The Moscow Victory Day Parade in Moscow's Red Square was held on 9 May 2012 to commemorate the 67th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945. The parade marked the Soviet Union's victory in the Great Patriotic War on the very day on the signing of the German act of capitulation, on the very midnight of May 9, 1945 (Russian time). Newly inaugurated President of Russia Vladimir Putin made his first holiday address in this parade.
Since October 2011, the parade has been well prepared. Rehearsals began to be held by the various participating units.
Beginning from March 2012, in the parade practice site in Alabino, Moscow Oblast, parade rehearsal were held from the 19th of that month until April 23, and from April 21 and 22 the parade's Mobile Column began its Moscow test runs.
Full rehearsals in Moscow itself started on the final Thursday and weekend of April and lasted until May 6. These also included separate practice runs for the military bands and the mobile column.
For the first time in a year, due to the massive unpopularity of the new Battledress duty uniforms worn last year by almost all the parading units, all the participants, save for those in the mobile column, began wearing Dress uniforms again. The entire marchpast segment for 2012 was composed of the following Russian uniformed services:
Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
Russian Ground Forces
Russian Air Force
Russian Navy
Russian Naval Infantry
Russian Airborne Troops
Strategic Missile Troops
Russian Aerospace Defence Forces
Russian Railway Troops
Border Guard of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation
Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation
Ministry of Emergency Situations
The mobile column was composed of more than a hundred military vehicles from various military units and a squadron of Army Air Center Mi-8s carrying the Flag of Russia and the flags of the Armed Forces flying past Red Square closed the parade segment.
This year's combined military band, conducted by Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov in what is his 10th Victory Day appearance as Senior Director of Music of the Military Band Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, will have more than 1100 bandsmen and for the first time in 3 years will see the return of the Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov Moscow Military Music School's Corps of Drums leading the parade in its dark blue and red dress uniform, as it has always done since the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945.
Colonel General Valery Gerasimov was the year's parade commander (his final parade appearance) while the Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation, Anatoly Serdyukov, in what would be his final parade review, was the parade reviewing officer.
Massed Military Bands of the Armed Forces under the direction of the Senior Director of Music of the Military Bands Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov
Corps of Drums of the Moscow Military Music School
Ground Column
154th Preobrazhensky Independent Commandant's Regiment Color Guard and Honor Guard Company of the 1st Honor Guard Battalion, 154th ICR
Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
Military University of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation
Military Technical University of the Federal Agency of Special Construction
Air Military Engineering University (first appearance)
Fleet Admiral of the Soviet Union Nikolai Kuznetsov Naval Academy (first appearance)
336th Independent Naval Infantry Brigade
Military Space Academy "Alexander Mozhaysky"
Yaroslav Air Defense Senior College of Rocket Training and Research (first appearance)
Peter the Great Military Academy of the Missile Forces of Strategic Importance of the Russian Federation
98th Guards Airborne Division
29th and 34th Independent Railway Brigades of the Russian Railway Troops (first appearance)
1st NBC Coastal Brigade
9th Chemical Disposal Regiment
45th Engineering Brigade
Civil Defense Academy of the Ministry of Emergency Situations
OMSDON Ind. Motorized Internal Troops Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation "Felix Dzerzhinsky"
Moscow Border Guards Institute of the Border Guard Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation
5th Independent Tamanskaya Guards Motor Rifle Brigade "Mikhail Kalinin"
4th Independent Kantemirovkaya Guards Tank Brigade "Yuri Andropov"
9th Independent Guards Motor Rifle Brigade
27th Independent Sevastopol Guards Motor Rifle Brigade
288th Independent Warsaw-Brandenburg Artillery Brigade
Moscow Military Commanders Training School "Supreme Soviet of Russia"
Mobile Column
GAZ-2975 Tigr
Iveco LMV (first appearance)
BTR-80
T-90A
2S19 Msta
Buk missile system
Pantsir-S1
S-400 Triumf
Iskander-M
Topol-M
Air Column Flypast
Mil Mi-8 Hip Colors Party
