RUSSIA

Russia

Russia

Comparison and Contrast of the Two Articles

From his ?rst inauguration on May 7, 2000 and his ?rst Victory Day speech on May 9, 2000, over the course of the next eleven years, Vladimir Putin has repeatedly personi? ed himself as the defender, even the savior of the Motherland. He noted in his inaugural address that he had taken on himself a gigantic responsibility, citing Boris Yeltsin's alleged send-o? , “Take care of Russia [ Beregite Rossiiu ].”

From the beginning Putin distinguished himself from Yeltsin - in his youth, vigor and especially over time, his masculinity. Close examination reveals that Putin and his handlers have structured his rule from the outset as a performance. Of late historians and observers of Russia have been asking whether Putin and his advisers have been striving to create a new cult of personality.

Studying the relationship between Putin and World War II reveals that they have also been creating an image that aligns him personally with the fate of the country.

His persona is deeply identi?ed with the ongoing commemoration of World War II, the su?ering and redemption of the nation. h e frequent invocation of World War II and its leading holiday May 9 have, over the last ten years, increasingly taken on a personal quality designed to identify Putin directly with the holiday and the victory in the war.

On the face of it the identi?cation of Vladimir Putin with World War II would seem unlikely. Vladimir Vladimirovich was born October 7, 1952, seven years after the conclusion of the war. He served in the KGB and FSB, not in the Soviet or post-Soviet military. His principal foreign language is German; his KGB service was in Dresden in East Germany. Yet Victory Day and World War II are symbols that Mr. Putin has come back to again and again. They serve many purposes. The reasons for the popularity of this war and this holiday with the Putin, and later Putin-Medvedev, administrations have been well shown by a number of scholars. The Great Patriotic War and its attendant May 9 holiday (Day of Victory) serve as a morality tale of su?ering and redemption and a foundation myth. They encapsulate a victory myth that appears to shore up Russian identity.

They also identify current Russian events with the longer sweep of tsarist and Soviet history and remind Russians of the ostensible unity and determination of the whole Soviet population (with a blind eye turned to the repressions of the peoples deported during the war). WWII and May 9 serve as well as the favorite myth of the power ministries (the armed forces and secret services), strengthening their legitimacy as decision-making bodies, while undermining the power of liberalism more broadly. And ?nally, May 9 is the last signi?cant holiday that commands national respect, November 7 and May 1 having both been discredited and commandeered by the Communists to the exclusion of other groups.

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