A victory parade took place on Red Square. Red Square: History of Victory Parades Who led the victory parade

September 3, the day when militarized Japan was defeated, is considered another date for the Victory Day. There is a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, dated September 2, 1945, that September 3 is also declared a non-working holiday.

Thus, it turns out that Victory Day was celebrated twice a year three times - in 1945, 1946 and 1947.

They canceled the celebration of Victory Day on December 24, 1947, when a new resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the CCCP was issued:

Then they constantly postponed, canceled, re-assigned the dates of the holidays. In 1947, Victory over Japan Day was made a working day. There was a holiday on December 22, the day of memory of Lenin - in 1951 he also became a worker. In addition, the Cold War was declared in the USSR in 1946, after Churchill's Fulton speech, and it was unprofitable to organize a holiday on a national scale, from the point of view of organizing the labor of the population - wrong. Everyone worked and restored the destroyed cities, towns, built new factories. Partly to be ready to repel a new attack.

There is another assumption why they stopped celebrating Victory Day. The initiative came from Stalin, who perceived the post-war popularity of Georgy Zhukov as a direct threat to his post. In the same vein, the political cases "Aviators' Case" and "Trophy Case" developed in 1946-1948.

“We must not forget this strong parade. Historical memory is the key to a worthy future for Russia. We must adopt the main thing from the heroic generation of front-line soldiers - the habit of winning. This habit is very necessary in our today's peaceful life. It will help the current generation build a strong, stable and prosperous Russia. I am confident that the spirit of the Great Victory will continue to protect our Motherland in the new, 21st century.” Vladimir Putin.

Many myths, facts and legends are connected with the history of the First Military Parade on Red Square to commemorate the victory of the USSR over Germany in the Great Patriotic War. Even before the parade, from the very idea, this event was given the status: "Special Parade". This is how he was remembered in the history of Russia - special not only in design, but also in fact.

So, the facts about the first military parade on Red Square in 1945.

1. "Special Parade"

The decision to hold the parade of winners was made by I.V. Stalin shortly after Victory Day - May 15, 1945. Deputy Chief of the General Staff, General of the Army S.M. Shtemenko recalled: “The Supreme Commander-in-Chief ordered us to think over and report to him our thoughts on the parade to commemorate the victory over Nazi Germany, while indicating: “We need to prepare and hold a special parade. Let representatives of all fronts and all branches of the armed forces participate in it ... ".

Already on May 24, I.V. Stalin was informed of the proposals of the General Staff for holding the Victory Parade. He accepted them, but did not agree with the timing. While the General Staff set aside two months for preparation, Stalin ordered the parade to be held in a month. On the same day, preparations began for the most important historical holiday of all generations.

2. "Fall of Stalin"

The order to hold the Victory Parade was published in all Soviet central newspapers 2 days before the event itself, and to the surprise of many, the order stated that it would not be the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, but Marshal Zhukov, who would receive the Parade: “To accept the Victory Parade to my Deputy Marshal of the Soviet Union Zhukov . Command the Victory Parade to Marshal of the Soviet Union Rokossovsky. The truth why the leader refused to accept the Parade was personally revealed only a year later - in the memoirs of Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov "Memories and Reflections". And the thing was this:

A week before the day of the parade, Stalin called Zhukov to his dacha and asked if the marshal had forgotten how to ride. He has to drive more and more on staff cars. Zhukov replied that he had not forgotten how and in his spare time he tried to ride.

- Here's the thing, - said the Supreme, - you will have to accept the Victory Parade. Rokossovsky will command the parade.
Zhukov was surprised, but did not show it:

- Thank you for such an honor, but wouldn't it be better for you to host the parade?

And Stalin to him:

- I'm already old to receive parades. Take it, you are younger.

It was here that on June 16, 1945, Stalin came to shake up the old days and check whether the skills of a dzhigit had been lost over time. At a sign from Budyonny, a snow-white horse was brought up and Stalin helped to hoist himself into the saddle. Budyonny then said: "This one is the calmest."

Gathering the reins in his left hand, which always remained bent at the elbow and only half active, which is why the evil tongues of party comrades called the leader "Sukhorukim", Stalin spurred the stubborn horse - and he jerked off ... The rider fell out of the saddle and, despite on a thick layer of sawdust, hit his side and head painfully ... Everyone rushed to him, helped him up. Budyonny, a timid man, looked with fear at the leader ... But there were no consequences.

However, there is an opinion that this episode is falsified.

3. The total number of participants in the Parade

24 marshals, 249 generals, 2536 officers, 31,116 sergeants and soldiers took part in the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945 on Red Square.

4. Black and white film

The parade was captured on film, which shows that at 9:00 it was cloudy, but there were still bits of sky visible. 15 minutes before the start of the parade, it began to rain, which then turned into a downpour. On the frames of the parade, you can see spectators with umbrellas and puddles. Judging by the way people were dressed, the air temperature could be ~ 15 degrees. It is noteworthy that they filmed on German trophy film from the Agfa warehouse. After the film was shot, it turned out that most of the tape has a marriage in color. Therefore, the entire film was transferred to black and white film, and from the material that was suitable in quality, they edited a 19-minute film. And many years later, in 2004, the Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents restored the color version of the film.

5. Lack of the Banner of Victory

The Banner of Victory, brought to Moscow on June 20, 1945, was to be carried through Red Square. And the calculation of the flagmen specially trained. The keeper of the Banner at the Museum of the Soviet Army, A. Dementiev, claimed that the standard-bearer Neustroev and his assistants Yegorov, Kantaria and Berest, who hoisted it over the Reichstag and seconded to Moscow, were extremely unsuccessful at the rehearsal - they had no time for drill training in the war. The same Neustroev, by the age of 22, had five wounds, his legs were injured. Appointing other standard-bearers is ridiculous, and too late. Zhukov decided not to take out the Banner. Therefore, contrary to popular belief, there was no Banner at the Victory Parade.

Participants in the assault on the Reichstag (from left to right) K.Ya.Samsonov, M.V.Kantaria, M.A.Egorov, I.Ya.Syanov, S.A.Neustroev at the Victory Banner. May 1945

Later, only 30 years later, shortly before his death, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Stepan Andreevich Neustroev, recalled this incident:

“The music played a military march, the drums beat ... The air shuddered, it seemed that the whole world, all the people of the Earth see the invincible power of my Fatherland! I walked in front, high carrying the Banner of Victory. He walked, as it seemed to me, with a clear drill step. I passed the stands where the high command was headed by Marshal Zhukov, but the concrete path of the central airfield did not end. No one told me where to stop or turn. I walk and mint a step, especially with my left foot: the right one at the front was broken, it hurt, and I stepped carefully with it. Assistants - Yegorov, Kantaria, Syanov - are following me (Samsonov did not participate in the dress rehearsal).

Whether to move on - I doubt, to stop - I'm afraid. Hands no longer hold the shaft - they are ossified, it hurts the lower back. The foot of the left foot burns with fire, the right foot does not walk, but drags along the road. Decided to stop. He looked back - and the blood hit his head: he had come off too far from the Karelian combined regiment. Before I had time to realize what had happened, a colonel drove up to me along the side path and said: “Marshal Zhukov ordered the banner not to be put on the parade tomorrow. You, comrade captain, should immediately go by my car to the Museum of the Armed Forces and transfer the banner there for eternal storage "...

“I was not offended that I would not be a participant in the Victory Parade, but I thought to myself: “How to go on the attack, so Neustroev is the first, but I’m not fit for the Parade.”

For the first time, the Banner of Victory will be brought to Red Square only in 1965. This honor will be entrusted to only three of the famous "five". The banner was carried by Colonel Konstantin Samsonov, Hero of the Soviet Union. His assistants were Heroes of the Soviet Union Sergeant Mikhail Yegorov and Senior Sergeant Meliton Kantaria.

