2015 Moscow Victory Day Parade

The 2015 Moscow Victory Day Parade is an upcoming parade that will take place in Red Square in Moscow on 9 May 2015 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945. The annual parade marks the Allied victory in the Second World War at the Western front. President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin will also deliver his twelfth holiday address to the nation on this day, right after the parade inspection to be presided by Minister of Defense General of the Army Sergey Shoigu. Being a landmark jubilee parade honoring the 70th anniversary of the Allied victory in the European continent, this year's parade is also expected to be one of the biggest and largest to be held in Russian history. Col. Gen. Oleg Salyukov, the Deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff and Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces, is this year's parade commander.

Important dignitaries in attendance and parade information

Leaders of which countries responded to the invitation of the Russian authorities to be present in Moscow on Victory Day parade May 9, 2005
     Yes      No
Leaders of which countries responded to the invitation of the Russian authorities to be present in Moscow on Victory Day parade May 9, 2015
     Yes      No      Undecided

Among those expected to come to this year's event is President of Serbia, Tomislav Nikolić,[1] President of Vietnam, Trương Tấn Sang,[2] President of China, Xi Jinping,[3] and the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee. In all, 26 international leaders are expected to be in attendance this year, including heads of UNESCO and the Council of Europe.[4]

The following countries have opted not to participate in this year's parade in Moscow:
Australia, Belarus,[5] Belgium, Bulgaria, United Kingdom, Germany, Georgia, Israel, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, North Korea,[6] Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, USA, Finland, Croatia, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Sweden, Estonia, Japan.

The 2014 annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and the subsequent War in Donbass has caused a number of nations that fought in the war, especially those that participated in the parade of 2010 to not participate in this year's celebrations, including Germany, whose chancellor Angela Merkel instead will visit Moscow on May 10, a day after the parade itself.[7] Those nations that will be absent from the celebrations will only have their ambassadors to the Russian Federation be present for the parade as part of the diplomatic corps in attendance.

Aside from the return of the T-34 tank and the SU-100 self-propelled gun, and the usual vehicles and planes in the mobile column and the flypast, making their parade debut this year are the following:

The Nakhimov Higher Naval Institute and the Chemical Defense and Control Military Academy will both make their return appearances in a Red Square parade after years of absences, the former since 1985 and the later since 2006, while the Pacific Naval Institute will be making its debut appearance this year, all in the march past segment made up of 16,000 servicemen, where they will be joined by a company sized formation from the Ground Forces Military Institute from the Kazakh Ground Forces, part of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and several military contingents from other Commonwealth of Independent States member countries, including the Armenian Army and the Azerbaijani Land Forces, all returning to the parade after a 5 year break, alongside first time parade participants from the armed forces of Serbia,[13]the People's Republic of China and Mongolia, and even The Grenadiers from the Indian Army.[14] The BMD-4 infantry fighting vehicle will make its return to the mobile column after a 6 year break, together with the joint flight of the Russian aerobatics teams Russian Knights and Strizhi after a one year absence from the parade.

Also, several military vehicles that drove through the Red Square in the 1945 Victory Parade are being readied for their drivepast in other major Russian cities.

As per tradition, 26 other Russian major cities (Sevastopol and Kerch in the disputed Crimea included) will hold their parades, and joint civil-military parades will be hosted by 50 other towns and cities nationwide.

Victory Day parades will also be held in the following CIS member nations:

Preparation

The new T-14 MBT during a rehearsal for the parade.

Beginning in November/December 2014, preparations for the parade were well attended at the unit level. Individual unit practices were held in the various military installations for all the participating units, and by March 2015, the air flypast column began its individual practice flying runs.[15] Also rehearsing for the parade are the massed military bands of the Armed Forces, the MVD, EMERCOM and the Moscow Garrison, all to be conducted for the 13th straight year by Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov, the Senior Director of Music of the Bands Service of the Russian Armed Forces since 2002, with a combined number of more than a thousand military bandsmen, and the world famous Corps of Drums of the Moscow Military Music College "Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov", under the leadership of Colonel Alexander Gerasimov, the long-time college director, which has always (with a brief break from 2009 to 2011) had the privilege of leading the parade.

