The term Great Patriotic War (Russian: Вели́кая Оте́чественная война́ (acronym "ВОВ"), Velíkaya Otéchestvennaya voyná,[1]) is used in Russia and some other states of the former Soviet Union to describe the period from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945 during World War II, in the many fronts of the Soviet-German war against Nazi Germany and its allies.
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The term Patriotic War refers to the Russian resistance of the French invasion of Russia under Napoleon I, which became known as the Patriotic War of 1812. The term denotes a war for otechestvo, "the fatherland", i.e. a defensive war for one's homeland.
The phrase Great Patriotic War (Великая отечественная война) appeared in 1914.[2] It was the name of a special war-time appendix to the magazine Theater and Life (Театр и жизнь) in Saint Petersburg, and referred to the Eastern Front of World War I, where Russia fought against the German Empire and the Austrian Empire.[2] 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.[2]
The term Great Patriotic War re-appeared in the Soviet newspaper Pravda on 23 June 1941, just a day after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. It was found in the title of "The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet People" (Velikaya Otechestvennaya voyna sovetskogo naroda), a long article by Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, a member of Pravda editors' collegium.[2] The phrase was intended to motivate the population to defend the Soviet motherland and to expel the invader, and a reference to the Patriotic War of 1812 was seen as a great moral booster.
The term Отечественная война (Patriotic War or Fatherland War) was officially recognized by establishment of the Order of the Patriotic War on 20 May 1942, awarded for heroic deeds.
The term is not generally used outside the former Soviet Union (see Eastern Front). It is a patriotic and symbolic term. During this period 6.8 million Soviet soldiers were killed and 4.4 million died in captivity.[3] The Soviet Union lost 26.6 million men and women in total, more than any other country in human history.[4]
There is a difference between this phrase and World War II or the Second World War, as the Russian term denotes only the war between Germany and its European allies, and the Soviet Union. The war with Japan (including the invasion of Manchuria) and the war on the Western front are not referred to by this term. Nor does it cover the Soviet Union's 1939 attacks on Poland and Finland or 1940 invasion of the Baltic states.
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