Commemorating "Great Patriotic War Against Fascism Victory Day"

Today marks the 71st anniversary of Allied victory in the war against Nazi Germany.  It's a day that receives little notice in the United States as our war against fascism ended a few months later after the surrender of the Japanese.  For those, however, raised in the old Soviet Union this day carries important significance because over 25,000,000 Soviet citizens and soldiers were killed in the war against Germany.  It would be the equivalent today of having 35 million Americans killed in a war on home soil during a four-year period.  I think that kind of loss would resonate, even 71 years after the fact.

Great Patriotic War Against Fascism Victory Day is celebrated by a parade in downtown Bishkek where relatives of those who served in the war, or lost their lives in the war, march down the main street holding signs with photographs of the heroic and the fallen.

Poster in a storefront window announcing the parade

Participants lining up to march

Participants of all ages

Marching down the main street of Bishkek

Extremists lurk everywhere in the world, including this group honoring the generally-hated Stalin