Tens of thousands of Indian soldiers also made the supreme sacrifice in the Second World War. Modi could not travel to Moscow, but he wished Putin on May 9 through a tweet: “India stands with Russia in solemn remembrance today, on the 75th Anniversary of Victory Day. In November 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Victory Day celebration which were due to be held on May 9. This year, the celebrations this year were pushed to June because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Though the document was signed, Beevor says that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill “cabled Stalin to explain that, since crowds were already gathering in London to celebrate, Victory in Europe Day celebration in Britain would take place on 8 May, as they did in the United States”. The surrender was to come into effect a minute past midnight on May 9.īut, Beevor writes, “Stalin could not let the final ceremony take place in the west, so he insisted that the Germans sign another surrender in Berlin, at one minute past midnight on 9 May, the moment the capitulation agreed at Rheims came into effect”. The Act of Military Surrender was signed by Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command Generallutenant Alfred Jodl and General Admiral Hans-George von Friedeburg in the early hours of May 7 in France at Rheims, which was the headquarters of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). According to military historian Antony Beevor’s definitive book on World War II, Joseph Stalin, premier of the Soviet Union, wanted Germany to also sign a surrender in Berlin. The erstwhile Soviet Union had not wanted the surrender to take place in the west, and wanted that such a significant event should reflect the contribution of the Red Army and the Soviet population. Why does Russia not celebrate Victory Day on the same date?