A large ribbon of Saint George, involved in the act against Nazism in Russia, presided over the events organized by the self-proclaimed People’s Republic in the port city
Without crushing Ukrainian resistance at the Azovstal steel mill, leaders of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic staged their own victory parade in the devastated port city of Mariupol on Monday. In reality, it was not a military parade, but rather a performance in which, according to Kiev, a few people took part: Russian soldiers in civilian clothes and “volunteers” from all over Donbas and Moscow, belonging to United Russia, the Kremlin party.
The Ukrainian authorities believe that a major military parade was originally planned in Mariupol due to the acceleration of the cleaning and debris removal work there and also due to the presence a few days ago of the deputy head of the government of the Kremlin, Sergei Kiriyenko . But the spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov, denied that such plans existed.
Later, the adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mijailo Podoliak, said that “the Kremlin is preparing a parade in Mariupol on May 9 with our military as prisoners.” Podoliak assured that “this was already done in Donetsk in 2014, when dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers were forced to parade through the streets. This time they want to repeat something similar.
But such assumptions were not confirmed either. What took place in Mariúpol this Monday was a march in which the participants held a huge cloth tens of meters long and about 15 meters wide with the colors of the Saint George ribbon ((black stripes, sometimes gray and orange.) head of the procession was Donetsk rebel leader Denis Pushilin and some of his closest associates.
The ribbon of Saint George was created in 1806 in Tsarist Russia as a carrier for the medal or cross of the same name. Later, Russian military banners of the same colors appeared. And already in Soviet times, beginning in the fall of 1941, after the Nazi invasion of the USSR, the Navy introduced the Saint George ribbon as a badge for some units and even as an ornament on the caps of sailors.
From 1943, this two-tone band also began to be used in decorations for merit in the war against Nazi Germany and, finally, “for the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War”, a name used in the Soviet Union and Russia. currently World War II. It also became an ornament in all degrees of the Order of Glory in the struggle for “the capture of Berlin” and later for some Victory anniversaries.
In this way, the Saint George ribbon became definitively associated with the act against Nazism and began to be displayed in the form of a bow in the festive decoration of the streets and as a badge on the jackets and dresses of those who parade in the Plaza Roja or the numerous events usually organized on the occasion of the event.
But this black-and-orange strip, called a “beetle”, was also used as a symbol by those who led the separatist uprising in Crimea and Donbas in March and April 2014, sparking a schism between those who always celebrated the celebration of defeat. of the German Nazis and those who now support the annexation of Crimea and the secession of the two self-proclaimed “people’s republics” Donetsk and Lugansk. Therefore, the Russian opposition considers it “controversial”.
It’s hard to say whether those who wear it intend to remember the Soviets who fell in World War II or are doing so to support the Donbass rebels. This Monday in Mariúpol, Pushilin wore the ribbon on his chest, but it was not a bow, but the letter “Z”, the main emblem worn by Russian tanks in Ukraine.
Since 2014, President Vladimir Putin has imposed the Saint George’s Ribbon as the main form of patriotism demonstration, and they are distributed for free everywhere on May 9. They are even placed in vehicles, in the antennas, in the interior mirror of the living room or in the door handles. It can also be found on all kinds of packaging or painted on public transport buses. Not wearing it can be seen as an act of dissent.
Source: La Verdad
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