Moscow Victory Day Parade

[2] The first military parade on Red Square in honor of the defeat of Nazi Germany took place with the participation of the Soviet Armed Forces and a guest appearance by a small detachment from the First Polish Army on 24 June 1945.

It was the longest and largest parade in the Soviet capital, lasting hours and utilizing 40,000 Red Army soldiers as well as 1,850 military vehicles.

[6][7][8] Parades were not held between 1991 and 1994, partly because First Deputy Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis thought of it as impractical primarily based on the state of the country at that time, particularly in terms of costs and expenses.

The 2020 edition of the parade, marking the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The celebrations begin at 9:55 am Moscow Standard Time with the arrival of the President and the Prime Minister of Russia to a special grandstand in front of Lenin's Mausoleum, where six of the past parades were reviewed by national leaders.

In between the grandstand to the south of the stands are two platoons of armed linemen and markers from the 154th Preobrazhensky Independent Commandant's Regiment in the Imperial-styled military uniforms and some unarmed half-companies of the Kremlin Regiment, both of which would be later taking post to mark the distance of the troops marching past and to line the square's western side facing the Kremlin together with extra drum majors from the Band Service, which are there to coordinate the march past to be timed in with the music of the bands since the parade of 1995.

Then the Minister of Defence (usually a billet of a General of the Army) is driven on the limousine to the center of the square nearest the tribune, the parade presenting arms again at this point.

As the limousines stop the Minister sends Victory Day greetings to each of the parading contingents, in which they respond with a threefold loud Oorah that is heard all over the grounds.

In 2009, Defence Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov changed this, stating that because of the acoustics of the Red Square, only an orchestra would be used, saying that the soldier's "voices would be swallowed by the echo".

[18] As the anthem ends, the bands sound Retreat as the honor guard executes order arms and the parade commander orders the parade to commence the march past in the following manner: As the command is given to start the linemen take their places and the field markers also as well at the south end of the square.

the Corps of Drums of the Moscow Military Music College, as is their tradition since 1938, march first to the tune of the "General Miloradovich" by one of its late alumni, Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov, one of the longest serving Senior Directors of Music of the Military Band Service and conductor of the Moscow area massed bands from 2002 to 2016, being played by the drummers and fifers.

This is followed by the rest of the parade ground column, starting with the youth contingents and by the Combined Arms Academy, among other troops.

In non-special anniversary years only a T-34/85 medium battle tank carrying the Victory Banner leads the column of tens of military vehicles and equipment.

As the Massed Bands play appropriate music the column drives past the stands in the Square, with the crew commanders and unit leaders executing a hand salute in the eyes right position (save for MRLs and mobile ICBMs).

Following the end of the mobile column with the service flags of the three branches of the Armed Forces the flypast then follows, usually as the Bands play the Aviamarch and other air marches the flypast marks the formal termination of the parade with tens of aircraft from the Air Force flying past above the square in full view of everyone in attendance.

[citation needed] In these early stages, organizers at the MoD discuss the size of the parade, units/military equipment attending, extra details and on jubilee years, the invitation of foreign troops.

Full parade rehearsals begin in March at a training center in the village of Alabino, which is located in the Moscow Oblast.

Typically, the final dress rehearsal takes place 2–3 days before the actual parade and is usually live-streamed on outlets such as Ruptly.

It was abandoned due to reconstruction of the Iberian Gate and Chapel, which was originally destroyed to fill the very purpose of making way for tanks during the mobile column of the parade.

In the last pre-war parade, the armored vehicle column was led by the ZIS-102 phaeton, which was a roofless modification of the ZIS-101 limousine.

[42] In 2010, President Dmitry Medvedev invited foreign troops to the parade for the first time since the fall of the USSR, and included military units countries allied with the Soviet Union during World War II.

Upon request from the Ministry of Defence of Turkmenistan, the Turkmen contingent was led by an officer on horseback, with the horse being flown into Moscow from Ashgabat.