war also. And thus we have four generations, two of which were actually physically present in WWII and two who are the direct descendants of these survivors and have first hand accounts of what happened.

While I only have one side of my family that has sustained death, loss, and survival, others have much larger families and people on both sides, their father's and their mother's, with deep roots in this gigantic monster of a war. Today I saw small children, who would be the 5th generation removed, interviewed by news crews in the streets of our city, telling them very clearly and with understanding who their predecessors were in the war and what they did and how they died. These children felt pride in their ancestor's contributions and sacrifices to the nation for the well being of its people. When I have my own children I will also be telling them these stories.

Until this year I was convinced that all people felt this pride who were from Russia. I found out recently, only yesterday in fact, that some people whose families were not directly involved, do not actually care. I was surprised to find this out because I am part of that culture of immense pride in the contributions, sacrifices and the ability to survive through the adversity of WWII. But having lived in America for as long as I have (since 1996) I do have a new perspective, coming back and really seeing this celebration first hand after so many years. Hearing other people's opinions and knowing something about human psychology from sheer life experience has opened up a new dialogue in my mind about why the Russian people in such large numbers feel such immense pride in this particular event and how it effects them on a personal and national levels.

I'd like to write more on this subject, but being as this day is so sacred to so many people, I'd like to leave that discussion for another day and close this with some videos from today's March of the Immortal Regiment. An even where all people who have family members that have been effected by WWII bring photos of their ancestors, if they have them, and come to the main streets to march in their memory. I went with my great grandmother's photo, her name is Taisiya Ivanovna Susoeva, 1906-1983.

Here are some videos from the time before the actual march started. I started taking a few videos when people were just arriving and joining the formation for the actual event. By the time I found my place in the crowd there were so many people and we were so tightly packed that there was no sense in trying to take any videos because all I could see was the people directly around me and nothing much else.

Labor Day Parade in St. Petersburg Russia

So while I was out and about Nevsky Prospect I witnessed the rest of the Labor Day parade. Before recording some of my impressions I have to put in a disclaimer that I am all in all very ignorant of all things political and current. I never watch the news and don't believe the news from the media in any country so I hear what friends and family tell me and make my deductions from things I hear in real life from people around me or see with my own eyes in the real world. I am in no way assuming I am right about anything, these are just the impressions I have from my own perspective.

The parade consisted of political factions represented by civilians, not politicians. The factions I think I witnessed, based on what I heard them screaming through their loud speakers, are as follows (some names given to factions are my own, I don't know all their real names): Neo Communists, Anarchists, Nationalist Bolsheviks, Labor Union, Russian Socialist Movement, More Anarchists, Veganism is Easy!, Women's Rights, Great Russia Party, Nationalists (more like Neo Fascists), Green Party (more like Animal Rights Party). 

I did do research about each flag that I saw in the procession, all names are either direct translations or based on the proclamation of the party. For example the Neo Fascism party is a nationalism elitist philosophy with pretensions of being God's chosen people and their mantra was "get rid of the parasites" meaning the people who were not from Russia, which is a very difficult thing to state since Russian people are of various mixed origins, with Germanic and Mongolian and Arabic genes to list just a few of the things making up the "Russian" population. 

It was strange to me that with all these very opposing views walking together, and some extremely charged with hate, no one did anything violent. Also, the military presence was not scary. I was also surprised that more people did not show up to march for the political parties such as women's rights. It was also weird that LGBT rights did not march, considering the times we live in, I wonder what would have happened if they did show up? The biggest contingent was the green party, they were also the nicest, because they did not yell anything and said nice things like "we hope you're having a good day." 

The only violent thing I saw was a white man who spoke English who for some reason felt like yelling obscenities at everyone that was in the procession. I could take it no longer when he started yelling at the women in the women's rights section, he said things like "no one wants to touch you" and "you're ugly" and other such things, in English. I caught him doing it on the video. But then I cussed him out and told him he's disgusting. I caught that on video too.

To wrap things up...It was really strange to see fascist inclinations so publicly exhibited in a nation that suffered so much at the hands of fascists and invested so much of itself into the fight against fascism especially so close to May 9th, the day we celebrate beating the Nazis. It was also really strange to see very young people march in the name of communist ideals, although they called themselves socialist, they certainly had the looks and the speeches of communists. It was also really strange to hear a middle aged, white male yelling obscenities at women standing up for their rights in English in Russia. Generally I have a sense of political regression.

Russian Grandmothers

I usually try to avoid answering my phone when it's my mom or my grandmother. Most of our conversations consist of them telling me how I should be doing things differently and how my life isn't what it could have been had I listened to them. So I listen to them less and less as I grow older. For a while though my grandmother stopped calling me altogether because she got used to the idea that she had nothing to say to me that I would want to hear, so when she called I answered.

She said she's getting surgery and I must immediately fly to Russia. She thinks her surgery will be sometime in May, although she doesn't know exactly.  A preliminary consultation with a doctor is scheduled and at this consultation she will be given a specific date for the surgery. Surgery is imminent.

I bought a ticket and came to Russia. I thought my grandmother was getting a surgery. I went with her to the "preliminary consultation" and it was certainly not a visitation to schedule any surgery. Rather it seemed more like a routine check up with a doctor who decided to send her to do an MRI just to make sure she doesn't have cancer. Although I did not ask the doctor weather my suspicions are true because the time and place were not appropriate for such questions, I did think this may have been a yearly routine for my grandmother.

So while I'm here I'll take the time to share some of my impressions about St. Petersburg, the city I was born in.

First on the list is the May 1st celebration. I did not know this but May 1st is Labor Day and is very much observed in St. Petersburg. My grandmother tells me it's observed all over Russia since the Soviet Times. I went downtown to the central city street, Nevsky Prospect, to see what was happening. There was a parade and tons of people came to watch it.

When I first got off the metro I thought the parade was wherever these lovely ladies were and I followed them until the main square in front of the Hermitage where the parade culminated and there was nothing more to see. A small stage was set up there with an awful sound system that hurt the brain so I left. I walked through the arches and back towards Nevsky Prospect.

I thought all the festivities were over and people were just walking the streets now, but suddenly I saw a mass of red flags descending  upon us in a solid wall of human flesh and I knew there was more to be seen.

Fortunately I took a video. To be continued...