When was the victory parade held? History of military parades on Red Square
The Great Patriotic War
Victory Parade on Red Square 1945
ORDER of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief
One of major events The twentieth century was a victory Soviet people over fascism in the Second World War. The main holiday will forever remain in the historical memory of peoples and in the calendar - Victory Day, the symbols of which were the first Parade on Red Square on June 24, 1945, dedicated to the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War and the festive fireworks in the sky of Moscow.
The history of the parade began immediately after the end of the Great Patriotic War. Stalin made the decision to hold the Victory Parade on May 24, 1945, almost immediately after the defeat of the last group of German troops that did not surrender.
“In commemoration of the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War, I appoint a parade of troops of the Active Army on June 24, 1945 in Moscow on Red Square, Navy and the Moscow garrison - Victory Parade.
Bring to the parade: consolidated regiments of the fronts, consolidated regiment of the People's Commissariat of Defense, consolidated regiment of the Navy, military academies, military schools and troops of the Moscow garrison. The Victory Parade will be hosted by my Deputy Marshal Soviet Union Zhukov. Command the Victory Parade to Marshal of the Soviet Union Rokossovsky. General leadership I entrust the organization of the parade to the commander of the Moscow Military District and the head of the garrison of the city of Moscow, Colonel General Artemyev.”
Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Marshal of the Soviet Union
I. Stalin"
Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov hosts the Victory Parade in Moscow
On June 19, 1945, the red banner, victoriously hoisted over the Reichstag, was delivered to Moscow by plane. It was this that was obliged to be present at the head of the column, and it had to be carried by those who directly hoisted the banner in Germany. Parade participants were given a month to prepare. “Mint” a drill step, sew a new uniform, select participants. They were selected according to strict criteria: age – no older than 30, height – no less than 176 cm. A month of training for several hours a day in order to take 360 steps across Red Square within three minutes. On the eve of the Parade, Zhukov personally conducted the selection. It turned out that many did not pass the marshal exam. Among them were Alexey Berest, Mikhail Egorov and Meliton Kantaria, who hoisted the Red Banner over the Reichstag building. Therefore, the original script was changed; Marshal Zhukov did not want other soldiers to carry the Victory Banner. And then an order was given to transport the banner to the Museum of the Armed Forces.
Thus, the main symbol of victory never took part in the main parade of the 20th century, held on June 24, 1945. He will return to Red Square only in the anniversary year of 1965. (It was from this 1965 parade that May 9 would become an official holiday). The Victory Parade was hosted by Marshal Zhukov riding a white horse in the pouring rain. The parade was commanded by Marshal Rokossovsky, also on a white horse. From the rostrum of the Lenin Mausoleum, Stalin watched the parade, as well as Molotov, Kalinin, Voroshilov, Budyonny and other members of the Politburo.
The parade was opened by a combined regiment of Suvorov drummers, followed by the combined regiments of 11 fronts (the “box” of each regiment numbered 1054 people), in the order of their location in the theater of military operations by the end of the war - from north to south: Karelian, Leningrad, 1- 1st and 2nd Baltic, 3rd, 2nd and 1st Belarusian, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Ukrainian, combined regiment of the Navy. As part of the regiment of the 1st Belorussian Front, representatives of the Polish Army marched in a special column. In front of each regiment were the commanders of the fronts and armies, the standard bearers - Heroes of the Soviet Union - carried 36 banners of the formations and units of each front that distinguished themselves in battle. An orchestra of 1,400 musicians played a special march for each of the passing regiments. An air parade was also planned, but it (like the procession of workers) did not take place due to unprecedented bad weather.
It should be noted that the parade was first filmed on color trophy film, which had to be developed in Germany. Unfortunately, due to color distortion, the film was later transferred to black and white version. The film about the parade spread all over the country and was watched everywhere to a full house.
Soviet soldiers with German standards
The parade ended with an action that shocked the whole world - the orchestra fell silent and, to the beat of drums, two hundred soldiers entered the square, carrying captured banners of the defeated enemy divisions lowered to the ground, they threw them at the foot of the Mausoleum. Hitler's Leibstandarte was the first to be abandoned. Line after line of soldiers turned to the mausoleum, on which stood the country's leaders and outstanding military leaders, and threw the banners of the destroyed Nazi army onto the stones of Red Square, captured in battle. The soldiers carried the banners with gloves on to emphasize their disgust towards their enemies, and that evening the soldiers' gloves and platform were burned. This action became a symbol of our triumph and a warning to everyone who would encroach on the freedom of our Motherland.