6. Patch of the Banner for memory

The question arose more than once: why does the Banner lack a strip 73 centimeters long and 3 centimeters wide, because the panels of all assault flags were cut to the same size? There are two versions. First: the strip was cut off and taken as a keepsake on May 2, 1945 by the former on the roof of the Reichstag, Private Alexander Kharkov, a Katyusha gunner from the 92nd Guards Mortar Regiment. But how could he know that it was this, one of several, cotton cloth that would become the Banner of Victory?
The second version: The banner was kept in the political department of the 150th Infantry Division. Mostly women worked there, who began to be demobilized in the summer of 1945. They decided to keep a souvenir for themselves, cut off a strip and divided it into pieces. This version is the most probable: in the early 70s, a woman came to the Museum of the Soviet Army, told this story and showed her shred.

7. Disgust for the enemy

Everyone saw footage of Nazi banners being thrown at the foot of the Mausoleum. But it is curious that the fighters carried 200 banners and standards of the defeated German units with gloves, emphasizing that it is disgusting to even take the shafts of these standards into the hands. And they threw them on a special platform so that the standards would not touch the pavement of Red Square. The first to throw was Hitler's personal standard, the last - the banner of Vlasov's army.

Even during training, when the "porters" learned about their mission, they began to flatly refuse to take up enemy banners. No one dared to order the front-line heroes, but the ceremony could not be canceled either. Gloves were the solution. And not just gloves, but thick leather gloves. This is where the difficulty arose. According to the Charter, the leather gloves of military personnel should be brown, and brown leather was bad in the country for many years after the war.

I even had to fly a plane somewhere for this leather, then urgently sew gloves. And after the parade, both the gloves and the platform, on which the banners were thrown, so as not to desecrate Red Square, were burned like a plague, far outside the city.

8 Enemy Banner Fact

Enemy banners and standards thrown on the platform near the Mausoleum were collected by captured teams of military counterintelligence "Smersh" (short for "Death to spies!") in May 1945. All of them are of the outdated model of 1935 (new ones were not made until the end of the war; the Germans never went into battle under the banners), taken in places of regimental storage and arsenals. The dismantled Leibstandarte LSSAH is also an old model - 1935 (the cloth from it is stored separately in the FSB archive). In addition, among the banners there are almost two dozen Kaiser's, mostly cavalry ones, as well as the flags of the NSDAP party, the Hitler Youth, the Labor Front, etc. All of them are now stored in the TsMVS. (The Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is one of the largest military history museums in Russia)

Soviet soldiers with German standards 1945 Victory parade on Red Square June 24, 1945. Photo by Evgeny Khaldei

9. The exact date of the parade

The directive on preparations for the parade went to the troops a month before, at the end of May. And the exact date of the parade was determined by the time required for sewing factories in Moscow and the Moscow region to sew more than 30 thousand sets of parade uniforms for soldiers, and the timing of tailoring uniforms for officers and generals in the atelier. By June 20, all parade participants were dressed in new parade uniforms.

10. How soldiers were selected

To participate in the parades, the personnel were selected with great care. The first candidates were those who showed courage and heroism, courage and military skill in battles. Growth was also important. So, in the order for the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front dated May 24, 1945, it was indicated that height should not be lower than 176 cm, and age should not be older than 30 years.

As a result of a tough selection, the feats and merits of a soldier eventually faded into the background. The key was the appearance of a soldier, corresponding to the appearance of a victorious warrior, and that the height of the warrior was at least 170 cm. Not without reason in the newsreel, all participants in the parade are simply handsome, especially pilots.

But there were some exceptions in the selection of soldiers for the Parade. So, when Sabir Akhtyamov, Hero of the Soviet Union, a tank destroyer, with his height of 164 cm, the commander decided to remove him from the parade, the hero was indignant: “How to climb under the tanks, so good, but how to go to the parade - so small in stature ?!” The general heard this and gave the command to leave Akhtyamov among the participants in the parade.

Going to Moscow, the lucky ones did not yet know that they would have to do drill for 10 hours a day for the sake of three and a half minutes of an impeccable march along Red Square. Some could not withstand the loads and fainted, because many lost their health in the war.

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11. Rain

Fifteen minutes before the start of the parade, it began to rain, turning into a downpour. It cleared up only in the evening. Now such a trifle is dealt with relatively easily, causing precipitation in advance with the help of reagents on the approach of clouds to Moscow, and then the plans of the seemingly omnipotent leadership of the party and government had to be changed on the go.

First, they refused to fly 570 aircraft. The parade warrant was to be personally led by Air Chief Marshal Alexander Novikov. The length of the battle order of the "Stalin's falcons" according to the plan was as much as 30 kilometers. But no one saw this spectacle over Red Square in 1945.

The downpour also canceled the workers' demonstration. Subsequently, having restored the Victory Parade, the Soviet leadership did not return to the topic of popular demonstrations on Victory Day. Apparently, they considered that it was enough for citizens to show patriotic feelings on May 1 and November 7. On May 9, on Red Square, the state demonstrated exclusively its military power and fighting spirit.

Standing on the podium of the Mausoleum, Stalin was dressed in a raincoat and rubber boots - according to the weather. But the marshals were soaked through. Rokossovsky's wet dress uniform, when dry, sat down so that it was impossible to take it off - he had to rip it open.

By evening, the rain had stopped, and the celebration continued on the streets of Moscow. Orchestras blared in the squares. And soon the sky above the city was lit up with festive fireworks. At 11 p.m., out of 100 balloons raised by anti-aircraft gunners, 20 thousand rockets flew in salvos. Thus ended that historic day.

12. Marshal Zhukov's speech

The original speech of Georgy Zhukov has been preserved, which the legendary marshal held in his hands, standing in the rain on the podium of the Mausoleum in June 45th. Judging by the notes on the document, the marshal had to not only read from a piece of paper written by someone else's hand, but also scrupulously follow special notes: with what intonation to pronounce this or that section of the text, where to place accents.

Apparently, the outline of the speech of the legendary commander on the eve of the parade was meticulously processed by an unknown specialist in the art of speech. Possibly a professional speaker. On the left, in the margins of the document, either with a blue chemical pencil or blue ink (during the rain the inscriptions flowed - and this is clearly visible in the photograph), he placed notes in calligraphic handwriting on how individual fragments of the text should sound. An unknown prompter suggested to the Marshal of the Soviet Union where to say “quieter”, “more heartfelt”, “a little louder”, where “firmly and loudly”, “quieter and more severely”, “widely, more solemnly”, finally, where “louder and louder with growth."

13. There were four parades.

Few people know that there were four landmark parades in 1945.

√ First in importance , undoubtedly, is the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945 on Red Square in Moscow.

√ But First in fact There was a parade of Soviet troops in Berlin. It took place on May 4, 1945 at the Brandenburg Gate, was received by the military commandant of Berlin, General N. Berzarin.

Upon his return from Moscow, G.K. Zhukov, as commander of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, suggested that the commanders of the garrisons of the allied occupation forces hold a joint parade in Berlin to mark the end of World War II. The offer was accepted.

√ The Allied Victory Parade in Berlin was held on September 7, 1945. A composite regiment of a thousand men and armored units participated from each allied nation. But 52 IS-3 tanks from our 2nd Guards Tank Army aroused universal admiration.

Parade in Berlin

Marshal G.K. Zhukov hosted the parade from the Soviet Union. The parade march was led by the Soviet combined regiment of the 248th Infantry Division, which stormed Berlin (commander Lieutenant Colonel Lenev). Next came the French combined regiment of the 2nd Infantry Division of the Berlin garrison, French partisans, Alpine riflemen and colonial troops (commander Colonel Plessier). This was followed by the British regiment of the 131st Infantry Brigade of Derham, the Queen of Great Britain, the Devonshire Infantry Regiments and the British Air Force (commander Colonel Brand). The procession was completed by a combined regiment of American paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division (commander Colonel Tucker).

√ The Victory Parade of the Soviet troops in Harbin on September 16, 1945 was reminiscent of the first parade in Berlin: our soldiers marched in field uniforms. Tanks and self-propelled guns closed the column.

