The “Hero’s Welcome.” That is what we can see in the picture above, millions of USSR soldiers returned home at the end of the war to banners, flowers, and open arms. However, what many people do not know is that this celebration was short lived and the reincorporation of these veterans was not a smooth process. As we see in Rats and Resentment: The Demobilization of the Red Army in Postwar Leningrad, 1945-50, the USSR painted the picture that soldiers returned home and were instantly reincorporated into society as model citizens. In reality, many struggles arose during this process.
One of the biggest problems, especially in the USSR, was the physical destruction caused by the war. Many major cities in the USSR such as Smolensk, Voronezh, and Rostov-on-Don lay in ruins (Dale, 120). Many of the veterans returned from war to find their houses destroyed and their families living in rubble. This built up resentment in the veterans, many of whom were thinking that they had just wasted four years of their lives fighting a war only to come home to nothing.
All veterans posed as possible social problems. After returning home, many veterans felt resentment to regular civilians who seem to have sacrificed little in the war and who would forget about them now that the war had past (Dale, 117). Sadly, I do feel that this happens far too often now-a-days and many people take what they have for granted, never taking the time to thank veterans. After the war, many people were weary to receive back veterans that were mentally injured in the war. People were weary of their mental state and they also believed that they didn’t contribute as much in the war so they shouldn’t receive as many benefits (Jarvis, 103). This lead to veterans becoming depressed and slipping away from society.
All in all, the reality for veterans was not as easy as the media made it seem. They faced troubles that many regular citizens never had to. It is important that we recognized their value and give them respect for what they did for us in the Second World War because all gave some, some gave all.
I found it interesting that for the Soviet Union, they considered their veterans as social problems. This was brought up in my opinion by the many who did not understand what these men and women went through for a land that did little to compensate for their loss. I understand in Russian’s case, not only was the veterans coming home to nothing, so was its citizens and it is hard to help everyone at the same time. This was probably one of the many problems for the Russian people, not just the soldiers. It was the soldiers, however, that should have been treated a little bit better for their defense of the nation.