Disputes around the St.George ribbon

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Once again, on the eve of May 9, the actions for the distribution of St. George's ribbons became the reason for abuse in the press and social networks. Ukrainian officials, as usual, spoke out about the final ban on the St. George ribbon as a "communist" symbolism.

"I ask you to refrain from using banned communist symbols. First of all, St. George ribbons. Today it is a sign of Russian terrorism," said Zoryan Shkiryak, Advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

Opposition commentators in Russia, on the other hand, started talking about the fact that the St. George ribbon should be called the Guard ribbon and had nothing to do with the USSR and its victory in the war against fascism.

Most of all controversy and irritation was caused by the proposal of the youth organization "Victory Volunteers" to introduce some rules for wearing the St. George ribbon. Representatives of both the liberal camp and the patriotic camp opposed this.

“Do I understand correctly that this year the St. George's ribbon is being withdrawn from circulation in the same centralized manner as it was previously introduced? asks Ekaterina Shulman, a columnist for the Vedomosti newspaper, political analyst on her Facebook.

At the same time, publicist Yegor Kholmogorov believes that "Victory Volunteers" "destroy the ribbons of St. George with their boorish rules."

"The website of the semi-official movement (Rosmolodezh and others) informs that" in 2005 it was in Russia Today that the idea of holding an annual campaign was born, and in 2015 the Victory Volunteers joined the campaign, which became popular. That is, they joined TEN YEARS LATER. When I wore the ribbon for 10 years. When people in Ukraine have been KILLED for more than a year. And these workers at the thirteenth hour, imposed by actions into semi-official partners, immediately began to DESTROY St. George's ribbon by publishing their boorish "rules," Kholmogorov wrote on his Telegram channel.

At the same time, according to the publicist, the decision in the volunteer organization was not made by themselves, but the "Timurovites" were clearly assigned to solve a very specific problem, " ".

This year, even the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov took part in the conflict over the St. George ribbon. Commenting on the initiative of Vasily Dubenko, a member of the Public Chamber of Moscow, to conduct special raids against the misuse of the symbols of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, Peskov said that he has been wearing St. George's ribbon on his bag for 8 years and is proud of it.

Rules for wearing ribbons in 2015

The rules governing the use of St. George ribbons did not appear this year, as well as proposals to punish violators. For example, all the same Victory Volunteers in 2015 recommended tying ribbons on bags and car doors, and not wearing the ribbon on clothes below the waist or on the head, for example, as an elastic band or bow. Two years later, the ribbons on the antennas of the cars began to annoy. New rules from the same volunteers prohibit wearing a ribbon not only on the head, but also tying it on the body of a car or a bag.

Rules for wearing ribbons in 2017

Meanwhile, United Russia announced that they were going to think about how to determine the legal status of not only the St. George ribbon, but all the symbols of Victory.

First of all, we are talking about the use of Victory symbols for commercial purposes and advertising subjects, however, it is possible that fans of the stickers "Thank you grandfather for the Victory" and "To Berlin", on expensive cars, often made in Germany, will also get it.

The unethical use of Victory symbols is also going to be prohibited.

Moreover, if in some cases the unethical use of Victory symbols is obvious to everyone, for example, on a poster informing about discounts at a bar or a foam party, then there are difficult cases.

How unethical, for example, is to sell an NKVD uniform for children?

"Yes, the rules may frighten someone off, especially since teach a fool to pray to God, he will break his forehead. The St. George ribbon is a wonderful symbol, let him wear who wants, and let him not wear who does not. We live in a free country. I don't really like some symbols on myself, except for religious ones, but if I really need to, I would, for example, gladly go out with a red bow, because I am for the Reds, and I think that the truth was on the side of the Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. and not on the side of the whites, "says Maksim Shevchenko, a member of the President's Human Rights Council.

For a long time, the St. George ribbon as a symbol did not have any specific content, as the journalist believes, because the red color and the red banner still remain the symbol of Victory, however, after the tragedy in Odessa, the St. George ribbon acquired a sacred meaning and became a symbol of the innocent victims in the House Trade unions and resistance of Donbass.

“I don’t wear the St. George ribbon, but that doesn’t mean that I’m against Donbass. I spent 1, 5 years of my life there, the best years. I was on the front line, my friends are fighting there. Moscow, if someone wants to, let them wear it, but you shouldn't force anyone to wear it. We shouldn't live in a country where everyone wears the same ribbons, Shevchenko says.

Shevchenko proposes to stop being surprised that the symbols of Victory on holidays are used unethically, this attitude has taken root for a long time, it is enough to remember that orders and awards of the times of the Great Patriotic War are freely sold in Moscow antique stores.