With candles lit and tears flowing, a group of 30 gathered in front of the Illini Union to listen to old Russian songs and remember the past fallen on May 8, the 60-year anniversary of when Nazi Germany surrendered.

With half of the group dressed in black clothes, people gathered and spoke silently to one another as lit candles rested on the table. As a Russian Hymn often sang during the war played, everyone grew silent.

“This song still brings me goose bumps,” said Larisa Mokhovalferova, a University alum and former president of the Russian Society, a registered student organization.

The Soviet Union lost 30 million soldiers during World War II, which ended on May 8, 1945. Russians celebrate Victory Day on May 9, the day Germany formally surrendered to the Soviet Union, with military marches and fireworks. But because of the time difference between Russia and Champaign, the campus vigil was held on the previous evening.

Mokhovalferova said the vigil is her way to celebrate this holiday locally.

She said this is the third year the holiday has been celebrated here on campus.

“It was smaller and very informal; a few people would come out and have a candlelight vigil,” Mokhovalferova said.

She said this year she tried to promote this event by word of mouth and notifying other media outlets. As a result, she said more people showed up this year for the event.

Mokhovalferova said this event is important to her because both of her grandfathers died in the war.

“This is very close to my own family. Both of my grandfathers died way early because of the wounds. Both of my grandmothers had to raise their families working in the factories making bombs,” Mokhovalferova said.

“Besides Easter, Christmas, or the New Years, this is one of the important holidays (in Russia) that were celebrated,” Mokhovalferova said.

She said usually people celebrate this day at home with family where they can take time to remember their grandfathers and great grandfathers.

“It is more of a personal event,” Mokhovalferova said.

Other spectators – such as Olga Andronova, 75 and a Champaign resident – were moved to tears when the Russian hymn began to play.

“This is the biggest holiday and the closest to my heart,” Andronova said.

Andronova said she was living in Germany during World War II.

“The last day of the war, I lost my brother,” she said.

At the time, Andronova was a teenager, and she said her mother had to lie about her age so she would not be sent to a German concentration camp.

She said this commemoration gave her the time and opportunity to cry with others.

“This is so hard for my heart,” Andronova said as tears fell down her cheek.

“In the past, this was a big celebration in Moscow. All the people were singing and dancing and the old people were crying on this holiday,” she said.

Eva Neuman, 60 and a Champaign resident, said the war caused her parents to meet.

“If my parents would have never fought in the Soviet Army, I would have never been born,” Neuman said.

She said the Russians are not recognized by American’s youth for their contribution to the war.

“The Russians have given a lot to liberate Germany and their country. There were wonderful moments where Americans and Russians stood together and fought this enemy,” Neuman said.

Neuman said she has been affected because her father had to leave Germany because he was Jewish.

“My father went to Spain (during the 1930s civil war) and helped them fight for freedom, he was in concentration camps in Africa, and he went on to fight Germen injustices,” Neuman said.

Neuman said the environment during this time was very troubling for everyone involved as her mother lived in the Soviet Union and saw a mass grave of Jews.

“I would liked to see that we learned more from what the Nazis did then we have today,” Neuman said.

The Soviet Union was devastated by the German invasion. More than 11 million Soviet soldiers died during World War II – in comparison, only 400,000 American soldiers were killed.

“In Europe on this day, America was far away. American soldiers were fighting but America was not as involved in the war as Russia was,” Neuman said.

Mokhovalferova said this commemoration is both remembering the past and celebrating the fall of the Nazis.

“This was not just the Russian war, this was people of different nationalities and religions who fought the evil,” Mokhovalferova said.