14. Parade like a holiday

The parade lasted 2 hours and 9 minutes. But what were those minutes and what a day it was for the people who filled the Moscow streets! According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, it was a feeling of "holiday excitedly." A holiday that the human heart cannot endure alone. “We cried, laughed, hugged strangers. We lived! And the fallen lived in us.”

But after the parade on June 24, 1945, Victory Day was not widely celebrated and was an ordinary working day. Only in 1965 did Victory Day become a public holiday. After the collapse of the USSR, Victory Parades were not held until 1995.

15. Why at the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945, one dog was carried in their arms on a Stalinist tunic?

During the Second World War, trained dogs actively helped sappers clear mines. One of them, nicknamed Dzhulbars, discovered 7468 mines and more than 150 shells while clearing mines in European countries in the last year of the war. Shortly before the Victory Parade in Moscow on June 24, Dzhulbars was wounded and could not pass as part of the military dog school. Then the Supreme Commander ordered: "Let this dog be carried in their arms along Red Square on my tunic ...".

A well-worn tunic without shoulder straps was immediately delivered to the Central School. There they built something like a tray, which once happened to the peddlers, tucking up the sleeves, attaching a tunic to it with the back outward, collar forward. Dzhulbars instantly realized what was required of him, and during the training he lay on his tunic without moving. And on the day of the Great Parade, following the “box” of soldiers, a mine-detecting dog walked at the foot of each of them, the commander of the 37th separate mine-clearing battalion, Major Alexander Mazover, “chopped with a drill”, carrying Dzhulbars with bandaged paws and proudly raised muzzle on the Generalissimo’s tunic ... To Unfortunately, this historically important photo is nowhere to be found.

On March 21, 1945, Dzhulbars was awarded the medal "For Military Merit" for the successful completion of a combat mission. This is the only case during the war when a dog was awarded a combat award.

16. Marshal Zhukov's mistake

... And then the morning of June 24, 1945 came, cloudy and rainy. Water flowed down the helmets and uniforms of the consolidated regiments of the fronts built by 8 o'clock, students of military academies, cadets of military schools and troops of the Moscow garrison. By nine o'clock, the granite stands near the Kremlin wall were filled to overflowing with deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the RSFSR, employees of the people's commissariats, cultural figures, participants in the anniversary session of the USSR Academy of Sciences, workers of Moscow plants and factories, hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church, foreign diplomats and numerous foreign guests. At 9:45 a.m., to the applause of those gathered, members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of the Soviet Union, headed by I.V. Stalin.

Parade commander K.K. Rokossovsky, on a black horse under a crimson saddle, took a place to move towards G.K. Zhukov. Exactly at 10 o'clock, with the battle of the Kremlin chimes, G.K. Zhukov rode a white horse to Red Square. Subsequently, he recalled the first minutes of the historic Parade as follows:

“Three minutes to ten. I was on horseback at the Spassky Gate. I distinctly hear the command: “Parade, at attention!” The team was followed by a roar of applause. The clock strikes 10.00 ... The powerful and solemn sounds of the melody “Glory!”, so dear to every Russian soul, burst out. M.I. Glinka. Then absolute silence immediately reigned, clear words were heard from the command of the parade commander Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky ... ".

At 10:50 a detour of the troops began. G.K. Zhukov alternately greeted the soldiers of the combined regiments and congratulated the Parade participants on the victory over Germany. The mighty "Hurrah" thundered over Red Square. Having traveled around the troops, the marshal went up to the podium, where he delivered (read out) a speech prepared for him by a specialist in oratory. ( see fact #12)

But the marshal himself made a mistake and more than one a little earlier. G.K. Zhukov violated two ancient traditions at once, which prohibit riding and with a covered head through the gates of the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin.

The fact is that the Spassky Gates for centuries were considered the main ceremonial entrance to the Moscow Kremlin. Through them, Russian autocrats entered the Kremlin for the sacred ceremony of crowning the kingdom, starting with Mikhail Fedorovich and ending with Nicholas II. Especially revered shrines were delivered to the Kremlin through Red Square and the Spassky Gates: the image of the Mother of God from Vladimir, the icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands from Vyatka and the Annunciation of the Virgin from Veliky Ustyug.

For many centuries the Moscow Kremlin remained an Orthodox monastic shrine for the Russian people. It was possible to enter the Spassky Gates only on foot and with an uncovered head. And those who did not take off their hats while passing through the gates were forced by the people to make 50 bows in front of the gate icon of the Savior of Smolensk, installed above the passageway of the Spasskaya Tower from the side of Red Square.

In 1648, the custom of baring one's head at the Spassky Gates was enshrined in law by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich the Quietest. This practice extended to all classes, regardless of birth and rank. “He broke his hat,” that is, he bared his head in front of the images of the Spasskaya Tower, and the sovereign of all Russia himself.

Did Marshal Zhukov know about these traditions? Perhaps he got excited?

17. Tankers and orders

In order to single out the tankers at the parade and make them recognizable, I had to go to the violation of the charter and dress them in tank helmets and overalls. In fact, tank overalls are work clothes and, of course, it was not intended not only for parades, but in general for wearing outside of part or outside the march of tank columns. The overalls were not provided for wearing insignia. However, for the sake of the parade, an exception was made and insignia were attached directly to the overalls.

18. Fountain of Winners

Who would have thought that in the 45th, on the frontal place of Red Square, there was ... a fountain. That fountain was called the Fountain of Winners. They installed it for the parade dedicated to the victory of the Soviet people over Nazi Germany. The fountain consisted of four cascades and vertical jets at the base arranged in a ring. The outer perimeter of the fountain was neatly decorated with flower baskets and herbal crowns. From the side of the pyramid there were white light lamps, which made it possible to illuminate the fountain in the evening.
The height of the fountain (in the ridge of the pyramid) was 26 meters.

They say that the idea of the fountain belonged personally to Joseph Stalin. The fountain was installed by June 24, 1945 and was dismantled after the parade.

The idea to restore the Fountain of Winners arose from time to time, but was not implemented and supported.

1945 Victory Parade on Red Square Photo: Global Look Press

19. Horses for the marshal

For the host of the Victory Parade, Marshal Zhukov and his escort, they picked up beautiful white horses named “Idol” and “Celebes”. For the parade commander and his escort, black horses named "Pole" and "Orlik" were picked up. All these horses were from the personal stable of Marshal of the Soviet Union Budyonny.

There is a version that the horse of Marshal Zhukov was an Akhal-Teke breed, light gray in color, named Arab. However, this version has not been confirmed. Rokossovsky's horse is a thoroughbred riding karak suit.

20. The 1945 Parade lasted two hours and is considered the longest Parade of all time!

11/07/1927 The square is still without paving stones - it will appear between 1930-1931, when the second wooden Lenin mausoleum will be replaced with reinforced concrete with granite facing. There is also no central tribune on the Mausoleum; before that, Soviet leaders stood on a small tribune on the side. The column with loudspeakers is a remnant of the tram line, which was built here in 1909. Only openwork pendants for wires were removed from the poles.

Red Square is not only the most popular and most visited place in the capital of Russia, the hallmark and heart of our country. It has long since become the main military parade ground of the Motherland. It was here that glorious military parades took place, the splendor and power of which always aroused not only the pride of compatriots for their state, but also the fear of enemies and political rivals.

Despite the change of governments, social systems and even the name of the country, on strictly established days of public holidays, colorful rituals were held near the walls of the Kremlin for many decades with the participation of the elite of the army and navy. The main purpose of the military parade, in addition to the magnificent extravaganza, is to demonstrate the readiness of our country at any moment to repel the military invasion of enemies, to force them to suffer severe punishment for encroachments on the holy Russian land.

Let's briefly recall the history of military parades on the square ...

The history of military parades dates back to the middle of the 17th century, when the trading square, Torg, in front of the Kremlin walls did not yet bear its current name. Then Torg was the place where royal decrees were announced, public executions were carried out, trading life was seething, and on holy holidays it was here that mass religious processions were held. The Kremlin in those days looked like a well-fortified fortress with gun towers and a huge moat encircling it, bounded on both sides by white stone walls.

