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The 2015 Moscow Victory Day Parade was a parade that took 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 Eastern Front, on the same day as the signing of the German act of capitulation to the Allies in Berlin, at midnight of 9 May 1945 (Russian time). President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin delivered his twelfth holiday address to the nation on this day, right after the parade inspection that was presided by Minister of Defense General of the Army Sergey Shoygu.
Being a landmark jubilee parade honoring the 70th anniversary of the Allied victory in the European continent, the 2015 parade was the largest and most lavish held in Russian and Soviet history, but observers noted that a real cult of Victory had developed in Russia, Putin government used the celebration to legitimize its aggressive policy towards Ukraine [1] [2] [3] (e.g., wide use of the St. George ribbon [4] [5] ), most wartime allies in the Western world refused to attend the event, instead, leader of China and India, etc. as the major participants. [6] Col. Gen. Oleg Salyukov, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces, was the 2015 commander. In addition to troops of the Russian Federation, 1,300 troops from 10 foreign countries were also on parade, including contingents from China, India, Serbia, and Mongolia, all four countries making their first appearance at a Russian Victory Day parade.
Following the official parade, over 500,000 Russians and foreign attendees marched through central Moscow in commemoration of those who perished and those who survived World War II. The Moscow leg of this parade, which is an annual Victory Day tradition called the March of the Immortal Regiment and observed in numerous other Russian cities and in several other countries, was led by President Putin whose father served during the war. It is estimated that up to 12 million Russians participated nationwide in the 2015 March of the Immortal Regiment.
Amongst those in attendance were:
In all, around 30 international leaders attended the parade, including heads of UNESCO and the Council of Europe, with invitations having been sent to 68 heads of state. [27] The UK was represented by the grandson of World War II leader British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Nicholas Soames. A number of EU countries including the Czech Republic, Hungary and Greece came under US and/or EU pressure not to attend the Victory Day Parade due to the 2014 annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and the subsequent War in Donbass, resulting in Czech President Miloš Zeman subsequently banning the US ambassador from functions at Prague Castle. A number of World War II veterans from the US and UK were present at the victory day celebrations as private attendees.
The following countries opted not to participate in this year's parade in Moscow, although most sent their respective ambassadors as part of the diplomatic corps: Australia, Belarus (which held its own victory day celebrations on the same day), [28] Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany, Georgia, Israel, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, United States, 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 second world war, especially those that participated in the parade of 2010, to not participate in the 2015 celebrations, including Germany, whose chancellor Angela Merkel instead visited Moscow on 10 May to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and meet with Vladimir Putin. [29] [30] Until three days after the Victory Day parade, US secretary of state John Kerry laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Sochi with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
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 were the following:
The Nakhimov Higher Naval Institute and the Chemical Defense and Control Military Academy both made their return appearances in a Red Square parade after years of absences, the former since 1985 and the latter 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,[ citation needed ] China, [34] Mongolia, and India. [35] 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) held their parades, and joint civil-military parades were hosted by 50 other towns and cities nationwide, plus 5 fleet reviews in Saint Petersburg and Kaliningrad (Baltic Fleet), Sevastopol (Black Sea), Severnomorsk (Northern) and Vladivostok (Pacific). Some of the big parades featured an air fly past for the first time.
Victory Day parades and celebrations were also held in the following CIS member nations:
The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic of Novorossiya, in the midst of the fighting in the Donbass, held on 9 May in Donetsk the first public Victory Day parade of the so-called "United Armed Forces of Novorossiya" (military branch of the separatist organisation) together with the federal level Ministries of Internal Affairs and Emergency Situations. The situation was the same in the other non-recognised entity within Ukraine, Luhansk People's Republic, where on 9 May Luhansk's first ever Victory Day parade was held, with participation of the United Armed Forces of Novorossiya and the federal MVD and EMERCOM units of the entity.
The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic celebrated the day with a parade and other activities in Stepanakert on 9 May, also celebrating the 23rd anniversary of the Capture of Shusha during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. Due to the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and the fact that immediately after the parade formation of Azerbaijan was the contingent from Armenia, a photograph of the parade on the website of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan photoshopped the Flag of Armenia from the official parade picture. [36]
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. [37] 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 27 March. [38]
The first parade practice run on 3 April 2015 [39] 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 [40] in the Alabino training grounds on 9 April, with the more than 150 aircraft taking part in that first run-through of the flypast segment.
The 15 2 April parade practice run witnessed the first practice march of a Cossacks contingent that on 9 May will be the first ever unit of its kind to march on the steps of Red Square after so many years. [41] The unit 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 21 April, and the final run on the Alabino grounds on 22 April.
