Congratulatory Address of Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan on the 80th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War

Your Excellencies,

Reverend Fathers, Brothers and Sisters,

Dear people of Kazakhstan,

CHRIST IS RISEN!

I wholeheartedly congratulate you on this momentous anniversary – the 80th anniversary of our people’s Victory in the Great Patriotic War!

This glorious jubilee is celebrated by people regardless of nationality, religious affiliation, age, or political convictions. The Great Victory continues to unite the citizens of the independent states that once formed the nation which broke the machinery of the inhuman Nazi ideology.

The Feast of the Great Victory is illuminated by the Paschal joy, for it reveals the triumph of good over evil, of life over death – and at the same time it is infused with pain and sorrow for the countless lives lost.

“We awaited this joyful Day of the Lord with confidence and patience – the day when the Lord pronounced His righteous judgment upon the most wicked enemies of mankind,” said the ever-memorable Patriarch Alexy I on May 9, 1945. Eighty years have passed since the end of that terrible war, which claimed the lives of millions of innocent people. Among all those who offered sacrifices on the altar of Victory, the greatest were made by the soldiers and civilians of our Homeland. One striking fact is that every second soldier who went to the front from Kazakhstan gave his life for the sake of our bright future.

The world witnessed examples of supreme self-sacrifice and wholehearted devotion to the Fatherland. Millions of men and women fulfilled the commandment of Christ:

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).

The Great Victory holds immense spiritual and moral significance for all of us living today. We must strive to be worthy of the sacrificial feat accomplished by our fathers and grandfathers during the years of war. As President Kassym-Jomart Kemelevich Tokayev has said:

“Those grim days revealed that war brings only sorrow and loss, while peace is a priceless treasure.”

The unity of our forebears, their love for their native land, and their sincere belief in victory have forever become moral guideposts for the grateful generations of peaceful and independent modern Kazakhstan. Decades later, the carefully preserved truth about the Great Patriotic War and the heroic Victory continues to safeguard our land from the threats of the present age – and all of humanity from the revival of the destructive ideology of Nazism.

On this glorious and sacred holiday, let us bow low to the living and the departed. Let us remember all who died in that war – those who crushed the enemy on the battlefield, fought in the partisan ranks, upheld the strength of the home front, and labored selflessly in hospitals and field infirmaries. Let us express our deep gratitude to all who today preserve and pass on to future generations the memory of that immortal feat.

May the Great Victory – unfailingly celebrated in the radiant Paschal days – be a powerful unifying force, a guiding moral compass for us who have not known the horrors of war and the burdens of the post-war era. May it teach us to preserve peace and harmony, and help us live and labor for the good of our neighbors and for the sake of our common Home – the blessed land of Kazakhstan.