Red Square in the second half of the 17th century, by Apollinary Vasnetsov

The word "red" in Russia at that time called everything beautiful. The square with marvelous hipped domes on the Kremlin towers became so called under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. By this time, the fortress had already lost its defensive significance. Gradually, it became a tradition for the Russian troops to march proudly along the central square past the Kremlin after another victorious battle. One of the most amazing spectacles of ancient times was the return of the Russian army from Smolensk in 1655, when the tsar himself walked in front with his head uncovered, carrying his little son in his arms.

Many historians believe that the parade that took place on October 11, 1702, after the army led by Peter the Great returned after the capture of the Oreshek (Noteburg) fortress, can be considered the first. Myasnitskaya Street was covered with red cloth that day, along which the king's gilded carriage drove, dragging downed Swedish banners along the ground. Another group of experts is inclined to assert that the first is the parade of 1818, which took place in honor of the opening of the monument to citizen Minin and Prince Pozharsky, known to all guests of the capital. At that time, Red Square already had the outlines familiar to us and became quite suitable for military reviews. The protective ditch was filled in, and a boulevard arose in its place. Opposite the Kremlin wall, the building of the upper trading rows was built. During the coronation celebrations, the emperor's cortege passed through the square, following to the Spassky Gate to enter the Kremlin.

Military parades became more widespread at the end of the 18th century. In St. Petersburg, they were traditionally held twice a year: in winter on Palace Square, and in spring on the Field of Mars. And in the Mother See, processions of troops were organized from time to time and took place on the territory of the Kremlin. Although there were exceptions. For example, on May 30, 1912, when a monument to Emperor Alexander III was unveiled not far from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, a solemn procession of military units, led personally by Nicholas II, took place near the new monument. The tsar was then followed by a company of palace grenadiers and a consolidated infantry regiment, which is the predecessor of the current Presidential Regiment in Russia. Then, saluting the tsar, the cavalry guards marched in helmets with eagles and white elite tunics, performing the honorary function of the imperial guard. The last Moscow parade with the participation of Nicholas II took place on August 8, 1914, that is, just a week after the start of the First World War. In honor of the sovereign's birthday, a military review was held in the Kremlin, but on Ivanovskaya Square.

Nicholas II takes the parade during the opening ceremony of the monument to Alexander III

Shortly after the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne in the spring of 1917, when power was transferred to the Provisional Government, on March 4, a review of the revolutionary army was held under the control of the commander of the Moscow garrison, Colonel Gruzinov. The entire Red Square and the streets adjacent to it were occupied by a festive crowd, over which airplanes cruised. An endless stream of people in military overcoats with gleaming bayonets moved along the square. This is how eyewitnesses remember the first parade in the history of new Russia.

In March 1918, after the Bolsheviks seized power and the general euphoria of bourgeois revolutionary transformations gave way to political chaos, fratricidal war and the complete collapse of the economy, the top leadership moved from Petrograd to Moscow. Since then, Red Square has become the main venue for all state celebrations, and the Kremlin has become the permanent residence of the country's government.
When traces of the battles of November 1917 were still visible on the Kremlin walls, Nikolskaya and Spasskaya towers, a tribune for the parade in honor of the celebration of May 1 in the spring of 1918 was installed near the walls of the Kremlin among the fresh mass graves of revolutionaries. The wooden structure in the form of a rectangle has become a kind of monument to the victims of the struggle for a "bright future". On that day, columns of demonstrators, consisting of Red Army soldiers and civilians, began their movement from the Historical Passage to St. Basil's Cathedral. The first parade of the Red Army units, which, according to the official statement, was attended by about thirty thousand people, took place in the evening of the same day on the Khodynka field, and was led by the Commissar for Military Affairs, Lev Trotsky. There were incidents at that parade: a regiment of Latvian riflemen, who were then used to protect the government, left the parade venue in full force, thereby expressing their distrust of Trotsky.

Despite the declaration originally adopted by the Bolsheviks on the rejection of imperial traditions, military reviews and processions have not lost their relevance. The next solemn passage of the troops took place in honor of the first anniversary of October and already on Red Square. By November 7, 1918, the central square of the country was hastily put in order, and the commemorative procession was personally greeted by the leader of the proletariat, Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin. It should be noted that the first parades of post-revolutionary Russia did not bear much resemblance to the military processions of the Tsarist army, they were more like popular processions with the participation of the military.

VI Lenin delivers a speech on Red Square on the day of the celebration of the 1st anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. Moscow, November 7, 1918

Since then, parades have been held on various occasions. For example, in March 1919 there was a procession dedicated to the Moscow Congress of the Third International. And at the May Day parade in the same year, a tank drove along Red Square for the first time after the columns. On June 27, 1920, a parade was held in honor of the Congress of the Second International, which was organized more professionally. The central stand, which looked like an observation post on top of a hill, had an interesting view, and the military formations advanced not randomly, but in orderly rows. On May 1, 1922, a new ceremony associated with the adoption of the military oath appeared in the regulations of the military parade. This tradition continued until 1939. Like the parades of the imperial army, in the first post-revolutionary processions, the crews moved in a long line in two lines. It was quite difficult to move in clear rows along the broken stone pavement in this order.

The next significant changes in the appearance of Red Square occurred after the death of Lenin, the first leader of the Land of Soviets, in 1924. A temporary tomb for the Leader of the Revolution was built opposite the Senate Tower. Four months later, a wooden mausoleum with stands on the sides appeared in its place. It was from these stands that from now on all the leaders of the country began to greet the demonstrators passing during the processions. And at the entrance to the mausoleum, post No. 1 appears, where cadets of the military school are constantly on duty.

On February 23, 1925, Mikhail Frunze for the first time carried out not a detour, but a detour of military formations, sitting on horseback.

On February 23, 1925, Mikhail Frunze, who replaced Trotsky as leader, for the first time carried out not a detour, but a detour of military formations, sitting on horseback. The last parade with the participation of this hero of the civil war was the May Day festive procession of 1925, at which for the first time gun salutes were fired from cannons installed inside the Kremlin. Voroshilov, who, after Frunze, assumed the duties of hosting the parade, also rode around the troops on horseback. From May 1, 1925, representatives of various branches of the military were dressed at the parade in monotonous tunics, and the variegation in uniforms that was present earlier was no longer observed. Against the general background, only a company of Baltic sailors and a column of a higher school of military camouflage stood out with white caps. In addition, the infantry formations now took place in a new "chess" order. They were followed by scooter cyclists, cavalry and, finally, armored vehicles, represented by armored cars and tanks. From that day until our times, the mass passage of military equipment during parades has become an obligatory item. This May Day parade was distinguished by another innovation, namely the participation of aviation. During the procession, eighty-eight airplanes flew over the square in a discordant wedge.

A distinctive feature of the parade on November 7, 1927 was that it was received by a civilian, the chairman of the Central Executive Committee, Mikhail Kalinin, although the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council Voroshilov was in command of the parade. There were no armored cars and tanks at this festive procession, since the situation in the country was tense to the limit. Stalin, who was on the sidelines, was afraid of a military coup, since Trotsky's authority in the troops was still quite high. But the combined North Caucasian cavalry regiment took part in the parade, which with a whoop rushed across the square in black cloaks.

In the parade on May 1, 1929, Red Square appeared for the last time in its old form with a completely broken pavement and an out of place wooden mausoleum among stone walls. Lampposts standing in the middle of the square significantly limited the width of the passing columns and made it difficult for vehicles to pass. Due to the poor condition of the paving stones before each parade, it had to be sprinkled with sand in order to facilitate the movement of military equipment and reduce the sliding of horse hooves. In this May Day parade, armored vehicles of domestic production passed through Red Square for the first time, but there were no military guns on the vehicles, which were replaced by sheathed mock-ups. They simply did not have time to equip the equipment with weapons. But at the November 7 parade, all combat vehicles already had full-fledged standard weapons.

