For Elena Milutina and her 9-year-old son, this Friday, May 9, will be a day of remembrance. "In honor of my great-grandfather, who died fighting Nazi Germany. And in memory of my husband, who died on the front in Ukraine." With her soft voice, Milutina said her celebration of the 80^th anniversary of Russia's victory in the Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany will be spent with her family, with its generations struck down across the two conflicts.

Veliky Novgorod (formerly just Novgorod), a city of 220,000 inhabitants located between Moscow and Saint Petersburg, features a blend of charming historic streets from Russia's imperial era and long avenues inherited from the decades of Soviet rule. Milutina and her son will go out and applaud the local military parade in the city's central square. From afar, on television, they will watch the grand parade on Moscow's Red Square.

Above all, mother and son were especially preparing to participate in the Immortal Regiment, a popular commemorative civil march that follows the military parades, which has come to be organized across the country in recent years. In the crowd, Milutina and her son will hold two photos in their hands: portraits of her great-grandfather and husband. "Our memory is almost genetic," she said, while sitting in the office she works from as the principal of Veliky Novgorod's main high school. Around her, teachers and students were busy preparing. On May 5, a "victory concert" was organized in the school's hall, which was newly refurbished as part of Vladimir Putin's great campaign of "national projects."

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