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IOL News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Our duty to remember — Ahead of the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazism
Soviet soldiers raising a flag over the Reichstag, May 1945 Image: Yevgeny Khaldei Russia, together with its allies and like-minded partners, will continue to counter any attempts to distort the historical truth and memory of World War II. On 9 May 1945, at 00:43 Moscow time, the German Instrument of Surrender was signed in Berlin which ended the Great Patriotic War. It started on June 22, 1941 with an attack of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) by Nazi Germany and its satellites, and concluded with a complete defeat of the invaders. The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people against Nazi Germany is the crucial part of World War II (1939-1945), the largest military conflict in history. This war changed the tide of world history, people's fates and the global political map. The victory was paid at the heaviest price – with lives of millions. The Soviet Union alone lost about 27 million men, which constitute 40% of all human losses in World War II. There was not a single family unaffected by the war across the entire USSR. Everyone performed its own feat – on the frontline and in the rear – to hasten the Great Victory Day. We remember and value the contribution of the Allied nations to the victory. Russia is grateful to South African public organisations, such as the Friends of the Soviet Union and the Medical Aid for Russia which raised around £1 million in donations between 1942 and 1945 and arranged well-publicised charity events to show solidarity with the Soviet people. We will never forget the efforts of South Africans who, in the face of mortal danger, under Nazi shelling, aboard the Arctic Convoys delivered strategic cargoes from the countries of the Anti-Hitler Coalition to the USSR. In March 2025, Russian diplomats passed the anniversary medal '80 years of the victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945' to Joseph Wilkinson, 99-year-old naval veteran residing in Cape Town. Several years ago, another World War II veteran passed away in South Africa –Tsipra Maiburd from the USSR. In 1941, when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, she was a student of a medical institute and volunteered to treat the wounded soldiers at a military hospital in Moscow. The Embassy of Russia cherishes the memory of her life and her feat. In fact, the majority of the wartime eyewitnesses have already departed this life – veterans and their family members, victims of Nazi concentration camps, 'children of war' etc. Largely due to that, the perception of the war by today's younger generations changes. People's fear of those tragic events repeating goes away, while the memory of World War II increasingly becomes the subject of myth-making and outright falsification. Agitation poster of the South African organisation 'Medical Aid for Russia', between 1941 and 1945 Image: Supplied Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Regrettably, in a number of countries this trend has been politically instrumentalised. 'Future generations will acknowledge their debt to the Red Army as unreservedly as do we who have lived to witness these proud achievements' – UK's Winston Churchill wrote in February 1945 in a personal message to Joseph Stalin. Yet today the reality has changed drastically from that described by the then British Prime Minister. Western politicians seek to diminish and distort the role of the Red Army in the liberation of Europe from Nazism, equate the USSR with Nazi Germany, and portray the Soviet Union almost as one of the main culprits of the war. All these cannot but stir indignation among the peoples who bore the brunt of the struggle against misanthropic regimes. Historical revisionism is extremely important for the West, attempting in every possible way to whitewash the dark spots in its own past. After all, practically all of Europe was complicit in the crimes of the Third Reich. In total, the Wehrmacht and SS units included over two million citizens of European states, mostly volunteers (from Denmark, Finland, Italy, Norway, Romania, Spain, etc). Read more about it in the Russian Foreign Ministry's report 'Eighty Years After the Great Victory: Europe has Once Again Fallen in the Shadow of Nazism' Neo-Nazism raising its head across Europe at present is a direct result of that policy, as are the monstrous regime in Kiev the EU has nurtured and aggressive Russophobia that grew manifold after the start of Russia's special military operation to protect Donbass and safeguard its civilians from genocide. Russia, as the country that suffered most from the horrors of World War II and the Third Reich's inhumane policies, is dismayed with the rehabilitation of Nazism and glorification of Nazi criminals in certain countries. Together with our allies and like-minded partners, we will continue the work to counter any attempts to distort the historical truth and memory of the Great Patriotic War. A priority for Russia will remain the perpetuation of the memory of the genocide of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War. In 2022‑2025, Russian courts recognised the crimes committed by the Nazis and their collaborators against the peaceful Soviet population and Soviet prisoners of war as genocide in territories currently belonging to 33 regions of the Russian Federation. We will never allow the lessons of the past to be forgotten. We must remember – for the sake of our common future. Written by Roman Ambarov, Ambassador of Russia to South Africa ** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of The Star, IOL or Independent Media.