The May Day parade of 1930 was held in conditions when most of the square was surrounded by a fence, behind which a new stone mausoleum of Lenin was being built at an accelerated pace. The reconstruction was completed by November 7 of the same year. The area was paved with the strongest diabase paving stones, and now a new mausoleum lined with red granite added grandeur to it. Tribunes at that time were located only on the sides of the tomb. When shooting this parade, live sound was recorded on movie cameras for the first time.

From parade to parade, the number of its participants and military equipment constantly increased. The only problem was that the narrow Resurrection Gates of Kitay-gorod limited the passage of military vehicles. In 1931, these gates were finally demolished, and the monument to Minin and Pozharsky blocking the passage was moved to St. Basil's Cathedral. In 1936, the Kazan Cathedral was also demolished, and Vasilyevsky Spusk was cleared of buildings. In the heat of the moment, the historical museum and the Temple were almost removed, but prudence prevailed, and priceless monuments remained in their place.

The tradition of extraordinary military parades was clearly visible in the 30s. The commemorative parade on February 9, 1934, timed to coincide with the 17th Party Congress, was striking in its scale. Forty-two thousand military personnel participated in it, of which twenty-one thousand were infantrymen, and one thousand seven hundred horsemen. On that day, five hundred and twenty-five tanks marched through the central square of the country, and the parade itself lasted more than three hours! The review showed that over a five-year period the technical equipment of the Red Army had increased many times over, turning it into a formidable, well-trained force, which was noted by the foreign diplomats and correspondents present. The Times wrote that the Soviet Army really showed first-class discipline and organization, although it pointed to the fact that one tank, a naval machine gun and a searchlight were disabled during the procession. Such embarrassment, of course, sometimes happened. In the event of an unforeseen breakdown of equipment, detailed plans were even developed for its quick evacuation away from the eyes of observers. However, at the parade in 1932, one foreigner took pictures of the collision between two carts.

At the parade of the troops of the Moscow garrison. 1934

In response to the beginning of the militarization of Germany and the change in the political situation in Europe in 1935, Stalin decides to demonstrate the full power of the Soviet military forces. Five hundred tanks took part in the May Day parade, eight hundred aircraft took off, the flagship of which was the eight-engine Maxim Gorky, accompanied by two fighters. Following them, bombers flew in several tiers, which literally covered the sky over the square with their wings. A real sensation was caused by five red I-16s that appeared in the sky. Descending almost to the battlements of the Kremlin wall, these fighters roared over the spectators. According to Stalin's order, each of the pilots of this five received not only a cash bonus, but also an extraordinary title.

Since the imperial eagles located on the towers of the Kremlin and the historical museum no longer fit into the overall picture of Red Square, in the fall of 1935 they were replaced by stars made of metal with Ural gems. Two years later, these stars were replaced with ruby red ones illuminated from the inside. In addition, at the end of the 30s, a central tribune was installed in front of the mausoleum, which now towered over the inscription "Lenin", symbolically emphasizing the significance of the people standing on it.

The May Day parade of 1941 was the last peaceful march of the pre-war country. In the conditions prevailing in Europe, the demonstration of the power of the USSR was of particular importance, especially considering that among the foreign representatives were the highest ranks of the Wehrmacht. Budyonny believed that whether the Soviet Union would be drawn into a confrontation with the Germans could depend on how well the Soviets showed their power and preparation. Huge moral tension led to the fact that some participants simply lost consciousness, and therefore almost everyone had a bottle of ammonia in their pocket. Marshal Timoshenko's speech delivered from the rostrum had a clearly traceable main idea - the desire of the USSR for a peaceful policy. The novelty of this parade was the participation of motorcycle units, which were just beginning to form in the Red Army. The demonstrative flight of the newest dive bombers was also significant. However, according to the report of one of the officers of the Wehrmacht after the parade, “the Russian officer corps was in a deplorable state and made a miserable impression”, and “the USSR will take at least twenty years to restore the lost command staff.” On the basis of what the stated conclusions were made, one can only guess.

One of the most memorable and significant was the solemn parade of troops leaving Red Square directly to the front, which took place on November 7, 1941. These days, the front was as close as possible to the heart of our Motherland and was at a distance of seventy kilometers. The stars of the Kremlin towers were covered with covers, and the gilded domes of the cathedral were painted over for security and camouflage. Contrary to Hitler's desire to mark the anniversary of October with a parade of German troops in the center of Moscow, the Soviet leadership organized its own parade, the purpose of which was to inspire confidence in our compatriots and dispel the atmosphere of chaos and hopelessness that reigned at that time in the capital.

The decision to hold the parade was announced the night before on November 6 by Stalin personally at a solemn meeting that began twenty minutes after the end of the air raid caused by an attempt by two hundred German bombers to break through to the capital. Preparations for the parade took place in the strictest secrecy, and the event itself was equated to a military operation. To ensure safety, the start of the parade was scheduled for eight in the morning, and all its participants were instructed in case of an air raid alert. The parade was hosted by Deputy People's Commissar of Defense Marshal Budyonny, who was accompanied by the parade commander, Lieutenant General Artemyev.

For the first and only time that day, Stalin delivered a speech from the podium of the mausoleum, calling his compatriots sisters and brothers. His speech, full of patriotism, had the expected effect, inspiring the soldiers and residents of the capital leaving for battle to the inevitability of our victory over the aggressor. About twenty-eight thousand people took part in the solemn parade on November 7, 1941, and the most numerous were the NKVD troops in the amount of forty-two battalions. An interesting fact is that the beginning of the parade was not recorded on film, as for the sake of secrecy, filmmakers were not warned about the upcoming event. Cameramen with cameras arrived at the square later, having heard the broadcast from the parade on the radio.

The previously classified T-60, T-34 and KV-1 tanks took part in that memorable parade for the first and last time. Unlike other celebrations, military equipment was supplied with ammunition in case an order was received to advance towards the front, however, the strikers were still removed from the guns for safety and were kept by the crew commanders. After this symbolic November parade, the whole world realized that the USSR would never submit to the enemy. A commemorative reconstruction of this procession took place seventy years later in November 2011 and has since been held annually on November 7th.
The next celebration on Red Square took place only three and a half years later on May 1, 1945, when everyone was already living in the expectation of victory, and the last bloody battles were going on in the depths of the fascist lair. Until 1944, the Internationale, which was the national anthem, was performed at military parades. At the May Day parade in 1945, the new anthem of the USSR was played for the first time. A year later, the People's Commissariat of Defense will be renamed the Ministry of Defense, and the Red Army will be called the Soviet.

An even more solemn and jubilant event was the victory parade of 1945. The decision to hold the holiday was made by the leadership on May 9, and two weeks later the command order was transmitted that each front should allocate a combined regiment of 1059 people to participate in the procession. On June 19, the red flag victoriously hoisted over the Reichstag was delivered by plane to Moscow. It was it that was obliged to be present at the head of the column, and those who directly hoisted the banner in Germany were supposed to carry it. However, in preparation for the parade, these heroic people showed unsatisfactory drill skills, and then Zhukov ordered the banner to be transported to the Museum of the Armed Forces. Thus, in the main parade of the 20th century, which took place on June 24, 1945, the main symbol of victory did not take part. He will return to Red Square only in the anniversary year of 1965.

The Victory Parade was received by Marshal Zhukov, accompanied by his adjutant, riding a white stallion in the pouring rain, which slightly spoiled the solemn atmosphere of the event. The parade itself was filmed for the first time on color trophy film, which had to be developed in Germany. Unfortunately, due to color distortion, the film was later converted to black and white. The sequence of the consolidated regiments was determined by the order of the fronts during the conduct of hostilities by the end of the war from north to south. The march was led by the regiment of the 1st Belorussian Front, whose soldiers hoisted the banner in Berlin. And the apotheosis of the holiday was the deposition of enemy German banners at the Mausoleum. The parade lasted a little over two hours. Stalin ordered the demonstration of workers to be excluded from the program of the holiday. Muscovites and front-line soldiers waited a long time for the very speech of the head of the country, but the Leader did not address his people. Only Marshal Zhukov uttered a few phrases from the podium. There was no symbolic moment of silence at the celebration in memory of the dead. The film about the parade spread all over the country and everywhere it was watched with a full house. It should be clarified that only two decades later, in 1965, the day of May 9 will become the official holiday of the Victory.

