This year we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of Victory Day. On May 9, all of Gazprom-Media Holding’s television channels will broadcast the speech of the Russian President Vladimir Putin at 10:00, while at 18:55 they will hold a minute of silence dedicated to the memory of those who fell in the fight against fascism. The channels NTV, Match TV, TNT, Friday! TV-3, TNT4, and 2x2 have also prepared special programming during the celebration days to unite millions of Russian people around their TV screens.
The channels have launched special projects, which feature their top hosts and stars. In these projects, TV stars share memories of their loved ones, recite poetry about the war, sing wartime songs, and talk about the war’s hero cities. The holiday programming will include war-themed episodes of popular programs, premieres of documentary and feature films, as well as special musical projects and TV series.
CEO of Gazprom-Media Holding Alexander Zharov said: “This year TV channels have a special mission. It is the first time since the day of the Great Victory that we cannot celebrate this holiday as we traditionally do, by watching the parade, offering our best wishes to the veterans, and walking side by side in the ranks of the Immortal Regiment. It is therefore especially important for us to make our viewers feel united, to give them a sense of a great shared holiday, to bring the atmosphere of the great victorious day, filled with joy and sorrow, into their homes. Let’s spend this day together - with our families, with our veterans, and with our whole great country!”
NTV channel
A special program about hero cities is already being broadcast on the channel in honour of the 75th anniversary of Victory Day. In these videos the hosts of the channel’s information programs, including Irada Zeynalova, Liliya Gildeeva, Vadim Takmenyov, Vladimir Chernyshev and Kirill Pozdnyakov, tell the stories of each hero city.
NTV will also launch a special 24-hour online channel for Victory Day. It will be accessible through the NTV.ru website, NTV’s YouTube channels and the program Segodnya (Today) from May 7 to 10.
The channel’s informational programs, Segodnya and Itogi Nedeli s Iradoi Zeynalovoy (Weekly Summary with Irada Zeynalova) will get a new look for Victory Day. They will be broadcast from a special studio set up in central Moscow. Segodnya will go live from the studio on May 8 and 9, while the Sunday program, Itogi Nedeli s Iradoi Zeinalovoy, will be broadcast on May 10.
A special edition of the program Zhdi Menya (Wait for Me) will air on the channel on May 8. It will feature five stories that hark back to the wartime period. On the same day, at 22:50, NTV viewers will be able to see the premiere of Vladimir Chernyshev’s documentary Konets Mira (The End of the World) from the cycle NTV-Videnie (NTV-Vision). The documentary will talk about the outcomes of the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences. NTV will also show the documentary film Vahta Pamyati Gazovikov - 75 Let Velikoi Pobedy (In Memory of Gas Workers - 75 Years of the Great Victory).
On May 9, the channel will show the new war mystery Poslednii Den Voyny (The Last Day of the War). Two more films, both made by KIT Film Studio (part of Gazprom-Media Holding), will premiere on the channel during the holiday period. On the evening of May 9, NTV viewers will see the made-for-TV film Alyosha, based on a story by Soviet writer Ivan Ptashnikov “Naydorf”, which talks about the last fascist blockade in one of the partisan regions in Belarus and the first days after its liberation from foreign invaders. On May 10, the channel will broadcast another made-for-TV film Ded Morozov (Grandfather Morozov). It is based on real events and talks about the oldest participant of the Great Patriotic War - the legendary scientist Nikolay Aleksandrovich Morozov, who went to the front when he was 87 years old.
NTV’s holiday broadcast will wrap up on May 9 with the special musical project “Belye Zhuravli: Kvartirnik v Den Pobedy!” (White Cranes: House Party on Victory Day!). The program was filmed near the Rubezhny Kamen’ monument at Nevsky Pyatachok, one of the most important battle sites during the Siege of Leningrad. A number of famous Russian musicians took part in the project, including Anita Tsoi, Maksim Leonidov, Gosha Kutsenko, Svetlana Surganova, and the band Picnic, among others. They will perform well-known wartime songs together with its host Evgeny Margulis, among which are the classics “Zhuravli”, “Tyomnaya Noch”, “Katyusha”, “Pesnya o Rodine”, and “Den Pobedy”.
Famous contemporary films about the Great Patriotic War, V Avguste 44ogo (In August of 44), Zvezda (The Star), and Topor (The Ax), will also be shown on the channel during the holiday period.
Match TV and Match! Strana channels
On May 9, Match TV viewers will hear stories about athletes who were veterans of the Great Patriotic War. All the broadcasts of the channel’s flagship program Vse na Match! (Everyone Goes to the Match!) will be dedicated to Victory Day during the holiday.
