Between Two Victories

A nation suspended between memory, war, and rebirth.

I congratulate everyone on Victory Day! They were victorious. Then we lived by that Victory for quite a long time. Later, its fruits were stolen from us. They even tried to steal the great holiday itself. That failed.

Now we are once again at war. Completely, headlong, with our whole being. The next Victory is our task. Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers fulfilled theirs. Now it is our turn.

Perhaps this is the most difficult time in which to celebrate this holiday: between two Victories. One that already exists, and another that still has yet to come. If there is no new Victory, then we will squander and betray the feat of those who achieved the previous one. That very nearly happened in the vile, shameful, bastardized 1990s. May they be cursed together with all their names, figures, rulers, and institutions. It was an era of total defeat and betrayal.

Now we have embarked upon the path of rebirth. It has proven more difficult than we thought and expected. Because the dark legacy of the 1990s crashes over us again and again like a wave. It interrupts the path towards Victory, prevents spiritual mobilization from being achieved, and undermines the people’s trust in the elite (because it comes from the 1990s, and that fact alone is damning).

Yet the feat of our warriors is sacred. The memory of it will never fade. A holiday with bitterness. Double bitterness.

Our dead look upon us in bewilderment. Save the country… What are you doing?

(Translated from the Russian)