Moscow Victory Parade of 1945

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The 1945 Victory parade was the first major Soviet event recorded on color film.

The Moscow Victory Parade of 1945 was a victory parade held after the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War. It took place in the Soviet capital of Moscow, mostly centering around a military parade through Red Square. The parade took place on a rainy June 24, 1945, over a month after May 9th, the day of Germany's surrender to Soviet commanders.

Marshals Georgy Zhukov, who had formally accepted the German surrender to the Soviet Union, and Konstantin Rokossovsky, rode through the parade ground on white and black stallions, respectively.[1] The fact is commemorated by the equestrian statue of Zhukov in front of the State Historical Museum, on Manege Square. The General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, stood atop of Lenin's Mausoleum and watched the parade. Renowned historian Anthony Beevor states that Stalin actually intended to lead the parade riding Zhukov's white stallion but the horse bolted in the manege because of Stalin's lack of riding skills. Even when the Soviet leader grabbed the mane, he eventually fell to the ground. After that, he just spat and said "Let Zhukov take the parade. He's an old cavalryman." [2]

However, this story is disputed by Victor Suvorov. He claims that the story was made up, as a counterargument to his theory[3] [4], since Suvorov uses the fact that Stalin didn't take the Parade to argue that Stalin considered the war's results not worthy of the effort invested[5]. He claims that the story can be found in no sources older than his book "The last republic", where he refers to that point. Suvorov points out several inconsistencies in the story. For example, the horse on which Zhukov and Stalin rode is called Arabic, while in reality it was a Tersk horse (Which, while having a significant amount of Arabic blood, is not Arabic as such), and there is numerous evidence that Zhukov was intended for his role of taking the parade to begin with[6].

Displays of the Red Army aircraft and 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 Red Army soldiers carried the banners of Nazi Germany and threw them down next to the Mausoleum.[7] One of the standards that was tossed down belonged to the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, Hitler's personal bodyguard raised to divisional size.


Contents

[edit] Parade Participants

  • Massed Bands of the Moscow Military District
    • Conductor: Major Gen. Semen Chernetsky, Director of Music of the Central Military Orchestra, People's Commissariat for National Defense
  • Moscow A. Surovov Military Music School Corps of Drums
  • Fronts of the Soviet Army, Navy and Army Air Forces and Air Defense Forces Composed of:
    • Ground Troops and Air Force personnel of the following fronts:
      • Karelian
      • Leningrad
      • 1st Baltic
      • 1st Belorussian
        • 1st Polish Army
      • 2nd Belorussian
      • 3rd Belorussian
      • 1st Ukrainian
      • 2nd Ukrainian
      • 3rd Ukrainian
      • 4th Ukrainian
    • Fleet personnel of the Soviet Navy
      • Baltic Fleet
      • Caspian Flotilla
      • Black Sea Fleet
      • Northern Fleet
      • Marine Infantry Command
      • Coastal Defense Forces
      • Navy Air Forces
    • Flag Disposal battalion
    • Moscow Military District, Armed Forces of the Soviet Union
      • Military Schools and Academies Corps of the MMD
      • Infantry Units
      • Canine Warfare Units
  • Army Cavalry Command
  • Army Air Defense Forces Command
    • Anti-aircraft guns
  • Army Artillery Forces
  • Army Motorized Rifles
  • Army Airborne Troops
  • Tank Forces Command of the Soviet Army
  • Army Artillery Forces Self-Propelled Artillery Corps

Kuban Cossack unit marching at the parade

Deposition of Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler standards

Marshals Zhukov and Rokossovsky

Officers of Polish First Army leading their troops at the parade

[edit] See also

Search Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Victory parade in Moscow

[edit] References

  1. ^ This YouTube clip shows the hurrahs of the soldiers and sailors as Zhukov and Rokossovsky trot through Red Square
  2. ^ Antony Beevor, Berlin: the downfall, 1945, Viking, 2002, p24
  3. ^ http://www.suvorov.com/books/poslednaja-respublika-2/01.htm
  4. ^ http://www.suvorov.com/books/poslednaja-respublika-2/02.htm
  5. ^ http://militera.lib.ru/research/suvorov3/01.html
  6. ^ http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/shtemenko/16.htm
  7. ^ This YouTube clip shows the moment (0:15) in the 1945 victory parade when the Nazi banners were being thrown to the ground

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Victory_Parade_of_1945"