The documentary Zhizn-Podarok (Life is a Gift) will tell viewers stories about Olympic champions who survived the Siege of Leningrad - Alexander Ivanitsky, Alexander Chernigin, Galina Zybina, Boris Melnikov, Boris Selitsky, Tamara Press and Leonid Shiyanov. On the same day, the channel will premiere the documentary cycle Vnuki Pobedy (Grandchildren of Victory), in which famous Russian athletes tell stories of their grandparents and great-grandparents who fought at the front. Footballer Sergei Semak, professional boxer Nikolai Valuev, hurdler Sergey Shubenkov, rhythmic gymnast Margarita Mamun, figure skater Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and others took part in the project.
A special report, titled “Bessmertny Futbol” (Immortal Football), will tell the stories of football matches that were held during the war period. This project will feature unique archive records, the memoirs of the events’ participants and exclusive interviews with people whose ancestors took part in the three legendary football matches in 1942 and 1943.
In the evening, the channel will show the special project “Na Ruinah Stalingrada” (On the Ruins of Stalingrad). A legendary match between the local Dynamo and Moscow’s Spartak was held on May 2, 1943 at a stadium in Stalingrad, which was liberated only in February. Thirteen footballers-turned-soldiers cleared the stadium from mines, restored the pitch and the spectator stands. The match had 10,000 spectators at a time when the stadium had the capacity for only 3,000 people.
The TV channel Match! Strana will broadcast a series of documentaries called Strana Geroev (Country of Heroes), which was produced together with the Museum of Sport. This documentary cycle tells the stories of athletes who performed heroic feats during the war - Viktor Chukarin, Vladimir Savdunin, Nikolay Korolev, and Leonid Meshkov.
TNT channel
TNT stars will read the poems of Konstantin Simonov, Vladimir Vysotsky, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Igor Karpov, Rimma Kazakova and other well-known authors as part of the channel’s special campaign “Stikhi o Voyne” (Poems about the War). Among those set to read the poems are Timur Batrudinov, Garik Kharlamov, Pavel Volya, Demis Karibidis, Serge Gorelikov and Marina Kravets.
Moreover, TNT is holding its traditional Victory Day campaign in which the channel’s stars tell the stories of their relatives who took part in the Great Patriotic War. This year the campaign features the stories of comedians Yulia Akhmedova, Nurlan Saburov, Aleksei Sherbakov, Timur Karginov, mentor of the show Tantsy (Dances) Migel, host of the show Gde Logika? (Where is the Logic?) Azamat Musagaliev, residents of the Comedy Club and Comedy Woman shows, actors of the TV series SashaTanya and Olga, and artists from other channel projects. Video clips featuring TNT stars are already being broadcast on the channel, and are also available in social networks.
On May 9 the channel’s viewers will be able to see all episodes of the new TV series Patriot, which tells the story of a special forces commando named Sanya Kuchin who returns to his hometown after service. In the evening, the channel will show the 2019 film Geroy (Hero), by director Karen Oganesyan, about a Russian special agent who works abroad undercover. Alexander Petrov, Vladimir Mashkov, Svetlana Khodchenkova and Konstantin Lavronenko played the leading roles in the film.
Friday! channel
The team of Friday! channel created a special project, Istorii Pobedy (Victory Stories), which will be broadcast on May 9 at 10:30. Thousands of programs and films have been made about the Great Patriotic War, but until now their authors have never been ordinary people. That will change with the project Istorii Pobedy in which the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those who defended our country during the war will take cameras into their hands for the first time in order to tell the stories of their favourite veterans - stories of the Great Victory. In the film, 10 veterans from different regions in Russia talk to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren about the war, life at the front, heroic feats, their dreams and the will to win. This is an untold story of sacrifice and a powerful message to the young generation.
2x2, TV-3 and TNT4 channels
The channel 2x2 has launched a broadcast campaign titled “Net Voine, Eto Lovushka” (No to War, it is a Trap). During the whole day of May 9 the channel’s broadcast will feature special video clips made by its own team. In these clips 2x2 will not only send out celebratory messages in honour of the 75th anniversary of Victory Day, but also remind viewers that war is a frightening and tragic event for any country. Three videos were created in total, in which the TV channel addresses viewers in the first person. All videos share the same simple idea - war may look epic and mesmerising on the screen, but it should not be allowed to happen again in real life.
On May 9, TV-3 will offer its first screening of the foreign war drama The Imitation Game. The film tells the story of a British mathematician who broke the German Enigma code during World War II. Meanwhile, TNT4 channel will premiere Teimuraz Taniyah’s film Spasibo Dedu za Pobedu! (Thank you, Grandfather, for the Victory!), in which Egor Beroev and Kseniya Alferova played the leading roles. The film will remind young viewers about the meaning of victory and how important it is to pass on the experiences and values of the victorious generation.