Look, it's one thing when our young fellow citizens, shouting "Our grandfathers fought" (even though, purely by the timeline, their grandfathers could not have fought), are convinced that the St. George ribbon is a symbol of victory in the Great Patriotic War (the Soviet-German front of World War II).
But we, those whose grandfathers really did fight and who still remember them, ought to stick to the historical truth. This is, as United Russia likes to say, a falsification of history.
I have nothing against the St. George ribbon itself, although given the way it gets tied everywhere, "Guards ribbon" seems a more appropriate name to me. But it is in no way a symbol of Victory or of May 9.
Just think back to when you went to the parade with your grandfather or grandmother in Soviet times—were there any St. George ribbons there?
I used to go with my grandmother to Gorky Park every May 9, where she met up with her fellow soldiers. And I spent most of my life in military towns, where, as you can imagine, Victory Day is a special holiday. There was nothing even remotely like St. George ribbons.
And no Guards ribbons either, by the way. Even though, for example, the Taman Division where my father served was a Guards unit. I remember the "Guards" badge perfectly—it was hard to get, and among soldiers preparing for demobilization you could trade almost anything for one:
Maybe there were some ribbons resembling St. George ribbons on regimental banners—I don't remember. But the "St. George ribbon" was NEVER any kind of significant symbol of May 9.
I would say this symbol was always associated with the tsarist army, which is only logical. And when applied to May 9, it's pretty clear what that means.
On the left is General Krasnov. On the right, a soldier from a Cossack SS division.
Any young "Elusive Avenger" (a reference to a famous Soviet adventure film) or kid playing "Zarnitsa" (a Soviet military-themed youth game) was supposed to immediately whack anyone wearing such a ribbon with a wooden saber.
Listen to Nevzorov (it's only 4 minutes). He was the one who coined the slur "Colorado ribbon." And he's especially interesting to listen to because he is the true father and inventor of the whole aesthetic later appropriated by Putin. All that "ours," all that metal riddled with bullet holes. The "Riga OMON" (Soviet/Russian special police in Riga) came long before "Berkut" (the former Ukrainian riot police). And so on.
I agree with him: the St. George ribbon as a symbol of May 9 is basically a Yeltsin-Putin rebranding aimed against the communists, who at the time were a real threat to United Russia. They simply decided to remove the color red. That's all.
I don't understand why anyone should be embarrassed about that: the color of Victory is red. The Banner of Victory is red.
The St. George ribbon, since 1917, was not used on any Soviet state award until the restoration of the Order of St. George and the St. George Cross in 1992.
This matters. These are real historical events in which our relatives took part. People fought, died, and won with specific words, under specific symbols, and beneath a banner of a specific color.
Even if we assume that it's important to eliminate red as the color of victory—which is offensive in itself—you could choose some real symbol: the distinctive star, or the color gold, or something like that. But certainly not the St. George ribbon.
Coming back to our grandparents: I'm sure that if, back then, when real frontline veterans could be seen by the hundreds and thousands, someone had shown up to their parade wearing a St. George ribbon, the veterans would have told him the obvious thing for that time: "Why the hell have you tied an SS ribbon on yourself?" In the USSR, nobody saw that ribbon any differently. Of course, that was Soviet ideological demonization of a symbol associated with heroes of Russia's earlier wars.
But still, in case anyone has forgotten, it was the USSR that fought the Great Patriotic War, and the war's veterans then lived in the USSR. You can't erase that fact.
Once again: the striped ribbon in itself is a good symbol. The campaign promoting the ribbon is a very successful reprise of the famous Anglo-American red poppy campaign. It really is successful.
The St. George (Guards) ribbon can be used as a symbol of the army. As a symbol of World War I. As a symbol of some kind of imperial continuity, for those who like that sort of thing. As one of the symbols uniting the country. But let's not stick it onto May 9.
It's unfair to those who fought under banners of an entirely different color.
I'm very interested in the opinion of those of you who went hand in hand to the parade with a grandfather or grandmother who was a frontline veteran—those born in 1980 or earlier.
Just please, no lectures on heraldry and no references to the Order of Glory. Veterans knew nothing about heraldry, and the meaning of the colors was perfectly clear to them.
Just write this: what color is May 9 to you?
P.S. Once again: don't write to me about the Order of Glory or the medal "For Victory over Germany." Here is a photo not from Google, but an actual photo of my grandmother's medal. Many people have the same one at home. I'm writing about something else entirely: the substitution of one symbol for another. The color of Victory, and the color of May 9, is red.