On August 12, 1945, a parade took place on Red Square again, but it was a procession of athletes, which was typical for the 30s. A notable fact of this event was the fact that for the first and last time representatives of the United States stood on the podium of the Mausoleum. The large-scale event with the participation of twenty-three thousand participants lasted five hours, during which the columns continued to move continuously, and most of the square was covered with a special green cloth. The impressions received from the sports parade led Eisenhower to say that "this country cannot be defeated." On the same day, atomic bombs were dropped on Japanese cities.

In 1946, the question of the passage of tanks through Moscow was sharply raised in connection with the emergency post-war state of houses, which simply collapsed when heavy equipment moved through the streets. Before preparing for a large-scale review of tank equipment on September 8, 1946, the opinion of the chief mayor was heeded, and now the route for the passage of vehicles is being developed taking into account the state of the capital's housing stock.

From the parade of 1957, it will become a tradition to demonstrate various rocket systems. In the same year, aviation did not perform at the celebration due to bad weather. The participation of pilots in parades on the main square will resume only after forty-eight years at the May 2005 parade.

Since the May Day parade of 1960, military parades have become a kind of formidable symbol of the confrontation between the two political worlds. This celebration began with the decision by Khrushchev, who was then in power, to destroy the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft that burst into the sky over the USSR and proceeded to the Urals. Emotional Nikita Sergeevich took such impudence as a personal insult. A decisive response with the help of an anti-aircraft complex put an end to the possibility of peacefully resolving the issues that had matured between England, the USA and the USSR.

Since 1965, for the next eighteen years, military parades on Red Square were hosted by L.I. Brezhnev. The arrangement of the main persons of the country on the podium of the mausoleum in those years eloquently spoke of the preferences among the leaders and the attitude of the first person to those close to him.
The parade on May 1, 1967, held in the year of the 50th anniversary of Soviet power, was distinguished by a theatrical historical show with the participation of columns of Red Army soldiers dressed in Civil War overcoats, commissars in leather jackets and sailors girded with machine-gun belts. After a long temporary break, a squadron of cavalrymen reappeared on the square, behind which carts with machine guns thundered along the cobblestones. Then the procession was continued by armored vehicles imitating samples of the early 20th century with built-in Maxim machine guns.

In 1968, the last May Day military parade took place. From this year on, only columns of workers passed through the square on May 1 celebrations. And military equipment was brought to the square for review only once a year on November 7th. During the years of stagnation, which lasted twenty years and led to the collapse of the USSR, after the signing of the arms reduction treaty in 1974, intercontinental ballistic missiles were demonstrated to the people for the last time on Red Square. In 1975 and 1976, armored vehicles did not take part in the parades and the celebrations took only thirty minutes. However, on November 7, 1977, tanks again appeared at the main parade of the country. And on November 7, 1982, Brezhnev appeared for the last time on the podium of the mausoleum.

After the change of several leaders on March 11, 1985, M.S. Gorbachev. At the parade in honor of the 40th anniversary of the victory on May 9, 1985, taking place according to the already familiar scenario, not only Russian wars, participants in World War II, but also Poles, as well as veterans from the Czech Republic, marched in the column of veterans.

The last parade of Soviet power on Red Square took place on November 7, 1990, when the head of state, Mikhail Sergeevich, like Stalin, delivered a speech from the podium of the Mausoleum. However, his appeal to the people was full of trivialities and hackneyed phrases. Soon after that, the collapse of the USSR occurred, followed by the division and division of the property of the army ...

Victory parades in honor of the feat of the Russian people in the Great Patriotic War began to be held only on anniversaries, they took place in 1985 and 1990. In the period from 1991 to 1994, this tradition was completely forgotten. However, in 1995, an order dated May 19 appeared in Russia, according to which, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Great Victory, the tradition of holding commemorative celebrations and parades in hero cities was revived, but the participation of military equipment that caused great damage to their infrastructure was excluded. In the same year, demonstration performances were held at Poklonnaya Gora, where new models of military vehicles and equipment were demonstrated. A few columns of war veterans passed through the main square of the country.

Starting from May 9, 2008, military parades on Red Square became regular again, resuming seventeen years later. Today's parades differ significantly not only in the increased technical capabilities and the presence of a mass of colorful special effects, but also in the unprecedented amount of equipment involved, not only military, but also filming, which allows you to show the event from the most favorable angles and make close-ups of any place or person. In addition, a huge screen is being installed near the stands, which displays a live picture of the parade.

AND . Here is the famous and The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

Today, the largest parade in the history of the CIS countries took place on Red Square. Kazakh military personnel also took part in it. In connection with this event, we decided to tell how the Victory Day Parades were held from 1945 to 2010.

Source: website of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

The very first Victory parade took place June 24, 1945. The decision to hold it was made back in mid-May, when the Soviet troops broke the resistance of the last German units that did not surrender. From the very beginning, Stalin wanted to make this event grandiose and hitherto unseen. To do this, it was necessary to present at the parade all the fronts and branches of the armed forces. On May 24, the General Staff put forward its proposals for holding the parade. The commander-in-chief made one adjustment to them - instead of two months, he allotted only a month to organize the parade. On the same day, orders to form consolidated regiments scattered across the fronts.

Each regiment was to consist of 1,000 personnel and 19 commanders. Later, already in the process of staffing the regiments, their strength increased to 1465 people. Particularly distinguished fighters who had awards for courage shown during the war years were selected for the regiments. Each regiment was supposed to have rifle units, artillerymen, tankers, pilots, sappers, signalmen and cavalrymen. Each branch of the military had its own dress uniform and weapons.

In addition to the consolidated regiments of the fronts, a separate regiment of the Navy, students of military academies and schools, as well as troops of the Moscow garrison, were to pass through the Parade.

Colonel-General Sergei Shtemenko and Chief of the General Staff Alexei Antonov were appointed responsible for holding the Parade. It is hard to even imagine how hard this burden was given to them, because such a large-scale event had to be organized as soon as possible.

For 15 thousand participants of the event, it was necessary to sew a dress uniform of a new sample. Factories in Moscow and the Moscow region worked without days off and breaks, but by June 20 they coped with the task, and all the ceremonial uniforms were ready.

Separately, it was necessary to make ten standards of the fronts. Initially, this task was entrusted to a division of Moscow military builders. Unfortunately, their option was rejected, and only ten days remained before the Parade. Experienced craftsmen from the workshops of the Bolshoi Theater came to the rescue. Under the guidance of the head of the art and props shop V. Terzibashyan and the head of the locksmith and mechanical shop N. Chistyakov, they prepared the standards for the deadline. These banners weighed about 10 kilograms each. To facilitate the task of those who will carry them in the parade, sword belts were designed and manufactured, thrown on wide belts over the left shoulder, with a leather glass in which the flagpole was attached.

The drill training of personnel began on June 10, when the consolidated regiments of the fronts arrived in the Moscow region. It took place at the Frunze Central Airfield. The fighters trained six to seven hours a day. Separately, a special company was prepared, which was to carry Nazi banners at the Parade. The soldiers trained with heavy sticks almost 2 meters long. According to the memories of the participants after these classes, sweat flowed from them in a stream. For the preparation of this company, soldiers of the 3rd regiment of the division named after F.E. Dzerzhinsky were specially allocated.

By the way, it was poor drill training that caused the cancellation of the removal of the Victory Banner to Red Square. A group of standard-bearers, consisting of Mikhail Yegorov, Meliton Kantaria and Captain Stepan Neustroev, participants in the hoisting of the Banner over the Reichstag, did not have time to learn the drill step at the proper level for their responsible mission.