The parade practice runs officially commenced in the practice field at Alabino, Moscow Oblast, in April 2015, and will last until the middle of April when the runs on Red Square itself will start, ending with a final general combined practice run of the parade in early May. Before the first parade dry run, there was the first practice drivepast of the estimated 200 mobile column vehicles in attendance this year, that first drivepast was held on March 27.[16]

The first parade practice run on April 3, 2015[17] kicked off officially the preparation for the big parade, despite the snowy weather that day. Joining the first run-through rehearsal (for the march past segment and the mobile column only) was the first ever military women's contingent to march on Red Square for the very first time, composed of girl Cadet Corps students coming from the Moscow National Pensions School. This was followed by the first test run of the flypast column[18] in the Alabino training grounds on April 9, with the more than 150 aircraft taking part in that first run-through of the flypast segment.

The April 15 2nd parade practice run witnessed the first practice march of a Cossacks contingent that on May 9 will be the first ever unit of its kind to march on the steps of Red Square after so many years.[19] The uint marching for this year comes from the ranks of the Kuban Cossacks, which marched past Red Square in the Victory Parade of 1945 represented by the 4th Guards Cossack Cavalry Regiment. The 2nd dry run for the flypast was done on April 21, and the final run on the Alabino grounds on April 22.

The first late night practice run started on April 29 in Moscow's Red Square,[20] and will continue on till May 4 with the final two practice runs on May 6 and 7, which also serve as the general pratice runs. All of them are open to the general public. At the same time, final practice runs are being made for those joining the parades in May 9 in 26 other major cities in Russia. During such practice drill runs in Moscow several variants of the new Russian armored vehicle platform Armata were seen with turrets covered, together with the Bumerang APC and the Kurgarnets-25 IFV's turrets, which got the same treatment as well.

Full order of the 2015 Victory Day Parade

Bold indicates first appearance, italic indicates multiple appearances, Bold and italic indicate returning appearance, all indicated unless otherwise noted.

Military Bands

Ground Column

Mobile Column

Air Fly Past Column

References

  1. ↑ "President to attend Victory Day parade in Moscow". B92. 13 October 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  2. ↑ http://sputniknews.com/russia/20150130/1017554567.html
  3. ↑ http://tass.ru/en/russia/772365
  4. ↑ http://tass.ru/en/russia/783263
  5. ↑ "Belarus President Lukashenko pulls out of Victory Day parade in Moscow". Ukraine Today. 18 April 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  6. ↑ http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-04/30/c_134200294.htm
  7. ↑ "German Chancellor Merkel to Miss WWII Victory Day Parade in Moscow". Sputnik. 11 March 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  8. ↑ "Victory parade in 2015 will surprise the Russians". Russian Information Network. 1 October 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  9. ↑ http://ria.ru/defense_safety/20150325/1054305076.html
  10. ↑ http://bmpd.livejournal.com/1238564.html
  11. ↑ http://sputniknews.com/russia/20150226/1018772157.html
  12. ↑ "New Russian Air Force Aerobatic Team (the fifth one) to Debut during the Moscow Victory Day Parade". The Aviationist. 12 January 2015. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  13. ↑ http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150406/1020541768.html
  14. ↑ "Indian Army Grenadiers Regiment to take part in 2015 Victory Day Parade in Moscow's Red Square". India Today. 15 April 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  15. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REkjvVgCASM
  16. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nz_zY0rXyg
  17. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgvomvtWv0c
  18. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KHsLS1V1mw
  19. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD6RtJ1soyk
  20. ↑ http://rt.com/news/254401-victory-day-parade-rehearsal/

See also