Then units of the Moscow garrison passed: a combined regiment of the People's Commissariat of Defense, a military academy, military and Suvorov schools, a combined cavalry brigade, artillery, mechanized, airborne and tank units and subunits. The parade lasted 2 hours and 9 minutes. The parade included 24 marshals, 249 generals, 2,536 officers, 31,116 privates and sergeants. More than 1,850 units passed through Red Square military equipment. The joy of Victory overwhelmed everyone. And in the evening there were fireworks throughout Moscow.
Unfortunately, every year the number of people who took part in that legendary parade 70 years ago is decreasing. Currently there are only 211 people, among them are seven Heroes of the Soviet Union.
Gabriel Tsobekhia
On June 24, 1945, at 10 a.m., a parade was held on Red Square in Moscow to commemorate the Victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War. The parade was hosted by the First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR and Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Commander of the 1st Belorussian Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union G. K. Zhukov. The parade was commanded by the commander of the 2nd Belorussian Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union K. K. Rokossovsky .
On June 22, 1945, the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin No. 370 was published in the central Soviet newspapers: “In commemoration of the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War, I appoint a parade of troops of the active army, the Navy, on June 24, 1945 in Moscow on Red Square Fleet and Moscow garrison - Victory Parade."
At the end of May and beginning of June, intensive preparations for the parade took place in Moscow. On the tenth day of June, the entire composition of the participants was dressed in a new dress uniform and began pre-holiday training. The rehearsal of the infantry units took place on Khodynskoye Field, in the area of the Central Airfield; on the Garden Ring, from the Crimean Bridge to Smolensk Square, a review of artillery units took place; motorized and armored vehicles conducted inspection training at the training ground in Kuzminki.
To participate in the celebration, consolidated regiments from each front operating at the end of the war were formed and trained, which were to be led by front commanders. It was decided to bring the Red Banner hoisted over the Reichstag from Berlin. The formation of the parade was determined in the order of the general line of the active fronts - from right to left. For each combined regiment, military marches were specially designated, which they especially loved.
The penultimate rehearsal of the Victory Parade took place at the Central Aerodrome, and the general rehearsal took place on Red Square. On June 22 at 10 a.m. Marshals of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov and K.K. Rokossovsky appeared on Red Square on white and black horses. After announcing the command “Parade, attention!” A roar of applause echoed across the square. Then the combined military orchestra of 1,400 musicians under the direction of Major General Sergei Chernetsky performed the anthem “Hail, Russian people!” M. I. Glinka. After this, the commander of the parade, Rokossovsky, gave a report on readiness for the start of the parade. The marshals toured the troops, returned to the Mausoleum of V.I. Lenin, and Zhukov, rising to the podium, on behalf of and on behalf of the Soviet government and the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, congratulated the “valiant Soviet soldiers and all the people with the Great Victory over Nazi Germany.” The anthem of the Soviet Union sounded and the solemn march of troops began.
The combined regiments of the fronts, the People's Commissariat of Defense and the Navy, military academies, schools and units of the Moscow garrison took part in the Victory Parade. The consolidated regiments were staffed by privates, sergeants and officers of various branches of the military, who had distinguished themselves in battle and had military orders. Following the regiments of the fronts and the Navy, a combined column of Soviet soldiers entered Red Square, carrying 200 banners lowered to the ground Nazi troops, defeated on the battlefields. These banners were thrown to the foot of the Mausoleum to the beat of drums as a sign of the crushing defeat of the aggressor. Then units of the Moscow garrison marched in a solemn march: a combined regiment of the People's Commissariat of Defense, a military academy, military and Suvorov schools, a combined cavalry brigade, artillery, mechanized, airborne and tank units and subunits.
At 11 p.m., the sky over Moscow lit up with the light of searchlights, hundreds of balloons appeared in the air, and volleys of fireworks with multi-colored lights were heard from the ground. The culmination of the holiday was a banner with the image of the Order of Victory, which appeared high in the sky in the beams of searchlights.
