Great Patriotic War (term)

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File:2016 Immortal Regiment in Saint Petersburg (096).jpg

People in Saint Petersburg at the Immortal Regiment, carrying portraits of their ancestors who fought in the Great Patriotic War.

File:Generál s vlajkou v pozadí - panoramio.jpg

Veteran of the Soviet Army pays tribute on Victory Day in 2014 in Minsk under the cloak of the Soviet flag.

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The victory banner shown during the 2019 Moscow Victory Day Parade.

The Great Patriotic War (Template:Langx)Template:Efn is a term used in Russia and some other former republics of the Soviet Union<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> to describe the conflict fought during the period from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945 along the many fronts of the Eastern Front of World War II, primarily between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. For some legal purposes, this period may be extended to 11 May 1945 to include the end of the Prague offensive.<ref name="veterans-law">Федеральный закон № 5-ФЗ от 12 января 1995, "О ветеранах" Template:In lang</ref>

History

The term Patriotic War refers to the Russian resistance to the French invasion of Russia under Napoleon I, which became known as the Patriotic War of 1812. In Russian, the term Template:Lang originally referred to a war on one's own territory (Template:Transliteration means "the fatherland"), as opposed to a campaign abroad (Template:Lang),<ref>For example, one of the books published shortly after the war was titled Template:Lang с 1812 по 1815 год..." (Fyodor Glinka, Moscow, 1815–1816; the title was translated as "Letters of a Russian Officer on Poland, the Austrian Domains, Prussia and France; with a detailed description of the Russian campaign against the French in 1805 and 1806, and also the Fatherland and foreign war from 1812 to 1815..." in: A. Herzen, Letters from France and Italy, 1847–1851, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995, p. 272).</ref> and later was reinterpreted as a war Template:Em the fatherland, i.e. a defensive war for one's homeland. Sometimes the Patriotic War of 1812 was also referred to as the Great Patriotic War (Template:Lang); the phrase first appeared in 1844<ref>It can be found in Vissarion Belinsky's essay "Russian literature in 1843" first printed in magazine Otechestvennye Zapiski, vol. 32 (1844), see page 34 of section 5 "Critics" (each section has its own pagination).</ref> and became popular on the eve of the centenary of the Patriotic War of 1812.<ref>For example, several books had the phrase in their titles, as: Template:Lang</ref>

After 1914, the phrase was applied to World War I.<ref name=dict/> It was the name of a special war-time appendix to the magazine Theater and Life (Template:Lang) in Saint Petersburg, and referred to the Eastern Front of World War I, where Russia fought against the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.<ref name="dict" /> The phrases Second Patriotic War (Template:Lang) and Great World Patriotic War (Template:Lang) were also used during World War I in Russia.<ref name=dict/>

The term Great Patriotic War re-appeared in the official newspaper of the CPSU, Pravda, on 23 June 1941, just a day after Germany invaded the Soviet Union. It was found in the title of "The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet People" (Template:Transliteration), a long article by Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, a member of Pravda editors' collegium. The phrase was intended to motivate the population to defend the Soviet fatherland and to expel the invader, and a reference to the Patriotic War of 1812 was seen as a great morale booster.<ref name=dict>The dictionary of modern citations and catch phrases, by Konstantin Dushenko, 2006. Template:In lang</ref> During the Soviet period, historians engaged in huge distortions to make history fit with Communist ideology, with Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov and Prince Pyotr Bagration transformed into peasant generals, Alexander I alternatively ignored or vilified, and the war becoming a massive "People's War" fought by the ordinary people of Russia with almost no involvement on the part of the government.Template:Sfn The invasion by Germany was called the Great Patriotic War by the Soviet government to evoke comparisons with the victory by Tsar Alexander I over Napoleon's invading army.Template:Sfn

The term Template:Lang (Patriotic War or Fatherland War) was officially recognized by establishment of the Order of the Patriotic War on 20 May 1942, awarded for heroic deeds.

Usage

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2021 Moscow Victory Day Parade. Military parades and Soviet military symbolism play an important role in the 9 May celebrations across Russia.

The term is not generally used outside the former Soviet Union, and the closest term is the Eastern Front of World War II (1941–1945). Neither term covers the initial phase of World War II in Eastern Europe, during which the USSR, then still in a non-aggression pact with Germany, invaded eastern Poland (1939), the Baltic states (1940), Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina (1940) and Finland (1939–1940).<ref name="veterans-law" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The term also does not cover the Soviet–Japanese War (1945).<ref name="veterans-law" />

In Russia and some other post-Soviet countries, the term is given great significance; it is accepted as a representation of the most important part of World War II. Until 2014, Uzbekistan was the only nation in the Commonwealth of Independent States that had not recognized the term, referring to it as World War II on the state holiday – the Day of Remembrance and Honour.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Since the 2000s, the Russian government under Vladimir Putin has increasingly used the memory of the Great Patriotic War to foster national unity and justify contemporary political actions.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

On 9 April 2015, the Ukrainian parliament replaced the term Great Patriotic War (1941–1945) (Velyka vitchyzniana viina) in the country's law with the "Second World War (1939–1945)" (Druha svitova viina),<ref>Ukraine Purges Symbols of Its Communist Past, Newsweek, (10 April 2015)</ref> as part of a set of decommunization laws. Also in 2015, Ukraine's "Victory Day over Nazism in World War II" was established as a national holiday in accordance with the law of "On Perpetuation of Victory over Nazism in World War II 1939–1945". The new holiday was celebrated on May 9 and replaced the Soviet-Russian Victory Day, which is also celebrated on May 9. These laws were adopted by the Ukrainian parliament within the package of laws on decommunization.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2023 Ukraine abolished the 2015 9 May "Victory Day over Nazism" holiday and replaced it with the new public holiday "Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II 1939 – 1945" which is celebrated on 8 May annually.<ref>Template:Cite web
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