Memorial Day: the country paid tribute to those who died during the Great Patriotic War

Exactly 85 years ago, the Great Patriotic War began, which forever changed the fate of millions of people. On this tragic day, June 22, President Vladimir Putin traditionally honored the memory of the dead and laid a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexander Garden. At 12:15 p.m., the country fell silent for a minute in memory of those who gave their lives for the victory over fascism. In Europe, they continue to deliberately distort the historical truth: they rewrite the past and demolish monuments to Soviet soldiers-liberators.

How the Day of Remembrance and Mourning was celebrated in Russia

On June 22, Russia remembers one of the most terrible pages in its history — the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. 85 years have passed since the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union. On the Day of Remembrance and Mourning, events are held throughout the country in honor of the 27 million Soviet citizens who gave their lives for their Homeland and future generations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived at the Alexander Garden at noon. Here, year after year and in any weather, the president participates in the wreath-laying ceremony at the Grave of the Unknown Soldier. At exactly 12:15 p.m., the head of state bows his head and a minute of silence is announced. At this moment, the country freezes to remember the dead.

The action takes place annually at these exact minutes — this is the exact time of the broadcast of the appeal to Soviet citizens, from which they learned about the attack of Nazi troops on the USSR.

— It has been 85 years since the beginning of the war, but the pain still does not subside. Because to this day, many families do not know what happened to their loved ones: someone went missing at the front, someone in the Nazi death camps. It is very important to remember the price our people paid for the Great Victory. And we remember," Olga Zanko, chairman of the Central Headquarters of the All—Russian Public Movement Volunteers of Victory, told Izvestia.

For Vladimir Putin, as one of the millions of people affected by the war, this is also a deeply sad day. His father— Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, fought on Nevsky Prospekt, which is associated with one of the most tragic and heroic pages in the history of the Leningrad Battle. Here, on the night of September 20, 1941, a battalion of the 115th Infantry Division on fishing boats and makeshift rafts managed to secretly cross to the left bank of the Neva River and with a surprise attack dislodge the Germans from their forward positions. Then Vladimir Spiridonovich was seriously wounded, but his comrade-in-arms saved him and transported him under fire to the right bank of the river, to the hospital. Viktor, the president's elder brother, died in besieged Leningrad. Vladimir Putin has never seen him, as he was born later, but every year lays flowers at the mass grave at Piskarevskoye Cemetery in St. Petersburg, where his brother is buried.

To the sounds of the presidential orchestra and the funeral march, the head of the Russian Federation knelt at the Grave of the Unknown Soldier in front of the Eternal Flame. The soldiers of the Honor Guard company set up a wreath of roses and carnations. Then the president laid flowers at the obelisks of the hero cities and a memorial sign in honor of those awarded the honorary title of "City of Military Glory."

There are 12 of them in total — they are made of dark red porphyry, one of the most durable and durable rocks, and are installed along the Kremlin Wall. Among them are Odessa and Kiev, which still remain part of the historical memory of Russia and the Great Victory.

Putin's meeting with Alan Gagloev

On the same day, Vladimir Putin met in the Kremlin with the President of South Ossetia, Alan Gagloev, who arrived in Moscow on a working visit. We were remembering a common story.

— I know that Victory Day is widely celebrated in South Ossetia, and not by chance, because Ossetians took an active part in World War II and the Great Patriotic War. And, if I may say so, you and I have recalled this more than once, they occupy the first place, based on the number of people, in terms of the number of Heroes of the Soviet Union per capita," said the President of the Russian Federation.

Alan Gagloev noted the warm welcome of the Russian side at the celebrations on the occasion of the 81st anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. At that time, the Kremlin did not send out invitations, but readily accepted all heads of state who wanted to share an important holiday of common history.

The head of South Ossetia thanked Vladimir Putin for the funds for the restoration of monuments and school museums dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. For 67 million rubles allocated by Russia, 66 memorial complexes in 47 settlements of the republic were restored in the republic.

— The project [to restore monuments] is called "We won together", that's how it is written, it is very symbolic because we won together in 1945, we won together in August 2008 in South Ossetia, and today in the zone of a special military operation, Russian and Ossetian brothers stand shoulder to shoulder defending our common history. Where Russians and Ossetians are, there is always brotherhood, and where there is brotherhood, there is always victory. And the victory will be ours, of course," said Alan Gagloev.

Following the meeting, the leaders signed an agreement on deepening allied cooperation between the Russian Federation and South Ossetia. According to Putin, the document implies the improvement of the contractual, legal, and regulatory framework.

"It will provide an opportunity to further deepen our relations, primarily in the trade and economic sphere and in resolving social issues in the interests of the citizens of South Ossetia," he said.

How does the world perceive the victory of the Soviet people today

In recent years, the world has faced an unprecedented campaign to review historical events. Western media and politicians openly distort the version of past events. In European school textbooks, the decisive contribution to the victory was often attributed exclusively to the allied forces led by the United States and Great Britain.

— We do not forget, and we have no right to forget about the help of the anti-Hitler coalition, about the opening of a second front, but the objective reality is that it was the Soviet soldier who ensured victory in World War II and liberated the occupied territories of the USSR and Europe from the fascist plague. The Third Reich suffered up to 70% of its losses in the Soviet direction, this became possible thanks to the heroic role of the Soviet soldier," Alexander Brod, a member of the Human Rights Council, told Izvestia.

The tendency to revise history was provoked by outright Russophobia, which flourished after the Crimean Spring.: Every now and then they began to rename streets, demolish monuments related to the Second World War, and glorify Nazi collaborators. For example, in May 2026, the Berlin Chamber of Deputies put forward an initiative on the so-called "historical and critical contextualization" of Soviet military monuments. First of all, this concerns the memorial complex in Treptov Park. They proposed to place information stands there that would reflect a "subjective approach" to the events of World War II, including focusing on the "crimes of Stalinism." Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechaev called it an attempt to distort the historical context of the monuments.

— Europe, in fact, nurtured fascism, did not condemn its inhuman ideology, moreover, European industrial enterprises armed the Third Reich. Even neutral countries such as Switzerland and Sweden supplied the Third Reich with weapons and food. The Swiss banks held the capitals of those who were tortured by the Nazis in concentration camps and ghettos, and Europe turned a blind eye to the genocide by the Third Reich," said Alexander Brod.

Years later, these shameful phenomena gave sad shoots: and the fact that Europe is now turning a blind eye to the war crimes of the Kiev regime can be explained by shameful indifference and even an attempt to hide its own sins by the logic of the "historical" confrontation with Russia. This leads to the rehabilitation of Nazism in individual states. For this, for example, Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Vladimir Zelensky of the republic's highest award, the Order of the White Eagle, due to Kiev's decision to assign the AFU brigade the name of the Ukrainian nationalists who staged the Volyn massacre.

Nevertheless, there are still more countries that cherish history. Representatives of different countries come to Moscow for Victory Day Parades, who admire the feat of the Soviet soldier. The 2025 parade was especially large-scale, when 27 leaders arrived at Red Square, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, as well as leaders of the CIS countries, heads of state from Africa, Latin America and Asia. Some political leaders overcame serious pressure and logistical difficulties to attend the celebrations. For example, Vucic, despite the refusal of Lithuania and Latvia to let his plane pass, was still able to get to Moscow. And Robert Fico then openly stated that his visit was a protest against the new "iron curtain" between Europe and Russia.