The next day, June 25, a reception was held in the Grand Kremlin Palace in honor of the participants of the Victory Parade. After the grand celebration in Moscow, at the proposal of the Soviet government and the High Command, a small Parade of Allied Forces took place in Berlin in September 1945, in which Soviet, American, British and French troops took part.
Lit.: Belyaev I.N. In the parade line of the winners: Smolyan participants in the Victory Parades in Moscow. Smolensk, 1995; Varennikov V.I. Victory Parade. M., 2005; Gurevich Ya. A. 200 steps along Red Square: [Memoirs of a participant in the Victory Parades of 1945 and 1985]. Chisinau, 1989; Winners: Victory Parade June 24, 1945. T. 1-4. M., 2001-2006; Shtemenko S. M. Victory Parade // Military History Journal, 1968. No. 2.
See also in the Presidential Library:
Another date for the victory holiday is September 3, the day when militarized Japan was defeated. There is a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, dated September 2, 1945, that September 3 is also declared a non-working holiday.
Thus, it turns out that Victory Day was celebrated twice a year three times - in 1945, 1946 and 1947.
The celebration of Victory Day was canceled on December 24, 1947, when a new resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the CCCP was issued:
Then they constantly postponed, canceled, and rescheduled holiday dates. In 1947, Victory Day over Japan was made a working day. There was a holiday on December 22, the day of memory of Lenin - in 1951 he also became a worker. In addition, the USSR was declared cold war in 1946, after Churchill’s Fulton speech, it was expensive to organize a holiday on a nationwide scale, and from the point of view of organizing the labor of the population, it was wrong. Everyone worked and restored destroyed cities and towns, and built new factories. Partly to be ready to repel a new attack.
There is another assumption why they stopped celebrating Victory Day. The initiative came from Stalin, who perceived the post-war popularity of Georgy Zhukov as a direct threat to his post. The political cases “Aviators’ Case” and “Trophy Case” developed in the same vein in 1946-1948.
One of the most important events of the 20th century was the victory of the Soviet people over fascism in World War II. The main holiday will forever remain in the historical memory of peoples and in the calendar - Victory Day, the symbols of which are the Parade on Red Square and the festive fireworks in the sky of Moscow.
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On May 9, 1945, at 2 a.m. Moscow time, announcer I. Levitan announced the surrender on behalf of the command fascist Germany. Ran out of four many years, 1418 days and nights of the Patriotic War, full of losses, hardships, grief.
And on June 24, 1945, the first parade dedicated to the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War took place in Moscow on Red Square. The combined regiments of the fronts, the combined regiment of the People's Commissariat of Defense, the combined regiment of the Navy, military academies, military schools and troops of the Moscow garrison were brought out to the Victory Parade. More than 40 thousand military personnel and 1,850 pieces of equipment marched across Red Square at that time. It rained during the parade, so military aircraft did not take part in the parade. The parade was commanded by Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky, and the parade was hosted by Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov.
From the rostrum of the Lenin Mausoleum, Stalin watched the parade, as well as Molotov, Kalinin, Voroshilov, Budyonny and other members of the Politburo.
A documentary film was dedicated to the Victory Parade - one of the first color films of the USSR.It was called “Victory Parade”.
On this day at 10 o'clock in the morning, Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov rode on a white horse from the Spassky Gate to Red Square.
After the command “Parade, attention!” The square exploded with a roar of applause. The commander of the parade, Konstantin Rokossovsky, presented a report to Georgy Zhukov, and then together they began to tour the troops.
Following this, the signal “Listen, everyone!” sounded, and the military orchestra played the anthem “Hail, Russian people!” Mikhail Glinka. After Zhukov's welcoming speech, the anthem of the Soviet Union was played, and the solemn march of the troops began.
The Victory Banner hoisted over the Reichstag in Berlin, 1945.
The parade opened with the Victory Banner, which was transported across Red Square in a special car, accompanied by Heroes of the Soviet Union M.A. Egorova and M.V. Kantaria, who hoisted this banner on the defeated Reichstag in Berlin.
Then the combined front regiments marched across Red Square.
After this - the famous Soviet military equipment, which provided our army with superiority over the enemy.
