The Moscow Victory Parade of 1945 (Russian: Парад Победы, tr. Parad Pobedy) was a victory parade held by the Soviet army (with a small squad from the Polish army) 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 9, the day of Germany's surrender to Soviet commanders.
Contents |
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:
| “ |
Order of the Supreme Commander in Chief, Armed Forces of the USSR and concurrent People's Commissar of State for National Defense To mark the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War, I order a parade of troops of the Army, Navy and the Moscow Garrison, the Victory Parade, on June 24, 1945, at Moscow's Red Square. Marching on parade shall be the combined regiments of all the fronts, a People's Commissariat of National Defense combined regiment, the Soviet Navy, military academies and schools, and troops of the Moscow Garrison and Military District. My deputy, Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov will be the parade inspector. Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky will command the Victory Parade itself. I entrust to Col. Gen. Pavel Artemyev, the preparations and the supervision of the parade organization, due to his concurrent capacities as the Commanding General of the Moscow Military District and Commanding Officer in charge of the Moscow City Garrison.
|
” |
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 former Soviet spy Viktor Suvorov. He claims that the story was inserted into Zhukov's memoirs later, as a counterargument to his theory, (although it apparently was in circulation earlier)[3] that Stalin didn't lead the parade because he considered the war's results not worthy of the effort invested.[4] He 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 plenty of evidence that Zhukov was intended for his role of leading the parade to begin with, for example, in the memoirs of Sergei Shtemenko, the man responsible at the time for the preparation of the parade, who says the roles were decided from the start[5], as well as Igor Bobylev (who took part in the preparations) who claims the story never happened and Stalin never visited the Manege at that time.[6]
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 Red Army 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 Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, Hitler's personal bodyguard raised to divisional size. Due to the bad weather that day the flypast segment was cancelled.
Ground Column
Mounted Column
Mobile Column
|
|||||||||||||