It rained heavily on the day of the parade. Because of him, the flight of equipment over the Kremlin was canceled, as well as the passage of the column of workers. The parade brought together many war heroes, deputies of the Supreme Council, artists, heroes of labor. At 9:45 a.m., Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov, Kalinin and other members of the Politburo went up to the podium of the Mausoleum. Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky was appointed commander of the parade. He sat on a black horse named Pole. The parade was hosted by Marshal Georgy Zhukov on a white light gray horse named Kumir. At 10 o'clock they galloped towards each other. Five minutes later, the detour of the parade columns lined up on the square began. A loud “Hurrah!” swelled from all sides. Artillery fired 50 volleys. Zhukov got up and delivered a speech in which he congratulated everyone on the end of the war.

The passage of the columns was opened by Marshal Rokossovsky. Behind him was a group of young Suvorov drummers, pupils of the 2nd Moscow Military Music School. Already behind him were the combined regiments of the fronts in geographical location from north to south: Karelsky under the command of Marshal Meretskov, Leningradsky with Marshal Govorov, 1st Baltic with General Baghramyan, 3rd Belorussian led by Marshal Vasilevsky, 2nd Belorussian with the deputy commander of the troops Colonel General K. P. Trubnikov, 1st Belorussian, who was also led by Deputy Commander Sokolovsky, 1st Ukrainian led by Marshal Konev, 4th Ukrainian with Army General Eremenko, 2nd Ukrainian with commander Marshal Malinovsky, 3 1st Ukrainian Marshal Tolbukhin, consolidated regiment of the Navy with Vice Admiral Fadeev.

There were many of our compatriots in these regiments. For one of them, Mukhangali Turmagambetov, the war began in July 1941 near the borders of the USSR in Belarus. Together with other units, he retreated to the west, almost twice was captured. In the rank of sergeant of an anti-aircraft battery, the fighter participated in the legendary battle for Moscow. He happened to take part in the historic military parade on May 7, 1941. And now, having passed Stalingrad, Moldova, Hungary, Romania, the Carpathians and Austria, he again walked along Red Square, having passed a tough selection of ten thousand people.

After the columns of the consolidated regiments of the fronts, a company of soldiers carrying enemy banners began to move across the square. In preparation for the parade, 900 banners and standards of German units were taken out of Germany. The commission selected two hundred of them. The soldiers approached the foot of the Mausoleum and threw banners onto platforms specially constructed for this purpose. The soldiers were wearing white gloves on their hands to emphasize how disgusted everyone is with Nazi symbols. The first to be thrown was the Leibstandarte of the LSSAH, Hitler's bodyguard battalion. After the parade, all German banners were transferred to the Central Museum of the Armed Forces for storage.

The orchestra sounded again in the square. Parts of the Moscow garrison and a combined regiment of cadets of military academies and schools passed. The cadets of the Suvorov military schools closed the procession. The cavalry brigade and fighters on motorcycles followed the foot units.

Military equipment completed the parade. Anti-aircraft mounts on vehicles, batteries of anti-tank and large-caliber artillery, field artillery, such as the famous ZIS-2 and ZIS-3 guns, drove along the cobblestones of Red Square. They were followed by T-34 and IS tanks, followed by a combined military band.

Source ITAR-TASS archive

After this legendary parade, such large-scale celebrations in honor of May 9 were not held for twenty years. This day remained non-working only until the 48th year, when the country's leadership canceled the day off, making the New Year a non-working day. In 1965, the new General Secretary Brezhnev, who himself was a war veteran, remembered this holiday and decided to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Victory on a grand scale. Since then, May 9 has again become a day off and a national holiday.

Commander of the Moscow Military District Afanasy Beloborodov commanded the parade of 1965, and Minister of Defense Rodion Malinovsky, twenty years ago, who himself walked along the cobblestones of Red Square at the head of the combined regiment of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, hosted the parade.

I remember the anniversary parade for the first time in the history of the removal of the Banner of Victory. Time put everything in its place, Kantaria and Yegorov, who did not take part in the Victory Parade, finally passed through Red Square as part of a banner group. The honor to carry the Banner was given to the participant in the assault on the Reichstag, Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel Konstantin Samsonov.

In terms of scale, the Parade of the 65th was not inferior to the first Victory Parade, and even surpassed it in terms of the amount of equipment. Almost a third of the participants in the parade were veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Vehicles from the war times and modern weapons of the Soviet army passed through the square.

There were also political motives in the decision to hold the Victory Parade. Foreign attachés present at the parade were amazed to see huge ballistic missiles passing by them. The announcer clearly stated that missiles could hit a target anywhere in the world. Not a little scared and in the headquarters of NATO. No one knew that only models of 8K713, 8K96 missiles developed by Sergei Korolev and 8K99 designed by Mikhail Yangel passed through the square. In reality, samples of these missiles have not yet been collected and tested. As a result, after the failure of the tests, they did not go into the series.

In the history of the parades on May 9, there was again a break of 20 years. The next, third of them took place only in the 85th, on the fortieth anniversary of the Victory. In the stands that day stood the new General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Mikhail Gorbachev, and members of the Politburo. The parade was commanded by General of the Army Pyotr Lushev, and was received by Defense Minister Marshal Sergei Sokolov. He also addressed the military with a speech in which he paid attention to the role of the European Resistance and the countries of the anti-fascist coalition in the victory. At the same time, he remarked: "Bourgeois propaganda removes responsibility from those who unleashed the war and are trying to belittle the role of the Soviet Union in defeating the fascist invaders."

The parade was opened by the drummers of the Moscow Military Music School. They were followed by a group of banners. The banner of Victory was carried by a participant in the war, an ace fighter who shot down 46 fascist aircraft, twice Hero of the Soviet Union - Nikolai Skomorokhov. 150 banners were carried across the square, the most distinguished units during the war years. In the historical part of the parade, columns of veterans passed: Heroes of the Soviet Union, full holders of the Orders of Glory, participants in the parade of the 45th year, partisans and home front workers. For the first time, foreign military personnel, veterans from Poland and Czechoslovakia, took part in the Parade.

Students of higher military academies and colleges marched in the columns of modern troops. Among them were representatives of the Frunze Military Academy, the V. I. Lenin Military-Political Academy, the Dzerzhinsky Academy, the Academy of Armored Forces, the Academy of Chemical Protection. In addition, paratroopers, marines, Suvorov and Nakhimov soldiers marched across the square. The Kremlin cadets, students of the Moscow Higher Military Command School, completed the passage of foot columns.

The passage of technology was also divided into historical and modern parts. For the last time in the history of the Soviet Union, T 34-85 tanks, SU-100 self-propelled guns, Katyushas - BM-13 mortars drove across the square.

Source ITAR-TASS archive

The 1985 parade featured a lot of new equipment that had entered service just a few years earlier. In total, 612 units of military equipment were used. Soldiers of the Taman division rode in armored vehicles BPM-2, paratroopers in BMD-1 and BTR-70. Tankers of the Kantemirovskaya division controlled T-72 tanks. Of the artillery, the howitzers "Carnation" and "Acacia", the guns "Hyacinth" participated in the parade. Ballistic missiles (Luna-M, Tochka, R-17) were also brought across the square.

The parade in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Victory in 1995, in fact, was divided into two parts. The first of them - the historical one - took place on Red Square and began at ten o'clock. As planned by the organizers, this parade was supposed to reconstruct the first Victory Parade. Soldiers dressed as Red Army soldiers marched across the square. The Victory Banner was carried by a participant in the 1945 Victory Parade, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, retired Colonel-General of Aviation Mikhail Odintsov. He was followed by 4,939 war and labor veterans in the consolidated regiments and under the banners of the fronts in which he fought.

Among the guests of the Parade were UN Secretary General Boutros Ghali, US President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister John Major, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. As well as the heads of the former Soviet republics: Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev and others.