IOL News
08-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Soviet Union and South Africa: Allies in World War II
Roman Ambarov, Ambassador of Russia to South Africa. Image: MFA of Russia Russia's Ambassador Ambarov on the 80th anniversary of the victory that crushed Nazism, liberated Europe, and laid the foundations of the African national freedom movement May 9, 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945, the most important and dramatic part of World War II, a triumph that came at an immense human cost and shaped the course of modern history. These days, we are celebrating the decisive contribution of the Soviet Union to the victory over Hitler's Germany and the liberation of Europe from Nazism. Lest we forget that nearly 90% of all Nazi military casualties occurred on the Eastern Front, and it was the Red Army that stormed and single-handedly captured Berlin. We are honouring not only a military victory, but also the extraordinary courage and sacrifice of the Soviet people who endured the deadliest conflict in human history. Nearly 27 million lives were lost in the Soviet Union alone – one in every seven citizens. In contemporary Russia, it is almost impossible to find a family whose relatives did not go through ordeals of the war. Practically everyone has some kind of personal connection to that era of righteous struggle and sacrifice. Even though my own grandfather did not serve on the front lines, he was one of the principal designers of the T-34, a legendary Soviet-made battle tank. His expertise and persistence enabled the creation of one of the most reliable and efficient combat vehicles of its time. Mass production and deployment of tens of thousands of T-34 tanks had literally turned the tide of the war. As the world celebrates the 80th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi Germany by the Red Army and its allies, I would like to seize this opportunity to recall another significant chapter of WWII history – South Africa's contribution to our common victory. Lend-Lease transit, arctic convoys, and tea in Crimea We will always remember that during World War II South Africa was our ally and an important member of the Anti-Hitler Coalition. South African waters were of strategic importance during the period when the supply route through the Dardanelles was closed. Cape Town, for example, played a crucial role in the Lend-Lease freight, being a principal port of call for Anglo-American ships delivering war goods to the Soviet Union via the Persian Gulf. 'Crush the Fascist Reptile!', a poster by The Medical Aid for Russia, a South African charity (early 1940s) Image: DISA Around 3,000 South African seamen served in the Royal navy, many of them – on board Allied vessels carrying valuable supplies to our northern ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk to relieve besieged Leningrad. Those long and perilous sea journeys were carried out in harsh weather conditions and under constant threat of being attacked and sank. I have warm memories of my encounters with South African veterans of the Arctic Convoys, whom I had a privilege to meet while serving as Russia's Consul General in Cape Town in 2015–2019. In late January 1945, SAAF's DC-3 transport airliner flew a secret mission from Cairo to Soviet Russia via Libya's Tobruk and Athens. The job was to transfer passengers and observe weather during some top brass talks. Oddly enough, South African aircrew found themselves in the recently liberated Crimea to witness the historic Yalta Conference of Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill. Held in the imperial Livadia Palace, the meeting shaped Europe's geopolitical landscape for decades to come. Many years later, the flight engineer of that mission shared his Crimea reminiscences in a brief interview. Not to forget, he told a journalist that the wife of Simferopol airfield's officer-in-command invited the South Africans for tea and cake. Grassroots humanitarian aid and Shostakovich's African premiere Moscow and Pretoria re-established diplomatic relations on 21 February 1942, just weeks after Hitler had failed to capture Russia's capital city. Due to the unprecedentedly fierce resistance put up by the Soviet troops, the Red Army repelled the Nazi onslaught and went into a massive counter offensive. At that dramatic time ,more than 9,000km away from the Eastern Front, in South Africa, a number of local pro-Soviet groups were running prominent campaigns of solidarity with the USSR and its people. Between 1942 and 1945, South African charities such as the Medical Aid for Russia and the Friends of the Soviet Union, raised about £1m (approximately R1.2 billion today) to purchase and donate to the Soviet Red Cross much needed medications, surgical equipment, food, clothes, footwear, and other essential goods. In the fall of 1943, for instance, we received 2,200 tons of such aid delivered by the Hoperange cargo ship. South African humanitarian relief, especially anti-typhoid vaccine and blood serum, reached many hospitals and orphanages in war-torn areas of the USSR, helping to save thousands of lives. In our embassy in Pretoria, we keep a stack of copies of declassified diplomatic correspondence dating those years. Looking through these faded typewritten pages gives me a peculiar moving feeling. Among the reports of Soviet Consul General's encounters with top officials of the Union of South Africa like Prime Minister J.C. Smuts and Secretary of External Affairs D.D. Forsyth, there are numerous records regarding public diplomacy and fundraising events organised by pro-Soviet groups all around South Africa. To name a few. In July 1944, the University of the Witwatersrand hosted the two-day African-Soviet friendship congress attended by 600 delegates from SA and some neighbouring countries. In November 1944, in Johannesburg, the Friends of the Soviet Union launched the Soviet Pavilion with exhibition halls, open-air tea garden, and, of course, a vodka bar. Up to 250,000 people visited the pavilion to learn more about life and the struggle of the USSR during World War II. The Medical Aid for Russia, run by its relentless chairman Haim Schneier, a physiologist from Johannesburg, organised anti-fascist rallies, screened Soviet feature films and documentaries, and even introduced Russian classical music to local audiences. Dmitri Shostakovich's Seventh 'Leningrad' Symphony, a work that became a musical manifesto of resistance to Nazism, was premiered on 9 July 1944 in Joburg and, two months later, in Cape Town. The proceeds from the ticket sales were donated to the Soviet Union's war effort. Such solidarity events were often attended by South Africans of all races, including prominent activists of the CPSA and ANC. Victory that secured our future Today, it is frustrating to see that some people begin to perceive Nazism as some sort of abstract evil of the past. In fact, the ideology of Nazism has always been rooted in particular concepts of racial superiority and European colonialism, things that South Africans may understand better than anyone else. Given this vile nature of Nazism, its ultimate defeat in 1945 laid the foundations of the world as we used to know it. The UN Charter, the era of decolonisation and independence in Africa and Asia, the fall of apartheid, and the rise of the Global South – none of these, indeed, would be possible without our victory in the Great Patriotic War 80 years ago. Written by Roman Ambarov, Ambassador of Russia to South Africa ** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of The Star, IOL or Independent Media.
