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TheGreat Patriotic War[a] is aterm used inRussia (and formerly theSoviet Union) and some otherpost-Soviet states to describe theEastern Front ofWorld War II, fought primarily between the Soviet Union andNazi Germany between 22 June 1941 and 9 May 1945.[1] For some legal purposes, this period may be extended to 11 May 1945 to include the end of thePrague offensive.[1]
The term "Patriotic War" refers to Russian resistance to theFrench invasion of Russia underNapoleon I, which became known as the "Patriotic War of 1812". InRussian, the term "Patriotic War" (Russian:отечественная война,otechestvennaya voyna) originally referred to a war on one's own territory (otechestvo means "the fatherland"), as opposed to a campaign abroad (заграничная война),[2] and later was reinterpreted as a warfor 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,[3] and became popular on the eve of the centenary of the Patriotic War of 1812.[4]
After 1914, the phrase was applied toWorld War I.[5] It was the name of a special war-time appendix to the magazineTheater and Life (Театр и жизнь) inSaint Petersburg, and referred to theEastern Front of World War I, where Russia fought against theGerman Empire,Austro-Hungarian Empire andOttoman Empire.[5] 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.[5]
The term "Great Patriotic War" re-appeared in the newspaperPravda on 23 June 1941, just a day afterGermanyinvaded the Soviet Union.[6] It was found in the title of "The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet People", a long article byYemelyan Yaroslavsky,[7] a member of thePravda 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.[5][8]
During the Soviet period, historians attempted to make this history fit with the state's communist ideology, with Field MarshalMikhail Kutuzov and GeneralPyotr 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 ofRussia, with almost no involvement on the part of the government.[9] 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.[10]
The term "Patriotic War" was officially recognized by establishment of theOrder of the Patriotic War on 20 May 1942, awarded for heroic deeds.
The term is not generally used outside the former Soviet Union and is used to refer to specifically theEastern Front ofWorld War II (1941–1945).[11] The term does not cover other Soviet wars during the initial and final phases of World War II - occupation ofeastern Poland (1939),the Baltic states (1940),Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina (1940), theSoviet–Finnish War (1939–1940), and theSoviet–Japanese War (1945).[1]
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 theCommonwealth of Independent States that had not recognized the term, referring to it as World War II on the state holiday – theDay of Remembrance and Honour.[12] Since the 2000s, theRussian government underVladimir Putin has increasingly used the memory of the Great Patriotic War to foster national unity and justify contemporary political actions.[13]
On 9 April 2015, theUkrainian 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),[14] as part of a set ofdecommunization 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 replacedVictory Day.[15] 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.[16]
