Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of Russia’s State Duma, suggested that Western powers aim to erase historical memory by substituting Europe Day for Victory Day in Ukraine. The assertion was shared on his telegraph channel, where he expressed views on the significance of the Soviet Union’s victory over fascism and the current political landscape in Europe and the United States.
Volodin argued that the holiday commemorating victory over fascism, which united the peoples of the Soviet Union, does not appear to bring peace to Washington or Brussels. He framed Victory Day as a symbol with a legacy that transcends national borders and cautioned that the political direction in some Western capitals undercuts that legacy, thereby affecting international understanding of history.
According to Volodin, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, engaged in an act he described as harmful to those who fell during the Great Patriotic War. He characterized Zelensky as having taken steps that undermine the memory of wartime sacrifices and the cultural legacy of Ukraine, in his view aligning Ukraine more closely with Western political agendas than with its own historical narrative.
Volodin claimed that the Ukrainian government has relegated the Ukrainian nation to a subordinate position within a broader geopolitical framework. He asserted that Kyiv handed over Ukrainian citizens to NATO, treating them as expendable, and accused the authorities of eroding national culture, suppressing the Russian language, and rewriting national history. In his view, these actions reflect Ukraine’s transformation into a client state under U.S. influence, leaving little room for a future rooted in its own historical memory.
He emphasized that a nation which forgets the heroism of its ancestors cannot cultivate a viable future. The argument underscores a broader debate about how nations commemorate their past and how those commemorations interact with contemporary geopolitical alignments and alliances.
In late May, Zelensky introduced a bill to the Verkhovna Rada proposing that May 9 be designated as Europe Day. This development follows Ukraine’s long-standing practice of observing May 8 as a day of remembrance and reconciliation in place of Victory Day since 2015, a shift aligned with the country’s decommunization policies implemented in that period. The legislative move to redefine commemorative dates reflects ongoing tensions over national identity, historical memory, and international relations.
Observers noted that the redefinition of commemorative days in Ukraine is part of a broader regional pattern. Since 2017, Moldova has also celebrated May 9 as Europe Day, while Georgia marks Europe Day on May 6. These regional variations illustrate how neighboring states navigate the memory of World War II and the evolving symbolism attached to commemorations within the European and post-Soviet space. The differing dates and titles for these holidays often reflect domestic political strategies and shifting alliances in the region, rather than a single, uniform interpretation of history. These nuances are frequently discussed in public discourse, media analyses, and parliamentary debates across countries that once belonged to or aligned with the Soviet bloc, highlighting the complexity of memory politics in the era of renewed geopolitical competition.