The first late night practice run started on 29 April in Moscow's Red Square,[ citation needed ] and continued on till 4 May with the final two practice runs on 6 and 7 May, which also serve as the general practice runs, the one on 7 May expected to have Col. Gen. Salyukov leading the marchers on Red Square and General of the Army Shoygu inspecting, just as they would be doing in the actual parade in 2 days time (the final rehearsal, just as the actual parade would be, was scheduled to be held at around 10AM Moscow Daylight Time). All of them are open to the general public, with the 7 May final practice run being open also for war veterans. At the same time, final practice runs are being made for those joining the parades on 9 May in 26 other major cities in Russia plus 50 other towns and cities. 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 till the turret covers were removed for the 3 – 4 May practice runs. [42] During the 7 May general practice run one of the T-14 Armata tanks stopped in the middle of the square because of driver's mistake, right in front of the people in attendance. There was also one incident with a T-15 APC which could drive on the platform only after the second attempt. [43] [44]
All the 145 aircraft taking part in the flypast took their practice run on 5 May [45] that drew a great reception from the crowds in Red Square, Manege Square and Tver Street that watched the dry run.
Bold indicates first appearance, italic indicates multiple appearances, Bold and italic indicate returning appearance, all indicated unless otherwise noted.
The 1945 Moscow Victory Parade, also known as the Parade of Victors, was a victory parade held by the Soviet Armed Forces after the defeat of Nazi Germany. This, the longest and largest military parade ever held on Red Square in the Soviet capital Moscow, involved 40,000 Red Army soldiers and 1,850 military vehicles and other military hardware. The parade lasted just over two hours on a rainy June 24, 1945, over a month after May 9, the day of Germany's surrender to Soviet commanders.
The 2008 Moscow Victory Day Parade was held on Victory Day on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the Great Patriotic War ending in the defeat of Nazi Germany. This was the first time the Russian Federation opened its vehicle showcase since 1991, and the airshow since the Cold War. The parade was commanded by Army General Vladimir Bakin, Commander of the Moscow Military District, and reviewed by Anatoliy Serdyukov of the Russian Ministry of Defence. A speech was made by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who took office just two days prior. This would be notable to be the first ever major Russian military parade seen on television worldwide when RT carried a live broadcast of the parade for the first time in its history.
The 2009 Moscow Victory Parade was held on Victory Day on the 64th anniversary of the Great Patriotic War, which ended in the defeat of Nazi Germany. The parade was commanded by Valery Gerasimov, commander of the Moscow Military District, and reviewed by Anatoliy Serdyukov of the Russian Ministry of Defence. A speech was made by the third president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, in which he warned other countries against embarking on military adventures. This was thought to be a veiled warning directed at Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. The Defense Ministry noted that the air parade is a de facto dress rehearsal for the jubilee parade that followed in honor of the 65th anniversary of Victory.
The 2010 Moscow Victory Day Parade was held on 9 May 2010 to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945. The parade marks the Soviet Union's victory in the Great Patriotic War.
The 2000 Moscow Victory Day Parade was held on 9 May 2000 to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945. The parade marks the Soviet Union's victory in the Great Patriotic War.
The 2012 Moscow Victory Day Parade was held on 9 May 2012 on Moscow's Red Square to commemorate the 67th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945. The parade marked the Soviet Union's victory in the Great Patriotic War on the very day on the signing of the German act of capitulation, on the very midnight of May 9, 1945. Newly inaugurated President of Russia Vladimir Putin made his ninth victory holiday address in this parade.
The 2013 Moscow Victory Day Parade was a parade held in Red Square on 9 May 2013 to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the capitulation of the Third Reich in 1945. The annual parade marks the Allied victory in the Great Patriotic War on the same day as the signing of the German act of capitulation to the Allies in Berlin, at midnight of May 9, 1945. The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, delivered his tenth holiday address, and it was the first parade for both the Minister of Defense General of the Army Sergey Shoigu and Russian Ground Forces commander Col. Gen. Vladimir Chirkin, replacing Valery Gerasimov who has been promoted to Chief of the General Staff. The parade this year included the Suvorov Military School and the Nakhimov Naval School for the first time in four years, and the first appearance from a Cossack cadet corps unit, joining the more than 11,000 service personnel that marched on Red Square, and the return of the full air fly over after two years. The BTR82A IFV made its parade debut this year as part of the mobile column. Sevastopol in Ukraine, where the Black Sea Fleet is based, and 23 Russian cities will also hold parades on this day. As per tradition Kharkiv and Odesa in Ukraine also hold a full commemorative parade on this day as well.
