Albert P. Khorev
Ambassador of Russian Federation to Pakistan – Text of Speech @ Victory Day celebration at the Residence on 06 May 2025 / President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari was the Chief Guest
These days, May 9th to be exact, we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory, the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, which determined the outcome of the Second World War. It was undoubtedly a victory of good over evil, which prevented the spread of the “brown plague” – the threat of death hanging over humanity.
In our country, the four years from 1941 to 1945 are known as the Great Patriotic War. During this period, the Soviet Union, with incredible efforts and at the cost of many millions of lives, pushed back the German war machine, which had previously crushed the resistance, conquered and “swallowed” entire countries, such as France and Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway, in a matter of days or weeks…
Not only that, but our country, with the help of the Allies, dealt a devastating blow to Nazism, crushed the Nazi lair in its very center – Berlin, and liberated many peoples of Europe and Asia.
Today it is imperative to recall the most important battles of the Great Patriotic War: Brest, Smolensk, Moscow, Leningrad, Rzhev, Stalingrad, Kursk, Murmansk, the battles for Crimea and the Caucasus, which turned the tide of the war.
The battle for the Caucasus, which lasted more than a year at the same time as the Battle of Stalingrad, prevented the Germans from breaking through to the oil-rich parts of Azerbaijan and thwarted Hitler’s plans for further conquest of the British Middle East and India.
We remember the tremendous cost of this victory, we remember the 27 million Soviet citizens: Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Azerbaijanis, Georgians, Ossetians, Tajiks, Turkmens and all other peoples of the multi-ethnic state – Red Army soldiers, home front workers, the elderly and children whose lives were taken by the war.
Today it is no secret that the German invaders unleashed a veritable genocide against the Soviet people. Our nation manifested extraordinary courage and heroism, strength of will and spirit. They consciously sacrificed their lives for the common victory.
Here are just a few names of heroes forever living in our memory: Alexander Matrosov, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Matvey Kuzmin, Nikolai Gastello…. The victory would not have been possible without the Soviet military commanders, such as Georgy Zhukov, Konstantin Rokossovsky, Ivan Konev, Alexander Vasilevsky and others, whose names are forever inscribed in history. But still, how many heroes remain unknown! Our sacred duty is to cherish the memory of each of them.
In memory of the soldiers and civilians who fell in the Great Patriotic War, I declare a minute of silence.
We honor the bravery of all soldiers of the anti-Hitler coalition, Resistance fighters and partisans. We salute the courage of the Chinese people who fought for their independence against the aggression of militaristic Japan. We will always remember our common struggle and inspiring traditions of alliance.
The significance of the Victory cannot be overemphasized. The Yalta and Potsdam Conferences of 1945, with the Soviet Union playing a leading role, laid the groundwork for the global world order still in place today.
The United Nations Organization was established, and its anniversary will be celebrated soon. The victory substantially accelerated the decolonization process in Asia and Africa, launching dozens of states on a path of independent development.
Nevertheless, we are currently witnessing attempts to rewrite and distort the truth about the Second World War and to downplay the role of the USSR in attaining the shared victory. The truth gets in the way of those who are accustomed to basing their colonial policy on hypocrisy and lies.
Ungrateful descendants of the liberated peoples of Poland, the Baltic States, Ukraine and a number of other countries are tearing down monuments in honor of the true fighters against Nazism. Moreover, traitors and Hitler’s accomplices are put on pedestals there.
In a time-serving and desperate Russophobic spree, they are trying to erase the memory of the heroism and nobleness of those who fought for their freedom and made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of life – Red Army soldiers.
Revanchism, mockery of history, and the desire to exonerate present-day followers of the Nazis are part of the general policy of Western elites to fuel more and more regional conflicts, inter-ethnic and sectarian strife. “Divide and conquer” – this principle, practiced by the colonial powers of the XIX-XX centuries, still defines the foreign policy of Western countries, which spare no effort to curb the progress of sovereign, independent centers of global development.
To a large extent, it was Western revanchism, as well as neo-Nazism and Russophobia artificially cultivated in Eastern European countries, that prompted the Russian leadership to launch the special military operation in Ukraine.
Today its participants – the warriors of modern Russia – are continuing the work of their ancestors, fighting back against the vile ideology of Nazism, which has changed but retained its hateful essence. We bow to their resilience and selflessness.
Victory Day unites all generations. As we move forward, drawing on our centuries-old traditions, we are confident that together with our friends and partners we will ensure a free and secure future for our country, the region and the world. We believe that cooperation and unity are the key to our common prosperity.
That is why we are actively building integration ties in the Eurasian space. We are strengthening the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, expanding cooperation within the Eurasian Economic Union, the SCO and the BRICS.
Together with the Republic of Belarus, we have launched a joint initiative to adopt the Eurasian Charter of Diversity and Multipolarity, inviting all countries of our continent to participate in the discussion and adhere to it.
May 9 is always a very emotional and poignant day for every Russian. Every family in our vast country honors its heroes, watches films about the war, looks at photos of their dearly departed – or in their beloved faces, when we are lucky to still have them around – and listens to stories about the war.
Across the vast territories of the former USSR one can hardly find a single family whose ancestors were not affected by the Great Patriotic War in one way or another.
Happy Victory Day!
