Due to the American-based academic calendar at NYUAD, Russian students do not get to spend their three main holidays in Russia: Christmas, Orthodox Easter and Victory Day. One can argue that it was their choice to study in a university with an American system of education, but nonetheless, the distance from home is especially pronounced on Russia’s most patriotic holiday, Victory Day.

This week, Orthodox Easter and Victory Day happened within the same week on May 5 and May 9 respectively. Students attended the midnight Easter mass at the Russian Church in Sharjah and held a small gathering in one of the dorm rooms, where they listened to wartime songs and read Russian poetry to celebrate Victory Day. However, these holiday celebrations are not — and will never be — the same as being home with their grandparents.

Two years ago, a group of Russian students decided to organize a Victory Day celebration on campus by screening one of the classic World War II films “The Ballad of a Soldier”, tasting Russian food and discussing the meaning of the holiday.

The event was advertised on a poster that featured a hammer and sickle, a symbol that represents the USSR. Although this is a standard symbol commonly used for the Victory Day celebration in Russia, some of the Hungarians in the student body expressed their concerns about the usage of this symbol and argued that it is an open promotion of communism. This evolved into a greater conflict between students at NYUAD that was resolved with a round table discussion, organized by the administration.

After this incident some Russian students do not feel that it is accepted to openly celebrate Victory Day at NYUAD. However, for the Russian students, the question still stands: why can we celebrate other national holidays such as Thanksgiving, Lunar New Year, Diwali, but not Victory Day? It is very important that the NYUAD community creates a safe space for students to celebrate these kind of holidays. Students shouldn’t be discouraged from celebrating Victory Day. There should be a dialogue and better clarification of the reasons and history behind the celebration; healthy debate, but not a social interdiction. It is important to keep the university’s goals of accepting different cultures and nationalities’ viewpoints.

I grew up in a military family. Although almost all of my relatives are either no longer in active service or retired, celebrating Victory Day remains a family tradition. This is the day when grandparents recount their dangerous and adventurous wartime stories with bitter sadness and notes of grief for their loved ones; when students visit veterans’ houses and when observers of the holiday lay flowers on the grave of the unknown soldier.

The day starts with watching a parade on the Red Square and concludes with black and white Soviet movies screened in close family circles, accompanied by drinking Russian tea and followed by the debates and conversations between elders and youth. The community commemorates the exploits of the veterans and it is hard not to notice that with each year there are less and less of the WWII veterans standing strong at the parade procession.

From talking to the Russian students in NYUAD, I have come to the conclusion that my case is not an exception; almost every student has had a similar experience of dearly missing grandma or grandpa on Victory Day.

However, as patriotic and as widely celebrated as this holiday is, there are no lectures on communism. In my social circles, in the younger generation, the term communism is rarely even pronounced on May 9. I was born after the breakdown of the Soviet Union and have a vague image of communism, mainly painted with stories of my parents, and I never felt confident enough to say that I know what communism is. I just know that my great-grandparents went through war risking their lives, forging their passports to be able to fight. Many grew up on their own, often starving, hiding, and surviving. They had to mature quickly and protect their country for their families and the future generations, my generation.

During a skype conversation with my grandfather on Victory Day, he told me another story of what happened to him in the beginning of the war, when he was at his grandmother’s funeral.

“Suddenly I heard the noise of planes and my mother screaming, then the first bomb blew up somewhere and I could not understand what was happening and where is everyone,” he said. “I was scared to death and instinctively hid inside of the coffin with my dead grandmother.”

For him–a 5-year old child at that time-the war was an unknown misery that he suffered through taking care of not just himself, but also his younger sister.

This story is just one example that shows that the victory was primarily about the end of unfair suffering and not about promoting of the communist regime. The Ninth of May is a way for us to say thank you. One of the most common Victory Day slogans in Russia can be translated as “Thank you grandpa for the Victory!” As you can see, there is no communist message in this saying.

Even today, many people disagree on whether or not Victory Day is about commemorating the sacrifices and survivors of WWII, but statistics say it all. At the end of the war, in 1945, approximately 25 million of the estimated 80 million total deaths were from the USSR — the most of any country participating in the war.

As a result, many families in Russia today have been affected by the war and lost relatives in the WWII. Contrary to popular belief, Russians don’t primarily celebrate the victory over the Nazis on Victory Day. Nor do they celebrate the claim that Russia is a guarantor of world security, as Russian president Vladimir Putin said in his most recent speech on Victory day.

My generation celebrates peace. We remember and respect the bravery, determination and fearless actions of our grandparents and great-grandparents. We can’t help whistling the tunes of the Victory Day songs and tearing up as we speak to our families over Skype. It might sound dramatic, but we grew up celebrating and praising the peace that the victory in WWII brought to the whole world — not just to the Soviet Union territories.