Today is truly a historical day. For the first time ever, the West has boycotted the Victory Day Parade in Moscow and, also for the first time ever, Chinese forces have marched on the Beautiful Square, (“Red” square is a mistranslation – the “Red Square” ought be called the “Beautiful Square”) with the Russians. I believe that this is a profoundly symbolic shift and one which makes perfectly good sense.
The past
For one thing, Russia and China suffered more from WWII than any other country. See for yourself:
Now take a look at the casualties suffered by the “boycotting countries” and everything becomes clear (the only exception to this rule is Poland, which lost a huge proportion of its population). The fact is, that for all the Hollywood movies produced about WWII, the Anglo countries suffered very little, compared to the huge losses of Russia (25+ million) and China (15+ million). For details, see hereand here. As for continental Europe, it’s resistance to the Nazis, while very real and heroic, was a feat of the few, not a true national resistance (like in the Soviet Union, Poland or Yugoslavia). But there is much more to this than just numbers.
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