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The parade ended with an action that shocked the whole world - the orchestra fell silent and, to the beat of drums, two hundred soldiers entered the square, carrying trophy banners lowered to the ground.
Line after line of soldiers turned to the mausoleum, on which stood the country's leaders and outstanding military leaders, and threw the banners of the destroyed Nazi army captured in battle onto the stones of Red Square. This action became a symbol of our triumph and a warning to everyone who would encroach on the freedom of our Motherland. During the Victory Parade to the foot of the mausoleum of V.I. Lenin abandoned 200 banners and standards of the defeated Nazi divisions.
Today, the largest parade in the history of the CIS countries took place on Red Square. Kazakh military personnel also took part in it. In connection with this event, we decided to tell how the Victory Day Parades took place from 1945 to 2010.
Source: website of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
The very first Victory parade took place June 24, 1945. The decision to hold it was made back in mid-May, when Soviet troops broke the resistance of the last German units that did not surrender. From the very beginning, Stalin wanted to make this event grandiose and hitherto unprecedented. To do this, it was necessary to represent all fronts and types of troops at the parade. On May 24, the General Staff put forward its proposals for holding a parade. The commander-in-chief made one adjustment to them - instead of two months, he allocated only a month to organize the parade. On the same day, orders for the formation of consolidated regiments were scattered across the fronts.
Each regiment had to consist of 1000 people personnel and 19 commanders. Later, already in the process of staffing the regiments, their strength increased to 1,465 people. Particularly distinguished fighters who had awards for courage shown during the war were selected for the regiments. Each regiment had to have rifle units, artillerymen, tank crews, pilots, sappers, signalmen and cavalrymen. Each branch of the military had its own dress uniform and weapons.
In addition to the consolidated regiments of the fronts, a separate regiment of the Navy, students of military academies and schools, as well as troops of the Moscow garrison were to take part in the Parade.
Colonel General Sergei Shtemenko and Chief of the General Staff Alexey Antonov were appointed responsible for the Parade. It’s hard to even imagine how hard this burden was for them, because such a large-scale event had to be organized as soon as possible.
For the 15 thousand participants in the event, it was necessary to sew a new style of dress uniform. Factories in Moscow and the Moscow region worked without days off or breaks, but by June 20 they completed the task, and all the ceremonial uniforms were ready.
Separately, it was necessary to make ten front standards. Initially, this task was entrusted to a unit of Moscow military builders. Unfortunately, their option was rejected, and there were only ten days left before the Parade. They came to the rescue experienced craftsmen from the workshops of the Bolshoi Theater. Under the leadership of the head of the art and props workshop V. Terzibashyan and the head of the metalworking and mechanical workshop N. Chistyakov, they prepared the standards on time. These banners weighed about 10 kilograms each. To make the task easier for those who would carry them in the parade, sword belts were designed and made, slung on wide straps over the left shoulder, with a leather cup in which the standard's shaft was attached.
Combat training of personnel began on June 10, when the combined front regiments arrived in the Moscow region. It took place at the Frunze Central Airfield. The fighters trained six to seven hours a day. Separately, they prepared a special company that would carry Nazi banners at the Parade. The soldiers trained with heavy sticks almost 2 meters long. According to the recollections of the participants after these classes, sweat flowed from them in a stream. To train this company, soldiers of the 3rd regiment of the F.E. Dzerzhinsky division were specially allocated.
By the way, it was poor drill training that was the reason for the cancellation of the removal of the Victory Banner to Red Square. The group of standard bearers, consisting of Mikhail Egorov, Meliton Kantaria and captain Stepan Neustroev - participants in the hoisting of the Banner over the Reichstag, did not have time to learn the marching step at the proper level for their responsible mission.
It rained heavily on the day of the parade. Because of it, the flight of equipment over the Kremlin was canceled, as well as the passage of the column of workers. Many war heroes and deputies gathered at the parade Supreme Council, artists, heroes of labor. At 9:45 Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov, Kalinin and other members of the Politburo rose to the podium of the Mausoleum. Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky was appointed commander of the parade. He was sitting on a black horse named Polyus. The parade was hosted by Marshal Georgy Zhukov on a light gray white horse named Idol. At 10 o'clock they galloped towards each other. Five minutes later, a detour began around the parade columns lined up in the square. A loud “Hurray!” swelled from all sides. The artillery fired 50 salvos. Zhukov stood up and made a speech in which he congratulated everyone on the end of the war.
