75 years ago - on November 7, 1941 - an event took place that will forever go down in Russian history. Soldiers of the Red Army and military equipment marched along the cobblestones of Moscow's Red Square as part of the parade dedicated to the 24th anniversary of the October Revolution.
Even a person who, due to circumstances, did not go into historiographic details, it is clear that the very fact of the parade in November 1941 is a truly unique phenomenon. It is unique if only because after the parade march, the servicemen, many of whom had just recently taken the oath, went to the front to defend the capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from the advancing enemy.
The commanders of the Nazi divisions were already preparing to report to Berlin about how their formations were entering Moscow. We have already prepared places on ceremonial uniforms for new awards. The soldiers and officers of the German fascist troops have already written letters to their "Frau" and "Fraulein" with odes to themselves about how they "defeated the Russians near Moscow." Fate laughed at such conceit, and by the forces of the Soviet people, including those soldiers who, on November 7, entered directly from the parade near Moscow, possibly in their last battle, stopped the Nazi armada, inflicting that first crushing defeat in history.
Archival documents express the feelings of those who came to conquer the Soviet people with weapons in their hands. After the first smashing blows of the Red Army inflicted on the Nazis near Moscow, half-bewilderment and half-lostness appeared in the documents. The commanders asked for reinforcements, reporting that Moscow was about to fall. When the situation at the front finally became clear in favor of the Red Army, bewilderment and confusion began to appear in the letters. The army, which with a song and rolled up sleeves briskly walked through most European capitals, received such a blow from which its legs buckled. The Hitlerite machine wanted, figuratively speaking, to wave its hands, but the battle was already lost. And it was not lost to the "general frost", as liberal historians are still trying to expose the situation, but to the courage and heroism of those who fought to death near Moscow.
Chronicle footage tells about the parade on November 7, 1941. On them you can see the faces of those who did everything to defeat the enemy, the forward units of which were at that time no further than 30 km from the walls of the Kremlin.
Certain groups of historians talk about the ideological background of the November 7, 1941 parade. It is strange to deny it today. It is even more strange to look for some pitfalls and negative aspects of the ideological basis of the parade, as the above-mentioned representatives of liberal views on the history of the country are trying to do. Yes, even if this parade had at least three times an ideological basis, the main thing is that it achieved its goal. The warriors passing through the main square of the country were literally charged with its energy, then with the help of this energy to give battle to the enemy and get an invaluable victory.
On this day, one cannot but recall another important parade, which also "celebrates" the anniversary date. This is a parade on November 7, 1941 in Kuibyshev. For many years, information about that event was classified as "secret". It was only in 2013 that certain documents of the RF Ministry of Defense were made public. And in 2014, the “secret” stamp was removed from all documents about the Kuibyshev parade.
The parade had an aviation "bias". More than 230 flight crews of 8 air regiments and 5 aviation schools took part in it. Archival documents indicate that the grandiose event in Kuibyshev (now Samara) was prepared in record time - in just 3 days.
From the materials of the press service and information department of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation:
This parade became for the pilots a kind of exam for professional skills and a welcome pass to the front - at the end of the parade, the command carried out a scrupulous and detailed analysis of the actions of each pilot. Soon all of them were already at war with the Nazis on the front lines.
In addition to the aviation part of the parade in Kuibyshev, there was also a ground part. The soldiers of the 65th Infantry Division, who arrived from the Far East, marched through the city in a parade, and the next day after the parade they went in echelons to the front near Tikhvin, where they entered into battle with the Nazis from the march.
From the materials of the RF Ministry of Defense:
As declassified documents testify, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Mikhail Kalinin and the representative of the Supreme Command Headquarters Marshal of the Soviet Union Kliment Voroshilov took part in the parade in Kuibyshev, who highly appreciated the morale and military training of its participants.
Returning to the Moscow parade, the glorious date of which Russia is celebrating today, important archival information should be presented. The parade began to the sounds of the march of the same name by composer S. A. Chernetsky. 28487 soldiers and officers marched through Red Square, of which 19044 were infantrymen, 546 were cavalrymen, 732 were riflemen and machine gunners of rifle units, 2165 artillerymen, 480 tankers and 5520 militias.
The military parade was received by the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense Marshal of the Soviet Union S. M. Budyonny. The parade was commanded by the commander of the Moscow Military District, Lieutenant General P. A. Artemiev. J. V. Stalin made a speech to the Red Army soldiers.
The date November 7 - in honor of the 1941 parade - today is one of the Days of Military Glory of Russia, - a date that emphasizes the courage and heroism of the defenders of the Fatherland who stopped the enemy near Moscow.
