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Moscow Victory Parade of 1945
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Start date
June 24, 1945
moscow victory parade of 1945 1945
The Moscow Victory Parade of 1945 (Russian: Парад Победы, Parad Pobedy) was a victory parade held by the Soviet army (with the Color Guard Company representing the First Polish Army) after the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War. This, the longest and largest military parade ever held on Red Square in the Soviet capital of Moscow, involved 40,000 Red Army soldiers and 1,850 military vehicles and other military hardware. The parade lasted just over two hours on a rainy June 24, 1945, over a month after May 9, the day of Germany's surrender to Soviet commanders.
The parade itself was ordered by Marshal of the Soviet Union Joseph (Iosif) Stalin on June 22, 1945, by virtue of Order 370 of the Office of the Supreme Commander in Chief, Armed Forces of the USSR. This order is at follows:
This was preceded by another letter by General of the Army Aleksei Antonov, Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces to all the participant fronts in attendance on the 24th of the previous month which is as follows:
According to certain editions of Zhukov's memoirs, Stalin had intended to ride through the parade himself, but he fell from the horse during the rehearsal and had to yield the honor to Zhukov, who used to be a cavalry officer. However, this story is disputed by former Soviet spy Viktor Suvorov. He claims that the story was inserted into Zhukov's memoirs as a counterargument to his theory, (although it apparently was in circulation earlier) that Stalin didn't lead the parade because he considered the war's results not worthy of the effort invested. Suvorov notes several inconsistencies in the story, along with numerous evidence that Zhukov was intended all along for the role of leading the parade; for example, the memoirs of Sergei Shtemenko, the man responsible at the time for the preparation of the parade, state that the roles were decided from the start, and Igor Bobylev (who took part in the preparations) claims that the story never happened and that Stalin never visited the Manege at that time.
Displays of the Red Army vehicles were some of the focal points of the ceremony. One of the most famous moments at the end of the troops parade took place when various NKVD soldiers carried the banners of Nazi Germany and threw them down next to the mausoleum. One of the standards that was tossed down belonged to the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, Hitler's personal bodyguard.
Due to the bad weather that day the flypast segment and the planned civil parade were cancelled; if the weather had improved, the flypast would have been led by Chief Marshals of Aviation Alexander Novikov and Alexander Golovanov. Nonetheless, this historic two-hour parade remains the longest and largest military parade in Red Square's history, and involved 40,000 soldiers and 1,850 military vehicles and other military hardware.
Parade participants
Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov (parade inspector)
1st Polish Army Color Guard Company led by Chief of the Army General Staff, General Władysław Korczyc (the only foreign army squad invited for the parade)
Flag Disposal regiment of the 1st Internal Troops Division of the USSR NKVD "Felix Dzerzhinsky" composed of captured enemy standards and colors carried by the fronts
Moscow Military District, Armed Forces of the Soviet Union contingent under Garrison and District Commander Col. Gen. Pavel Artemyev
Military Schools and Academies Combined Joint Division
Officers and other ranks of the People's Commisariat of Defense