Some Nostalgic Vets Mourn Loss of Nation They Defended

They endured 70 Russian winters, survived the reign of Josef Stalin and broke the back of the Nazi military machine.

But the bemedaled Russian veterans of World War II who gathered Sunday to celebrate victory over the Third Reich have now lost their historical lodestar. The country they bled for no longer exists.

“We fought for five years,” said Pyotr G. Zarybin, 70, who said he was wounded five times. “Then one day we went to sleep, woke up and the Soviet Union was gone.”

About 10,000 people, many in uniform or sporting service ribbons carefully pinned to well-worn clothing, gathered Sunday in Victory Park, where Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, his top ministers and an array of performers paid homage to their heroism and their sacrifice.

For some, it was a disorienting experience. One elderly veteran walked toward the war memorial proudly bearing the red flag he had carried into Berlin. According to witnesses, he was berated by others in the crowd, shoved and scolded: “Why did you bring a Soviet flag here? It’s a Russian flag now.”

Some men and women said they had fought to defend their homeland, not communism. Others were openly nostalgic for the not-so-old Soviet regime.

“So far I don’t see this democracy,” said Alexei A. Diyakov, 72, who compared Yeltsin’s government to a nascent dictatorship. “It’s hard for me to speak of the death of communism. . . . And I can’t say that things will get better.”

The veterans carried fresh flowers and stood attentively under an unseasonably hot sun while a military band played anthems. Then an accordion underscored a traditional Russian vprisyadku, or Cossack-style squatting dance. Vintage Russian and German planes staged a mock dogfight overhead, and a dreaded Nazi bomber swooped low, a field beside the war memorial bursting into flames.

White-haired war buddies met in the crowd and embraced. After the reminiscences, the talk seemed to turn to the new Russia--its political turmoil and its skyrocketing prices, which have beggared many living on devalued pensions.

“I used to support Yeltsin, but now I don’t understand his policies,” said former Maj. Zarybin.

Victory Day also proved the occasion for comment, ranging from ironic to hostile, on Russia’s current position vis-a-vis Germany. The newly united Germany has provided substantial economic aid to beleaguered Russia--to the chagrin of some veterans.

“It’s shameful,” Diyakov said. “We have lived to see the underdog help the winner.”

Across town, near the entrance to Gorky Park, ultranationalist Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky, leader of the inaptly named Russian Liberal Democratic Party, delivered an anti-Western diatribe that included several swipes at Germany.

“The people we beat are now living better than we,” he complained to his audience of about 200. “In Germany, even the foreigners live better than Russians do.”

Twin sisters Olga A. Filatov and Yelena A. Stelmakh, both decorated veterans of the battle to defend Moscow, said they agreed with much of Zhirinovsky’s platform. Had Russia received war reparations from the former West Germany, they said, her citizens would not now be so impoverished.

“We can’t even buy what we need to eat, everything’s so expensive,” Stelmakh said. “Veterans walk around malnourished.”

Said her sister: “We don’t miss the Communists, but we do miss the Union. Under the Soviet Union, we lived 10 times better than now--and not all the Communists were so bad either.”