May 10, 2023

Zelensky's Bold Move


Zelensky's Bold Move
Ukrainian national costumes. Nastya Khachaturiants, Wikimedia Commons.

In the midst of war, Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky proposed a bill to designate May 9 as "Europe Day" in Ukraine. May 8, Victory Day in Ukraine, will instead be celebrated as a "day of remembrance and victory over Nazism." In Russia, May 9 commemorates the victories made during World War II.

Since 2015, Ukraine observed the Allies' victories on both May 8 and 9. In a video message on this year's Victory Day, Zelensky compared the defeat of Russian forces in his country to the fall of Nazi Germany in WWII:

"It was on May 8, 1945, that the act of unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht entered into force. It is on May 8 that the world honors the memory of all those whose lives were taken by that war. We destroyed evil together, in the same way as we are now standing together against a similar evil."

"Together with all of free Europe, we will mark May 9 in Ukraine as Europe Day: [the day] of a united Europe, the basis of which should be and will be peace; [a day] of our Europe," Zelensky said. "Ukraine has always been, is, and will be a part of [this Europe]."

On the other side, Putin used Russia's May 9 Victory Day to push the unfounded claim that Ukraine is a fascist state, similar to Nazi Germany, a pretext for Russia's war. Over 20 Russian cities have scrapped Victory Day parades and Moscow's celebrations were subdued.

You Might Also Like

Everything is Connected
  • October 15, 2022

Everything is Connected

We are all daily shaken and unsettled by the fire hose of bad news from Russia and Ukraine, and we all would love “something good, loving, and light from Russia to counterbalance the darkness, the senseless brutality, and the horrors perpetrated by Russian hands in Ukraine.”
400 Days
  • March 30, 2023

400 Days

On this, the 400th Day of Russia's War on Ukraine, we gather and share some telling data.
Searching for Nazis
  • June 05, 2022

Searching for Nazis

Putin says he invaded Ukraine to root out Nazis. Zelensky compares the defense of Ukraine to the heroism of the 1940s. Can both be right? No. No, they can't.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka
November 01, 2012

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

A Taste of Chekhov
December 24, 2022

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.

At the Circus
January 01, 2013

At the Circus

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.

Moscow and Muscovites
November 26, 2013

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

Russian Rules
November 16, 2011

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.

Faith & Humor
December 01, 2011

Faith & Humor

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

White Magic
June 01, 2021

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955