The victory over Nazism on May 8th 1945 was celebrated in France with a traditional parade, organized by the Russian Embassy, in collaboration with various organizations, and Communists, Gaullistes, and patriots whose ancestors fought in the Resistance.
Among the participants were the descendants of those who gave their lives in this struggle, who marched in the parade carrying the portraits of their ancestors killed by the Nazis in the war. The parade started close to the Republic Plaza and walked all the way to the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, where French, European and Soviet Resistance fighters are buried, in collective and other tombs.
A phenomenon of note is the fact that as many as 100,000 Soviets, who had been captured by the Nazis, fled the Wehrmacht and joined the Resistance in France. A tomb is dedicated to them at Père Lachaise Cemetery. It is there that Jacques Cheminade, president of French political party Solidarité et Progrès, presented the following speech. Prior to that, the parade had stopped before other tombs commemorating the victory at the cemetery: tombs of French and Western Resistance fighters where our friend Col. Alain Corvez (ret.) gave a short speech, as did the spokesman of the Party for the Renaissance of Communism (PRCF), two of whose main leaders, both resistants such as Léon Landini, passed away this year, shortly before their 100 year birthdays. Solidarité et Progrès members, which was among the parade’s organizers, were also present.
Here is the speech by Jacques Cheminade, President of Solidarity & Progress, presented at the monument commemorating some 35,000 Soviet Resistance fighters against the Nazis in France:
“All those who have dedicated their lives to a just cause carry a share of immortality. We owe them.
“First, we owe it to them to remember their struggle, in these times when their history is forgotten, and, even worse, when the enemies of humanity try to minimize or disfigure it.
“Here, these immortals are the Soviet Resistance fighters who fought in France and for France, approximately 35,000 prisoners of war who escaped and joined our Resistance. Those who participated in the liberation of Lyon, Montpellier, Toulouse, Clermont-Ferrand, Paris, and Nîmes, as well as Oléron. There is Georgy Ponomarev creating the first detachment of Soviet patriots in France, the Stalingrad detachment. There is Stephan Kotsour sacrificing his life to save his comrades and enable the liberation of Lagon. There is the Jacquou le Croquant detachment, with Victor Alexeenko and Sacha Khatogounov. There is the maquis of the Massif Central, where my family comes from, and among them, the ‘Soviet maquis.’ There is the detachment of young Russian women Resistance fighters in eastern France.
“Those intellectuals and religious figures, who died in combat: Boris Vildé, shot in 1942; Mother Marie Skobtsov, who died at Ravensbrück; and Princess Obolensky, beheaded by the Nazis. Here, too, lies the memory of [Régiment de Chasse 2/30] Normandie-Niemen, of Maurice de Seynes, who sacrificed his life trying to save his Russian mechanic.
“For them and so many others, our memory must refuse to fade. Not with vain nostalgia, but with the determination they bequeathed to us.
“Because memory alone is not enough. Today, the whole world is rearming, and from Gaza and Iran to Ukraine, where our European countries are waging a proxy war, reality challenges us. Even more so than last year, when we were here together, the time has come to commit ourselves, as our elders did, hoping for the victory of the cause of humanity.
“It is the spirit of the National Council of the Resistance that each and every one of us owes to them to revive. I think that if this soldier could see and hear us, he would tell us that there is an urgent need. An urgent need to commit ourselves to peace, development, and mutual security. Here, on the base, we read, ‘The nation remembers.’ This soldier is the image of all those who died for peace, justice, and victory. As for them in their time, the moment of common salvation has come. In our age of nuclear weapons, we should have hundreds of thousands in our streets and squares against war and to build peace. This is what remembrance should inspire. That this is not the case can only awaken our conscience and inspire our commitment.”