Ukraine recalls 10 million war dead, honors veterans on Victory Day (05/15/05)

Ukraine recalls 10 million war dead, honors veterans on Victory Day

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Morning showers on May 9 did not dampen the spirits of Red Army veterans, who turned out by the thousands to celebrate their victory 60 years ago against the forces of Nazi Germany.

The days of cheering on tanks and heavy military vehicles are no longer in vogue. Instead, about 3,000 veterans strolled down Kyiv's main street, the Khreschatyk, surrounded by their families and loved ones.

Children, able to recognize veterans by the rows of Soviet medals on their jackets, greeted the heroes with bright red roses. Marching bands played Red Army anthems and children pranced about in Ukrainian folk costumes.

At the parade's helm marched Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other leading government figures.

"For 60 years, the May 9 holiday has been a mixture of grief and joy," Mr. Yushchenko said. "For four years of war, Ukraine paid 10 million lives of its sons and daughters for our freedom and the right to live on our land. This is a very big price to live freely on your independent land."

It was the first Victory Day celebration under Mr. Yushchenko's presidency, and therefore the issue of recognizing the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) had been brewing in the media and among Ukrainian citizens leading up to the holiday.

Unlike his predecessors, Mr. Yushchenko did not shy away from addressing the UPA veterans. Nor did he refraining from addressing the rift in Ukrainian society that has been a painful and divisive matter for the millions still alive in Ukraine who lived through the horrendous second world war.

In fact, during the afternoon, as Red Army veterans celebrated in Kyiv's center, Ukraine's 24-hour news station Channel Five aired the UPA documentary, "Between Hitler and Stalin - Ukraine in World War II."

"In our hearts, we forgave the Germans, the Japanese, the Poles, we forgave everyone possible on the other side of trenches," Mr. Yushchenko told the crowd. "We just haven't been able to forgive each other. Veterans of the Great Patriotic War, unfortunately, have yet to extend their hands to UPA veterans."

"I know just how difficult this process is. ... But I am asking you, veterans, I am taking my hat off and begging you to offer your hands to each other. This is necessary for the future of Ukraine ... so that we can show that everything is all right in Ukrainian society," he said.

Mr. Yushchenko delivered his remarks outside the Museum of the Great Patriotic War located under Kyiv's massive Motherland statue.

To greet and serve the soldiers who gathered underneath Motherland statue, the government set up tents where hot kasha cooked during the chilly, damp evening was served.

Afterwards, Mr. Yushchenko and Ms. Tymoshenko joined the veterans in a Victory Day tradition by toasting with 100-gram shot glasses of vodka, chased down with kasha scooped from bowls.

Later that night there were fireworks in tribute to the veterans.

Leading up to the day's festivities, Red Army veteran organizations were fiercely opposed to any involvement of UPA veterans.

"We are determined - if any Banderites show up at Khreschatyk on Victory Day, then the veterans will take any measures to prevent them from participating," said Yurii Shilovtsev, a member of the Center in Defense of Historical Truth of the Great Patriotic War.

The center's director, Boryslav Yatsko, complained that in the span of the last 15 years all of Ukraine's historiography has been stripped of historical truth and completely falsified with a new history of the nation.

Every major Ukrainian city held public festivities and ceremonies to honor the World War II veterans.

Even in Lviv, Ukraine's stronghold of nationalism, oblast government officials, city council members and army commanders placed flowers on the graves of Soviet soldiers buried at Kholmy Slavy, Interfax reported. Afterwards, the government leaders visited a hospital for disabled war veterans to honor them and give valuable gifts.

Lviv's Russian Cultural Center organized a panakhyda at Marsov Field in honor of the fallen Red Army soldiers on the morning of May 9, as well as a ceremony to place flowers at the soldiers' graves, Interfax said.

Communist Party members also held meetings at Kholmy Slavy and Marsov Field.

Ukrainians are more willing to support reconciliation between Red Army and German soldiers than between Red Army and UPA soldiers, according to a poll conducted by Kyiv's Razumkov Center for Economic and Political Studies.

About 37 percent of Ukrainians polled supported the notion of Soviet and German veterans reconciling, while 29 percent were opposed. Meantime, only 33 percent of Ukrainians polled supported Red Army and UPA veterans reconciling, while 33 percent were opposed.

Western Ukrainians were most supportive of reconciliation, according to the poll, with 67 percent in support and only 9 percent against.

Ukrainians in the nation's southern oblasts responded the most negatively to Red Army-UPA reconciliation, with only 19 percent in favor and 51 percent against it.

The poll, conducted between April 23 and 28, involved more than 2,000 respondents.

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