Moscow Victory Parade of 1945

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Moscow Victory Parade June 24, 1945

The Moscow Victory Parade of 1945 ( Russian Парад Победы Parad Pobedy "Parade of Victory") was a military parade of the Red Army , supported by a company of the Polish 1st Army . It took place on June 24, 1945 on Red Square in Moscow , the capital of the Soviet Union , one and a half months after the Wehrmacht surrendered in World War II . With 40,000 participating soldiers, 1,850 military vehicles and a duration of two hours, this was the largest military parade in the history of the Soviet Union . In the further course three victory parades were held in the Soviet Union: 1965, 1985 and 1990. In the Russian Federation this parade has been held annually since 1995.

background

The battle for Berlin was decisive for the outcome of the German-Soviet War . This was the last major battle of the Second World War in Europe, at the end of which on May 2, 1945 Berlin was occupied by the Red Army. In the Soviet Union, this victory was seen as a historic event in which, after four years of German occupation with millions of dead, wounded and prisoners of war, the state succeeded in militarily ending the war and defeating the Nazi state under Adolf Hitler .

The Soviet Commander-in-Chief Josef Stalin elected June 22, 1945, exactly four years after the German invasion of the Soviet Union , to issue Order No. 370, which was provided with a foreword by General Antonov and was published in the country's major newspapers, Arrange a military parade in Moscow's Red Square on June 24th.

The parade

Commemorative medal from 1995 for the 50th anniversary of the Victory Parade of 1945
Russian postage stamp from 2004

After the state and party leadership with Stalin appeared in the middle on the stands of the Lenin mausoleum , Marshal Zhukov , who had signed the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht in Berlin-Karlshorst , rode out to march music after the chimes of the Redeemer Tower had faded its gate on Red Square. He had Marshal Rokossovsky report to him that the troops had been ordered to parade along the fronts . Riding from one to the next, he congratulated them, who answered with long shouts of hurray. Zhukov and his adjutant rode white stallions, Rokossovsky, who accompanied him silently, and his adjutant black horses. Reports that Stalin fell from his horse during a test run and therefore left the honorary ride to the former cavalry officer Zhukov are unconfirmed. Then Zhukov held the victory speech from the stands, followed by the hymn of the Soviet Union, for which two artillery units fired at the Moscow salute. Then the troops began to march past, led by Rokossovsky, who had waited far in front of the stands during the speech.

At the end of the parade, 200 NKVD soldiers in a symbolic gesture threw hundreds of captured flags of the Wehrmacht , including those of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler , onto the pavement in front of the Lenin mausoleum. The photographer Yevgeny Chaldej writes in his war diary :

“That was a sight, indescribable. There was no one on the square who didn't have tears in their eyes. "

The parade was musically accompanied by a military band under the guidance of the conductor Semyon Alexandrovich Tschernetzki . 1313 musicians took part in the parade, the youngest among them was 13 years old. In addition to the hymn of the Soviet Union and numerous marches, there was also an instrumental version of the final chorus from Glinka's opera Iwan Sussanin .

Because of the bad weather that day, a planned air parade and a civil parade had to be canceled.

aftermath

On September 7, 1945, a military parade of the four victorious allied powers took place in Berlin, on the approach to the Brandenburg Gate , at the suggestion of the Soviet Union , which, however, was barely noticed in the Western media as the Cold War began .

In the eyes of the Russian people, the parade became the pinnacle of Stalin's fame. The festivities then continued for a few weeks. The personality cult around Stalin increased and erased memories of the years of purges , the terror and the gulag . Stalin's “military genius” that led to victory was admired. After Stalin's death in 1953, godlike veneration waned, and Khrushchev's secret speech on March 20th. CPSU party congress in 1956 dealt a decisive blow to his reputation.

Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union , the military parades continued on Red Square to commemorate the victory over National Socialist Germany. They have been held every year since 1995 on May 9th, which is still celebrated as Victory Day.

In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the parade, an equestrian statue of Zhukov was inaugurated on the square in front of the Historical Museum .

literature

Web links

Commons : Moscow Victory Parade of 1945  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff : Stalin's spectacular humiliation of the Wehrmacht flags . In: Welt, September 12, 2016.
  2. ^ J. Chaldej: War diary. Berlin 2011. p. 216.
  3. ↑ M. Tschertok: Музыка парада победы. In: Музыкальная академия. No. 2, 2015, pp. 1–5.
  4. ↑ Equestrian statues (English)

Coordinates: 55 ° 45 ′ 15 ″  N , 37 ° 37 ′ 12 ″  E