Great Patriotic War (term)

History

The term "Patriotic War" refers to Russian resistance to the French invasion of Russia under Napoleon I, which became known as the "Patriotic War of 1812". In Russian, the term "Patriotic War" (, ru) originally referred to a war on one's own territory (ru means "the fatherland"), as opposed to a campaign abroad (заграничная война), and later was reinterpreted as a war for the fatherland, i.e. a defensive war for one's homeland. Sometimes, the Patriotic War of 1812 was also referred to as the "Great Patriotic War" (Великая отечественная война); the phrase first appeared in 1844, and became popular on the eve of the centenary of the Patriotic War of 1812.

After 1914, the phrase was applied to World War I. It was the name of a special war-time appendix to the magazine Theater and Life (Театр и жизнь) in Saint Petersburg, and referred to the Eastern Front of World War I, where Russia fought against the German Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire and Ottoman Empire. The phrases "Second Patriotic War" (Вторая отечественная война) and "Great World Patriotic War" (Великая всемирная отечественная война) were also used during World War I in Russia.

The term "Great Patriotic War" re-appeared in the newspaper Pravda on 23 June 1941, just a day after Germany invaded the Soviet Union. It was found in the title of "The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet People", a long article by Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, a member of the Pravda editors' collegium. The phrase was intended to motivate the population to defend the Soviet fatherland and to expel the invader, and a reference to the Patriotic War of 1812 was seen as a great morale booster.

During the Soviet period, historians attempted to make this history fit with the state's communist ideology, with Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov and General Pyotr Bagration transformed into peasant generals, Alexander I alternatively ignored or vilified, and the war becoming a massive "People's War" fought by the ordinary people of Russia, with almost no involvement on the part of the government. The invasion by Germany was called the "Great Patriotic War" by the Soviet government to evoke comparisons with the victory by Tsar Alexander I over Napoleon's invading army.

The term "Patriotic War" was officially recognized by establishment of the Order of the Patriotic War on 20 May 1942, awarded for heroic deeds.

Usage

The term is not generally used outside the former Soviet Union and is used to refer to specifically the Eastern Front of World War II (1941–1945). The term does not cover other Soviet wars during the initial and final phases of World War II - occupation of eastern Poland (1939), the Baltic states (1940), Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina (1940), the Soviet–Finnish War (1939–1940), and the Soviet–Japanese War (1945).

In Russia and some other post-Soviet countries, the term is given great significance; it is accepted as a representation of the most important part of World War II. Until 2014, Uzbekistan was the only nation in the Commonwealth of Independent States that had not recognized the term, referring to it as World War II on the state holiday – the Day of Remembrance and Honour. Since the 2000s, the Russian government under Vladimir Putin has increasingly used the memory of the Great Patriotic War to foster national unity and justify contemporary political actions.

On 9 April 2015, the Ukrainian parliament replaced the term "Great Patriotic War (1941–1945)" (Velyka vitchyzniana viina) in the country's law with the "Second World War (1939–1945)" (Druha svitova viina), as part of a set of decommunization laws. Also in 2015, Ukraine's "Victory Day over Nazism in World War II" was established as a national holiday in accordance with the law of "On Perpetuation of Victory over Nazism in World War II 1939–1945". The new holiday was celebrated on 9 May and replaced Victory Day. In 2023, Ukraine abolished the "Victory Day over Nazism" holiday and replaced it with "Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II 1939 – 1945", which is celebrated on 8 May annually.

Gallery of stamps

File:Post USSR 1963 Satlingrad battle.jpg|1963 Soviet stamp commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad, with caption reading Великая Отечественная война 1941-1945гг (The Great Patriotic War 1941-1945). File:Stamp of Ukraine s656.jpg|Ukrainian stamp commemorating the "60th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War", 1945–2005 () File:07-z.png|Belarusian stamps for "70 years of victory in the Great Patriotic War 1945–2015" ().

Notes

References

Sources

References

1. Федеральный закон № 5-ФЗ от 12 января 1995, "О ветеранах" {{in lang. ru
2. For example, one of the books published shortly after the war was titled {{lang. ru. Письма русского офицера о Польше, Австрийских владениях, Пруссии и Франции, с подробным описанием похода Россиян противу Французов в 1805 и 1806 году, также отечественной и заграничной войны с 1812 по 1815 год..." ([[Fyodor Glinka]], Moscow, 1815–1816; the title was translated as "Letters of a Russian Officer on Poland, the Austrian Domains, Prussia and France; with a detailed description of the Russian campaign against the French in 1805 and 1806, and also the Fatherland and foreign war from 1812 to 1815..." in: A. Herzen, ''Letters from France and Italy, 1847–1851'', [[University of Pittsburgh Press]], 1995, p. 272).
3. It can be found in [[Vissarion Belinsky]]'s essay "Russian literature in 1843" first printed in magazine [[Otechestvennye Zapiski]], vol. 32 (1844), see page 34 of section 5 "Critics" (each section has its own pagination).
4. For example, several books had the phrase in their titles, as: {{lang. ru. П. Ниве, Великая Отечественная война. 1812 годъ, М., 1912; И. Савостинъ, Великая Отечественная война. Къ 100-лѣтнему юбилею. 1812–1912 г., М., 1911; П. М. Андріановъ, Великая Отечественная война. (1812) По поводу 100-лѣтняго юбилея, Спб., 1912.
5. (28 October 2013). "Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Russian". Routledge.
6. Ем. Ярославский, Великая отечественная война советского народа // Правда, № 172 от 23 июня 1941 года, с. 4
7. ru
8. (23 March 2016). "Aftermath: Legacies and Memories of War in Europe, 1918–1945–1989". Routledge.
9. (10 December 2008). "The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, 1941-45: A Documentary Reader". Routledge.
10. (8 April 2008). "World War II – 60 Years After: For Some Central Asians, 'Great Patriotic War' is More Controversial Than Ever". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
11. Walker, Shaun. (2025-05-07). "How VE Day and Putin’s war are forcing Ukrainians to relive their painful past". The Guardian.
12. [http://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-purges-symbols-its-communist-past-321663 Ukraine Purges Symbols of Its Communist Past], [[Newsweek]], (10 April 2015)
13. "Про увічнення Перемоги у Великій Вітчизняній війні 1941–1945 років".
14. (30 May 2023). "Zelenskyy signs law recognising 8 May as Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism". [[Ukrainian News Agency]].