RUSSIANS IN VIENNA CELEBRATING THE END OF WW2

On May 9th I was going for a walk in downtown Vienna, finally wound up on Karlsplatz, when quite late in the afternoon I decided to go a bit further to Schwarzenbergplatz, to get a few more pictures. The album from that walk is on Flickr: VIENNA WALK May 9th 2024 (there are still more to upload, at the moment there are 50 images).
Unbeknown to me there was a large gathering. When I got closer I found that these were Russians, congregating in front of the Russian War Memorial. There was singing and speeches, flags being waved and people dressed in traditional costumes. May 9th was Ascention Day, a Holiday in Austria. The 'official day' WW2 ended was May 8th 1945.

It was in fact the Russian Forces that drove the Nazis out of Vienna and freed the city.

On the other side of the fountain (which was shut down) there was a large contingent of Police, standing around bored, with nothing to do. I asked them what it was all about, until one of them, an older officer, said it had somethimg to do with the end of the war. Seems like they young ones I asked before had no clue exactly.

There were no signs that I could read, it was all cyrillic, flags and some portraits on display that seemed to be memories of fallen soldiers, possibly relatives of the people in attendance.

In that crowd, one gentleman stood out, so I asked if I can take his picture. He posed with his wife for me: "RUSSEN BÜFFEL" - THE RUSSIAN BUFFALO

Here is a snap I took just prior to asking: SCHWARZENBERGPLATZ GATHERING

SCHWARZENBERGPLATZ - A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CROWD

THE WAR MEMORIAL AS SEEN FROM A DISTANCE BEHIND THE FOUNTAIN

THIS NICE LADY POSED WITH HER ETHNIC COSTUME

SINGING "KALINKA" - EVEN I REMEMBER THIS SONG

Once at home, I was doing research about the subject and found just the right source, but it is in German only: (Symbolfoto: Archiv TD, BEV; Montage: Keusch)(SYMBOLFOTO: ARCHIV TD, BEV; MONTAGE: KEUSCH)

(Symbolfoto: Archiv TD, BEV; Montage: Keusch)(SYMBOLFOTO: ARCHIV TD, BEV; MONTAGE: KEUSCH)

Die letzte Hauptkampflinie

Am 8. Mai 1945 - vor 75 Jahren - ging der Zweite Weltkrieg in Europa zu Ende. Im kollektiven Gedächtnis Österreichs ist er gegenwärtig die prägendste kriegerische Auseinandersetzung. Unzählige Bücher, wissenschaftliche Arbeiten und Artikel wurden über diese Zeit geschrieben und tausende Dokumentationen hergestellt, die beinahe jeden Aspekt behandeln. Doch trotz dieser Vielzahl an Publikationen gibt es nach wie vor Bereiche, die noch wenig bearbeitet wurden. (source)

English:
On May 8, 1945 - 75 years ago - the Second World War in Europe came to an end. In Austria's collective memory, it is currently the most formative military conflict. Countless books, scientific papers and articles have been written about this time and thousands of documentaries have been produced that cover almost every aspect. However, despite this large number of publications, there are still areas that have not yet been dealt with very much.

I translated this with Google - perhaps you could enter the link of this article into the Google Translator to learn more about the history.

When I was a child (born five months before the war ended) I can remember the post-war times, living in Favoriten, the tenth district of Vienna, under Russian occupation until 1955. Like Berlin, Vienna was divided into four zones. To travel between zones (Russian, American, British and French), you needed your identity card to cross the check points.

Allied-occupied Austria

Austria was occupied by the Allies and proclaimed independence from Nazi Germany on 27 April 1945 (confirmed by the Berlin Declaration for Germany on 5 June 1945), as a result of the Vienna offensive and ended with the Austrian State Treaty on 27 July 1955.(source Wikipedia)