The passage of the columns was opened by Marshal Rokossovsky. Behind him was a group of young Suvorov drummers, students of the 2nd Moscow Military Music School. Already behind him were the combined regiments of the fronts according to their geographical location from north to south: Karelian under the command of Marshal Meretskov, Leningradsky with Marshal Govorov, 1st Baltic with General Bagramyan, 3rd Belorussian led by Marshal Vasilevsky, 2nd Belorussian with the deputy commander of the troops Colonel General K.P. Trubnikov, 1st Belorussian, which was also headed by deputy commander Sokolovsky, 1st Ukrainian led by Marshal Konev, 4th Ukrainian with Army General Eremenko, 2nd Ukrainian with commander Marshal Malinovsky, 3 1st Ukrainian Marshal Tolbukhin, combined regiment of the Navy with Vice Admiral Fadeev.
These regiments included many of our compatriots. For one of them, Mukhangali Turmagambetov, the war began back in July 1941 near the borders of the USSR in Belarus. Together with other units, he retreated to the west and was almost captured twice. With the rank of sergeant of an anti-aircraft battery, the fighter took part in the legendary Battle of Moscow. He had the opportunity to take part in the historical military parade on May 7, 1941. And so, having passed through Stalingrad, Moldova, Hungary, Romania, the Carpathians and Austria, he again walked along Red Square, having passed a tough selection of ten thousand people.
After the columns of the combined front regiments, a company of soldiers carrying enemy banners began moving across the square. In preparation for the parade, 900 banners and standards of German units were removed from Germany. The commission selected two hundred of them. The soldiers approached the foot of the Mausoleum and threw banners onto platforms specially built for this. The fighters wore white gloves on their hands to emphasize the disgust with which everyone treated Nazi symbols. The first to be abandoned was the Leibstandarte LSSAH - Hitler's personal guard battalion. After the parade, all German banners were transferred for storage to the Central Museum of the Armed Forces.
The orchestra began to sound in the square again. Units of the Moscow garrison and a combined regiment of cadets from military academies and schools passed through. The cadets of the Suvorov schools brought up the rear of the procession. The foot units were followed by a mounted brigade and soldiers on motorcycles.
The parade was completed by military equipment. We drove along the paving stones of Red Square anti-aircraft installations on vehicles, batteries of anti-tank and large-caliber artillery, field artillery, such as the famous ZIS-2 and ZIS-3 guns. They were followed by T-34 and IS tanks, and then by a combined military orchestra.
Source ITAR-TASS Archive
After this legendary parade, such large-scale celebrations in honor of May 9 were not held for twenty years. This day remained a non-working day only until 1948, when the country’s leadership canceled the day off, making it a non-working day New Year. In 1965, the new Secretary General Brezhnev, himself a war veteran, remembered this holiday and decided to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Victory on a grand scale. Since then, May 9 has again become a day off and a national holiday.
The ’65 parade was commanded by the commander of the Moscow Military District, Afanasy Beloborodov, and the parade was hosted by Defense Minister Rodion Malinovsky, who twenty years ago himself walked along the cobblestones of Red Square at the head of the combined regiment of the 2nd Ukrainian Front.
The anniversary parade was memorable for the first time in history that the Victory Banner was carried out. Time put everything in its place, Kantaria and Egorov, who did not take part in the Victory Parade, finally walked along Red Square as part of the banner group. The honor of carrying the Banner was given to the participant in the storming of the Reichstag, Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel Konstantin Samsonov.
In terms of scale, the 65th Parade was not inferior to the first Victory Parade, and in terms of the amount of equipment it even surpassed it. Almost a third of the parade participants were veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Wartime equipment and modern weapons of the Soviet army passed through the square.
There were also political motives in the decision to hold the Victory Parade. Foreign attaches present at the parade were amazed to see the huge ballistic missiles passing by them. The announcer clearly said that the missiles could hit a target anywhere in the world. NATO headquarters was also seriously scared. No one knew that only mock-ups of the 8K713, 8K96 missiles developed by Sergei Korolev and 8K99 designed by Mikhail Yangel passed through the square. In reality, samples of these missiles have not yet been assembled and tested. As a result, after the tests failed, they never went into production.
