2010: A Russian Odyssey

S dnyom pobedy!

“Happy Victory Day!” This weekend Russia celebrated one of its biggest holidays – Victory Day, May 9, the commemoration of the end of World War II on the Eastern Front (May 9, 1945) and victory for the Soviet Union. For weeks the city had been slowly transforming into a celebration on the streets – every lamp post sported the Russian flag and the “Victory Banner” the Red Army planted in Berlin. The roads were also lined with orange and black banners, hammer and sickle emblems, and anything else you could stick the number 65 on.

Unfortunately you need to be invited to watch the main celebration in Palace Square and I’m apparently not important enough in this country yet to get one of those invitations. Instead I walked around the crowded streets of the city, getting stuck at every corner where a line of trucks and cops stopped people from going any further. From the looks of it on the street, Victory Day is an opportunity for veterans to display their honors proudly and get praises of gratitude from other elders, and it’s an opportunity for young people to get absolutely drunk at 11am.

After lunch I was too tired from walking to continue the celebration, but there was a veteran march down the main road in Petersburg and of course a communist rally (portraits of Stalin being toted down the street included). The day ended with a fireworks display at night, which I went to go watch. Our spots were pretty much directly under the fireworks so I don’t have any exciting photos to share, but it was nice watching the “salut” over the river in the slightly dim 10pm sky.

I’m pretty amazed how little time I have left in Russia – just 12 more days. I’m going to try and make the most out of these days, so forgive me if I fall behind on blog posts!