The modern part of the parade took place on Poklonnaya Hill, where a tribune was built especially for this. The parade was commanded by Colonel-General Leonid Kuznetsov and received by Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev. The parade was attended by 10 thousand people, 330 units of military equipment, 45 aircraft, 25 helicopters. It lasted a record two hours.

Cadets of the Frunze Academy, the Dzerzhinsky Academy, the Academy of Armored Forces, the Ryazan Airborne School, etc. passed in foot columns. For the first time, students of the Military Academy of Economics, Finance and Law, which opened in 1993, took part in the parade. BTR-80, BMP-3, T-80 tanks, Smerch multiple launch rocket system, S-300 air defense system participated in the parade. Quite in the spirit of that time was the refusal to participate in the parade of ballistic missiles.

For the first time in the history of celebrations for the Victory Day, the aviation part of the parade took place. Il-78 tanker aircraft accompanied by Su-24 front-line bombers were demonstrated, MiG-31 fighter jets, An-124 Ruslan cargo giants, Ka-27 helicopters intended for ship-based deployment flew by.

On June 24, 1945, a legendary parade was held on Red Square in Moscow in honor of the end of the Great Patriotic War. The parade was attended by 24 marshals, 249 generals, 2,536 officers and 31,116 privates and sergeants. In addition, the audience was shown 1850 units of military equipment. Interesting facts about the first Victory Parade in the history of our country are waiting for you further.

1. The Victory Parade was hosted by Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, not Stalin. A week before the day of the parade, Stalin called Zhukov to his dacha and asked if the marshal had forgotten how to ride. He has to drive more and more on staff cars. Zhukov replied that he had not forgotten how and in his spare time he tried to ride.
- Here's the thing, - said the Supreme, - you will have to accept the Victory Parade. Rokossovsky will command the parade.
Zhukov was surprised, but did not show it:
- Thank you for such an honor, but wouldn't it be better for you to host the parade?
And Stalin to him:
- I'm already old to receive parades. Take it, you are younger.

The next day, Zhukov went to the Central Airfield on the former Khodynka - the parade rehearsal was held there - and met with Vasily, Stalin's son. And it was here that Vasily marshal was amazed. He told me in secret that my father was going to host the parade himself. He ordered Marshal Budyonny to prepare a suitable horse and went to Khamovniki, to the main army riding arena on Chudovka, as Komsomolsky Prospekt was then called. There, the army cavalrymen arranged their magnificent arena - a huge, high hall, all in large mirrors. It was here that on June 16, 1945, Stalin came to shake up the old days and check whether the skills of a dzhigit had been lost over time. At a sign from Budyonny, a snow-white horse was brought up and Stalin helped to hoist himself into the saddle. Gathering the reins in his left hand, which always remained bent at the elbow and only half active, which is why the evil tongues of party comrades called the leader "Sukhorukim", Stalin spurred the stubborn horse - and he rushed off ...
The rider fell out of the saddle and, despite the thick layer of sawdust, hit his side and head painfully ... Everyone rushed to him, helped him up. Budyonny, a timid man, looked with fear at the leader ... But there were no consequences.

2. The Banner of Victory, brought to Moscow on June 20, 1945, was to be carried through Red Square. And the calculation of the flagmen specially trained. The keeper of the Banner at the Museum of the Soviet Army, A. Dementiev, claimed that the standard-bearer Neustroev and his assistants Yegorov, Kantaria and Berest, who hoisted it over the Reichstag and seconded to Moscow, were extremely unsuccessful at the rehearsal - they had no time for drill training in the war. The same Neustroev, by the age of 22, had five wounds, his legs were injured. Appointing other standard-bearers is ridiculous, and too late. Zhukov decided not to take out the Banner. Therefore, contrary to popular belief, there was no Banner at the Victory Parade. The first time the Banner was taken to the parade in 1965.

3. The question arose more than once: why does the Banner lack a strip 73 centimeters long and 3 centimeters wide, because the panels of all assault flags were cut to the same size? There are two versions. First: the strip was cut off and taken as a keepsake on May 2, 1945 by the former on the roof of the Reichstag, Private Alexander Kharkov, a Katyusha gunner from the 92nd Guards Mortar Regiment. But how could he know that it was this, one of several, cotton cloth that would become the Banner of Victory?
The second version: The banner was kept in the political department of the 150th Infantry Division. Mostly women worked there, who began to be demobilized in the summer of 1945. They decided to keep a souvenir for themselves, cut off a strip and divided it into pieces. This version is the most probable: in the early 70s, a woman came to the Museum of the Soviet Army, told this story and showed her shred.

4. Everyone saw footage of Nazi banners being thrown at the foot of the Mausoleum. But it is curious that the fighters carried 200 banners and standards of the defeated German units with gloves, emphasizing that it is disgusting to even take the shafts of these standards into the hands. And they threw them on a special platform so that the standards would not touch the pavement of Red Square. The first to throw was Hitler's personal standard, the last - the banner of Vlasov's army. And in the evening of the same day, the platform and all the gloves were burned.

5. The directive on preparing for the parade went to the troops a month before, at the end of May. And the exact date of the parade was determined by the time required by the clothing factories of Moscow to sew 10 thousand sets of parade uniforms for soldiers, and the timing of tailoring uniforms for officers and generals in the atelier.

6. In order to participate in the Victory Parade, it was necessary to pass a tough selection: not only feats and merits were taken into account, but also the appearance corresponding to the appearance of the victorious warrior, and that the warrior was at least 170 cm tall. No wonder in the newsreel all participants in the parade are simply handsome especially the pilots. Going to Moscow, the lucky ones did not yet know that they would have to do drill for 10 hours a day for the sake of three and a half minutes of an impeccable march along Red Square.

7. Fifteen minutes before the start of the parade, it began to rain, turning into a downpour. It cleared up only in the evening. Because of this, the air part of the parade was canceled. Standing on the podium of the Mausoleum, Stalin was dressed in a raincoat and rubber boots - according to the weather. But the marshals were soaked through. Rokossovsky's wet dress uniform, when dry, sat down so that it was impossible to take it off - he had to rip it open.

8. Zhukov's ceremonial speech survived. It is interesting that on its margins someone carefully painted all the intonations with which the marshal had to pronounce this text. The most interesting notes: "quieter, more severe" - in the words: "Four years ago, the Nazi hordes of robbers attacked our country"; “louder, with an increase” - on the boldly underlined phrase: “The Red Army, under the leadership of its brilliant commander, went on a decisive offensive.” And here: "quieter, more penetrating" - starting with the sentence "We won the victory at the cost of heavy sacrifices."

9. Few people know that there were four landmark parades in 1945. The first in importance, of course, is the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945 on Red Square in Moscow. The parade of Soviet troops in Berlin took place on May 4, 1945 at the Brandenburg Gate, hosted by its military commandant of Berlin, General N. Berzarin.
The Allied Victory Parade in Berlin was held on September 7, 1945. It was Zhukov's proposal after the Moscow Victory Parade. A composite regiment of a thousand men and armored units participated from each allied nation. But 52 IS-3 tanks from our 2nd Guards Tank Army aroused universal admiration.
The Victory Parade of the Soviet troops in Harbin on September 16, 1945 was reminiscent of the first parade in Berlin: our soldiers marched in field uniforms. Tanks and self-propelled guns closed the column.

10. After the parade on June 24, 1945, Victory Day was not widely celebrated and was an ordinary working day. Only in 1965 did Victory Day become a public holiday. After the collapse of the USSR, Victory Parades were not held until 1995.

11. Why at the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945, one dog was carried in the arms on a Stalinist overcoat?

During the Second World War, trained dogs actively helped sappers clear mines. One of them, nicknamed Dzhulbars, discovered 7468 mines and more than 150 shells while clearing mines in European countries in the last year of the war. Shortly before the Victory Parade in Moscow on June 24, Dzhulbars was wounded and could not pass as part of the military dog school. Then Stalin ordered to carry the dog across Red Square on his overcoat.