In the history of the parades on May 9, a break of 20 years came again. The next, third of them took place only in 1985, on the fortieth anniversary of the Victory. There was a new one in the stands that day Secretary General CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev and members of the Politburo. The parade was commanded by Army General Pyotr Lushev, and was hosted by Defense Minister Marshal Sergei Sokolov. He also addressed the military personnel with a speech in which he paid attention to the role of the European Resistance and the countries of the anti-fascist coalition in victory. At the same time, he noted: “Bourgeois propaganda removes responsibility from those who started the war and tries to belittle the role of the Soviet Union in the defeat of the fascist invaders.”
The parade was opened by drummers from the Moscow Military Music School. The banner group followed them. The Victory Banner was carried by a participant in the war, an ace fighter who shot down 46 fascist planes, and twice Hero of the Soviet Union - Nikolai Skomorokhov. 150 banners of the most distinguished units during the war were carried across the square. Columns of veterans marched in the historical part of the parade: Heroes of the Soviet Union, full holders of the Order of Glory, participants in the 1945 parade, partisans and home front workers. For the first time, foreign military personnel and veterans from Poland and Czechoslovakia took part in the Parade.
Students from higher military academies and schools marched in the columns of modern troops. Among them were representatives of the Frunze Military Academy, the V.I. Lenin Military-Political Academy, the Dzerzhinsky Academy, the Academy of Armored Forces, and the Chemical Defense Academy. In addition, paratroopers, marines, Suvorov and Nakhimov soldiers marched across the square. The march of the foot columns was completed by Kremlin cadets, students of the Moscow Higher Military Command School.
The passage of technology was also divided into historical and modern parts. The last time in the history of the Soviet Union, T 34-85 tanks, SU-100 self-propelled guns, Katyushas and BM-13 mortars drove across the square.
Source ITAR-TASS Archive
The 1985 parade featured a lot of new equipment that had entered service just a few years earlier. A total of 612 units of military equipment were used. Soldiers of the Taman division rode in BPM-2 armored vehicles, paratroopers in BMD-1 and BTR-70. The tank crews of the Kantemirovskaya division controlled T-72 tanks. Artillery included the Gvozdika and Akatsiya howitzers and Hyacinth cannons in the parade. Ballistic missiles (Luna-M, Tochka, R-17) were also transported across the square.
The parade in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Victory in 1995 was essentially divided into two parts. The first of them, the historical one, took place on Red Square and began at ten o’clock. According to the organizers, this parade was supposed to reconstruct the first Victory Parade. Soldiers in Red Army uniforms marched across the square. The Victory Banner was carried by a participant in the 1945 Victory Parade, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, retired aviation colonel general Mikhail Odintsov. Following him in the consolidated regiments and under the banners of the fronts in which he fought were 4,939 war and labor veterans.
Among the guests of the Parade were UN Secretary General Boutros Ghali, US President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister John Major, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. And also the heads of former Soviet republics: President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev, President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan, President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze, President of Kyrgyzstan Askar Akaev and others.
The modern part of the parade took place on Poklonnaya Hill, where a platform was built specifically for this purpose. The parade was commanded by Colonel General Leonid Kuznetsov, and was received by Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev. 10 thousand people, 330 units of military equipment, 45 aircraft, 25 helicopters took part in the parade. It lasted a record two hours.
Cadets of the Frunze Academy, Dzerzhinsky Academy, Academy of Armored Forces, Ryazan Airborne School, etc. marched in dismounted columns. For the first time, students of the Military Academy of Economics, Finance and Law, which opened in 1993, were involved in the parade. The parade included BTR-80, BMP-3, T-80 tanks, the Smerch multiple launch rocket system, and the S-300 air defense system. It was quite in the spirit of that time to refuse to participate in the ballistic missile parade.
For the first time in the history of Victory Day celebrations, the aviation part of the parade took place. Il-78 refueling aircraft accompanied by Su-24 front-line bombers were demonstrated, MiG-31 fighters, An-124 Ruslan cargo giants, and Ka-27 helicopters intended for ship-based flights flew over.