The 2014 Moscow Victory Day Parade took place in Red Square on 9 May 2014 to commemorate the 69th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945, which formally ended hostilities in the Second World War in Europe. The annual parade marks the Allied victory in the Great Patriotic War on the same day as the signing of the German act of capitulation to the Allies in Berlin, at midnight of May 9, 1945. President of Russia Vladimir Putin delivered his eleventh holiday address to the nation on this day.
The Moscow Victory Day Parade is an annual military parade of the Russian Armed Forces on Moscow's Red Square on May 9 during the Victory Day celebrations. The most important parade of those being held on May 9 is the one held on Moscow's Red Square, with the President of Russia as the guest of honor and keynote speaker in virtue of his constitutional mandate as Supreme Commander of the Russian Armed Forces. The parade is a commemoration of the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Red Army, marking the end of the Eastern Front of World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War.
The 2016 Moscow Victory Day Parade was a military parade that took place in Red Square in Moscow on 9 May 2016 to commemorate the 71st anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945. The annual parade marks the Allied victory in World War II at the Eastern Front, on the same day as the signing of the German act of capitulation to the Allies in Berlin, at midnight of 9 May 1945. President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin delivered his thirteenth holiday address to the nation on this day, right after the parade inspection that had presided over by Minister of Defense General of the Army Sergey Shoygu and led by the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces, Colonel General Oleg Salyukov. This was the second consecutive parade that included a moment of silence.
The 1985 Moscow Victory Day Parade was held on 9 May 1985 on the Red Square in Moscow to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Victory in Europe. The parade marked the Soviet Union's victory in the Great Patriotic War. It was the first V-Day parade held since 1965, and the third of four Victory Day parades held during the Soviet Union's existence.
The 1995 Moscow Victory Day Parades were two military parades held on 9 May 1995 to commemorate the historic 50th anniversary golden jubilee of the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in 1945. The parades marked the Soviet Union's victory in the Great Patriotic War. These were the first post-Soviet military parades held in Russia the first one being in held for veterans on Red Square at 8:00 in the morning followed by another parade of infantry and military equipment at Poklonnaya Hill at 3:00 in the afternoon.
The 2005 Moscow Victory Day Parade was a military parade which took place in Red Square in Moscow on 9 May 2005 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945. The parade was inspected by the Minister of Defence Sergei Ivanov and it was commanded by Moscow Military District Commander General of the Army Ivan Efremov. Music was performed by the Massed Bands of the Moscow Garrison directed by Colonel Valery Khalilov on his 3rd national parade, the first to include 4 international marching bands. After the inspection of the troops, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin gave his 6th-holiday address to the nation. More than 150 foreign dignitaries were presented. Among them were Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura, President of the United States George W. Bush, President of China Hu Jintao, Japanese Prime Minister Junichirō Koizumi, French President Jacques Chirac, Chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schroeder, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and President of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov. It was the largest parade in the history of Russia, and one of the largest in the world's history.
The 2007 Moscow Victory Parade was a celebration of the 62nd anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War. It was the last time Vladimir Putin made a holiday address in his first term as president. The parade was commanded by the head of the Moscow Garrison General of the army Vladimir Bakin, and reviewing the parade was Minister of Defence Anatoliy Serdyukov .Music was performed by the Moscow Garrison's Central Orchestra under Major General Valery Khalilov.
The 2017 Moscow Victory Day Parade was a military parade that took place in Red Square in Moscow on 9 May 2017 to commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945. The annual parade marks the Allied victory in World War II on the Eastern Front, on the same day as the signing of the German act of capitulation to the Allies in Berlin, at midnight of 9 May 1945. President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin delivered his fourteenth holiday address to the nation after the parade inspection presided over by Minister of Defense General of the Army Sergey Shoygu.
Victory Day parades are common military parades that are held on 9 May in some post-Soviet nations, primarily Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and formerly Ukraine. They are usually held to honor the traditional Victory Day holiday. In 2015, the Ukrainian government renamed the holiday as "Victory Day over Nazism in World War II" as part of decommunization laws and in 2023 moved the holiday to 8 May.
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The 1990 Moscow Victory Day Parade was held on May 9, 1990 to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War. The parade was inspected by the USSR Minister of Defense Marshal Dmitry Yazov, and was commanded by the Commander of the Moscow Military District Colonel general Nikolai Vasilyevich Kalinin.
The 2019 Moscow Victory Day Parade was a military parade that took place in Red Square in Moscow on 9 May 2019 to commemorate the 74th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945. It was the largest of all the parades held on this day in Russia and in many former republics of the Soviet Union.
The 2020 Moscow Victory Day Parade was a military parade that took place in Moscow's Red Square on 24 June 2020 to commemorate the 75th Diamond Jubilee of both the capitulation of Nazi Germany in the Second World War in 1945 and the historic Moscow Victory Parade of 1945.