Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, May 18 (Xinhua) — “Your documentary ‘My Moscow Encounters’ faithfully portrayed modern Russia and our war heritage. I was so touched! Both my grandfathers were war veterans, and both my grandmothers survived the siege of Leningrad,” a message from Anna Belkina, head of the PR department of RT TV channel (Russia Today), transported correspondents from sunny and clear Beijing back in time to recent spring days on Moscow’s Red Square.
On May 15 and 16, RT aired the Xinhua News Agency documentary “My Moscow Meetings” in prime time on two consecutive evenings, which received a wide response from Russian viewers.
“This is a film showing China’s view of the Great Patriotic War and World War II. The sacrifices that people made to achieve Victory were enormous,” Ekaterina Yakovleva, head of the RT.Doc television channel, wrote in a message to correspondents. “We must preserve this memory and prevent distortion of the historical truth.”
Ahead of the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, Xinhua correspondents in Moscow talked with old and new friends about the memory of World War II, the meaning of peace and hopes for the future. The conversations give a clear sense of the overlapping memories of the peoples of China and Russia and their common aspiration for common development.
MEMORY OF THE PAST IS A TRIBUTE OF RESPECT TO ANCESTORS
“Each link in these chains symbolizes ten lives. That is, 26 million Soviet people who died in World War II,” RT chief producer Dmitry Leontyev looks up at the chains hanging from the ceiling and explains their meaning in the “Faces of Victory” hall of the Victory Museum in Moscow.
The museum was opened in 1995 — on the 50th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War and the World Anti-Fascist War. D. Leontyev says that in every family someone fought. And today, every Russian can bring a photograph to the museum or write a text about their relatives to preserve their memory forever. Among the more than a million photographs collected is a picture of the father of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“For Russians, May 9 is the most important secular holiday of the year. After all, if we had not won that war, Russia simply would not exist,” says D. Leontyev. “Preserving the history of that war is a tribute to the sacrifices that my ancestors made and thanks to which I can now sit here and talk to you.”
“Of all the other countries, only China can understand this. Because for them, too, it was a war for survival… Our two countries suffered the most, lost the most people in World War II. And not only soldiers died, but also women, children, and old people. They suffered from terrible hunger, from the atrocities that the Japanese and German armies committed in China and in Russia, then the Soviet Union. And if you remember the Chinese soldiers who fought in the ranks of the Soviet army, and the Soviet soldiers who fought and risked their lives for China, then I think it would be impossible to imagine a stronger bond between the countries,” he adds.
“THE DISASTER OF 80 YEARS AGO MUST NOT BE REPEATED”
In March 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave an important speech at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) of the Russian Foreign Ministry, noting that in the present world, the interconnectedness and interdependence of all countries has reached an unprecedentedly high level. “All of us, people, live in one global village, in one time and space at the intersection of history and reality. More and more, we are becoming a community of a common destiny, in which I am in you, and you are in me,” he said.
“It was a historic moment,” said Alexander Bobrov, associate professor of diplomacy at MGIMO. He led journalists to the MGIMO conference hall building where Chinese President Xi Jinping gave his speech 12 years ago.
A. Bobrov said that he was a second-year university student that year, and his own mentality was strongly oriented toward the West.
“After the speech of Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, I studied many books about China and Eurasia and radically changed my perception of the world,” he noted.
A. Bobrov believes that the concept of building a community with a common destiny for humanity, proposed by Xi Jinping, “influenced the worldview of many national leaders.” “I think that Chairman Xi Jinping’s speech changed the perception of the world in which we live,” A. Bobrov adds.
On the building of the university conference hall there is a huge red banner with the inscription in white letters. “Happy Great Victory Day. 1945-2025,” he translates the inscription.
Speaking about the military parade in honor of Victory Day, which took place on May 9, A. Bobrov notes: “The point is not to boast about what kind of army we have or to demonstrate military valor, the point is that what happened 80 years ago should not happen again. It is about preserving the common past for the sake of a bright future for our peoples.”
According to him, some Western countries, trying to present this event as Russia-oriented, “are making a big mistake, because this is not about Russia, but about our common Victory.”
“THE SUPPORT OF PEACE, STABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE WHOLE WORLD”
“This order belonged to my father-in-law. In 1941, he voluntarily went to the front and was seriously wounded in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg),” says Yuri Tavrovsky, a professor at the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia. In his home, a Xinhua correspondent saw not only the order of the Soviet veteran, but also books by Yuri Tavrovsky himself about China.
As one of Russia’s leading sinologists, Yuri Tavrovsky is deeply familiar with Chinese culture, concepts and initiatives.
Yury Tavrovsky believes that Russia and China’s joint celebration of the victory in World War II demonstrates “their own vision of history based on facts.” In his opinion, Russian-Chinese relations embody the principle of Chinese philosophy “he er bu tong” /unity while preserving diversity/.
“A new period is now emerging, thanks to a different type of relationship between Russia and China,” he says, adding that Russia and China will become “the pillar of peace, stability and development throughout the world.”
Any attempt “to divide us, to create discord between Russia and China are doomed to failure,” he says. “Russia and China not only marched together on /Red/ Square, they will help each other in difficult times.”
Speaking about his expectations for the future, Yuri Tavrovsky notes that the most important thing is to eradicate wars. “Peace, trade and exchange between civilizations are the main tasks of the 21st century,” he says. –0–