Moscow Victory Parade of 1945

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

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 Premier of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin stood atop of Lenin's Mausoleum and watched the parade.

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.^[2] One of the standards that were tossed down belonged to the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, Hitler's personal bodyguard raised to divisional size.

General view	Kuban Cossack unit marching at the parade	Deposition of Nazi standards	Marshals Zhukov and Rokossovsky
Officers of Polish First Army leading their troops at the parade	Tankmen	Sailors