[1] A holiday canon was established during the Stalinist period, and included a workers' demonstration, the appearance of leaders on the podium of the Mausoleum, and, finally, the military parade on Red Square, which was held unfailingly every year (bar the years 1942-45), and most famously in 1941, as the Axis forces were advancing on Moscow.

During the final parade in 1990, an assassination attempt was made on the life of President Mikhail Gorbachev by Alexander Shmonov, a locksmith from Leningrad.

[5] The most important event of the holiday is the national military parade and demonstrations on Moscow's Red Square, with members of the Politburo and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union acting as the guests of honor.

The celebrations begin at 9:50 am Moscow Standard Time with the arrival honors for the commander of the parade, who is greeted by the commandant of the Frunze Military Academy (now the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation) usually a general officer, and receives the report on the parade's status.

A couple minutes later, a Communist Party and government delegation arrives at the grandstand on top of Lenin's Mausoleum.

The dignitaries include the General Secretary, Premier, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, members of the entire Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, including members from the Politburo and Secretariat, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, service branch commanders, deputy defence ministers, members of the cabinet and commanders of the support departments in the general staff, in addition to the occasional foreign head of state or party as the principal foreign guest and reviewing officer.

In between the south of the grandstand is a platoon of the armed linemen and markers from the Independent Commandant's Regiment in military overcoats whose purpose is to take post to mark the distance of the troops marching past.

The mobile column, also present, was made up of around 170-380 vehicles and around 3,900 crews drawn from the participant units making up the segment of the parade.

In November 1967 Minister of Defense Marshal Andrei Grechko announced his gratitude and of the Ministry of Defence to all those who marched on Red Square that 7 November as the country marked the golden jubilee anniversary year of the Revolution and for the first time, together with the text of gratitude, they were presented with commemorative badges "Participant of the military parade".

The limousinesed stop at each formation in order for the minister to send his greeting to the contingents, in which they respond with a threefold "Ura" (Russian: Ура).

repeatedly until he takes his position in the grandstand and the bands end playing (from 1945 to 1966 Slavsya from A Life for the Tsar took its place and yet again in 1990).

The Massed Bands of the Moscow Garrison then play the full version of the State Anthem of the Soviet Union while a ceremonial battery armed with the 76 mm divisional gun M1942 (ZiS-3) fire a 21-gun salute.

Once the ground mobile column is complete, the bands take their position at the western end of the square to prepare for the finale, led by the senior director of music, conductors, bandmasters and drum majors.

Each delegation has a color guard unit and brass band taking part, as well as floats from the participating state enterprises.

[11] Similarly, in the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Transnistrian Republic, the day is officially a public holiday, but it is regarded by locals as devoid of its original meaning.