Red Square is not only the most popular and most visited place in the capital of Russia, a visiting card and the heart of our country. It has long since become the main military parade ground of the Motherland. It was here that glorious military parades were held, the splendor and power of which have always aroused not only the pride of compatriots for their state, but also fear among enemies and political rivals.
Despite the change of governments, social systems and even the name of the country, on strictly fixed days of public holidays, colorful rituals with the participation of the elite of the army and navy have been held near the walls of the Kremlin for many decades. The main purpose of the military parade, in addition to the magnificent extravaganza, is to demonstrate the readiness of our country at any moment to repel the military invasion of enemies, to make them suffer severe punishment for encroachments on the holy Russian land.
The history of military parades dates back to the middle of the 17th century, when the trading square, Torg, in front of the Kremlin walls did not yet bear its current name. Then the Torg was the place where the royal decrees were announced, public executions were carried out, the trading life was raging, and on holy holidays it was here that mass processions of the cross were held. The Kremlin in those days looked like a well-fortified fortress with gun turrets and a huge moat encircling it, bounded on both sides by white stone walls.
Red Square in the second half of the 17th century, the work of Apollinarius Vasnetsov
The word "red" in Russia at that time called everything beautiful. The square with delightful hipped-roof domes on the Kremlin towers became so called during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. By this time, the fortress had already lost its defensive significance. Gradually it became a tradition for Russian troops after another victorious battle to proudly walk past the Kremlin along the central square. One of the most amazing spectacles of ancient times was the return of the Russian army from near Smolensk in 1655, when the tsar himself walked in front with his bare head, carrying his little son in his arms.
Many historians believe that the first parade can be considered, which took place on October 11, 1702, after the army led by Peter the Great returned after the capture of the fortress Oreshek (Noteburg). That day Myasnitskaya Street was covered with red cloth, along which the tsar's gilded carriage rode, dragging the defeated Swedish banners along the ground. Another group of experts is inclined to argue that the first is the parade of 1818, held in honor of the opening of the monument to citizen Minin and Prince Pozharsky, known to all guests of the capital. At that time, Red Square already had the outlines we were accustomed to and became quite suitable for military reviews. The protective moat was filled up, and a boulevard appeared in its place. The building of the upper shopping arcade was erected opposite the Kremlin wall. During the coronation celebrations, the emperor's motorcade passed through the square, following to the Spassky Gate to enter the Kremlin.
Military parades became more widespread at the end of the 18th century. In St. Petersburg, they were traditionally held twice a year: in the winter on Palace Square, and in the spring on the Field of Mars. And in the First See, the processions of troops were organized from time to time and took place on the territory of the Kremlin. There have been exceptions, though. For example, on May 30, 1912, when a monument to Emperor Alexander III was unveiled near the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, a solemn procession of military units headed by Nicholas II personally took place near the new monument. The tsar was then followed by a company of palace grenadiers and a combined infantry regiment, which is the predecessor of the current Presidential regiment in Russia. Then, saluting the king, the cavalry guards, wearing helmets with eagles and white elite tunics, performed the honorary function of the imperial guard, marched. The last Moscow parade with the participation of Nicholas II took place on August 8, 1914, that is, just a week after the start of the First World War. In honor of the Tsar's birthday, a military review was held in the Kremlin, but on Ivanovskaya Square.
Nicholas II receives a parade during the opening ceremony of the monument to Alexander III
Soon after the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne in the spring of 1917, when power was transferred to the Provisional Government, on March 4, a review of the revolutionary army was held under the command of the commander of the Moscow garrison, Colonel Gruzinov. The entire Red Square and the streets adjacent to it were occupied by a festive crowd, over which airplanes flew. An endless stream of people in military greatcoats with gleaming bayonets moved in orderly rows across the square. This is how eyewitnesses remembered the first parade in the history of new Russia.
In March 1918, after the Bolsheviks seized power and the general euphoria of bourgeois revolutionary transformations was replaced by political chaos, fratricidal war and a complete collapse of the economy, the top leadership moved from Petrograd to Moscow. Since then, Red Square has become the main venue for all state celebrations, and the Kremlin has become the permanent seat of the country's government.
When traces of the battles of November 1917 were still visible on the Kremlin walls, the Nikolskaya and Spasskaya towers, a tribune for the parade in honor of the May 1 celebration in the spring of 1918 was installed near the Kremlin walls among the fresh mass graves of revolutionaries. The wooden structure in the shape of a rectangle has become a kind of monument to the victims of the struggle for a "bright future." On that day, columns of demonstrators, consisting of Red Army men and civilians, began their movement from the Historical Passage to the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed. The first parade of the Red Army units, in which, according to an official statement, about thirty thousand people participated, took place in the evening of the same day on the Khodynskoye field, and was led by the commissar for military affairs, Lev Trotsky. There were some incidents at that parade: the regiment of Latvian riflemen, who were then used to protect the government, left the parade site in full force, expressing their distrust to Trotsky.
Despite the declaration originally adopted by the Bolsheviks on the abandonment of imperial traditions, military reviews and processions have not lost their relevance. The next solemn passage of troops took place in honor of the first anniversary of the October Revolution and already on Red Square. By November 7, 1918, the central square of the country was hastily put in order, and the memorable procession was greeted personally by the leader of the proletariat, Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin. It should be noted that the first parades of post-revolutionary Russia barely resembled the military processions of the Tsar's army, they looked more like popular processions with the participation of the military.
VI Lenin makes a speech on Red Square on the day of the celebration of the 1st anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. Moscow, November 7, 1918
Since then, parades have been held on various occasions. For example, in March 1919, a procession took place dedicated to the Moscow Congress of the Third International. And at the May Day parade in the same year, a tank drove through Red Square for the first time after the columns. On June 27, 1920, a parade was held in honor of the Congress of the Second International, which was organized more professionally. The central tribune had an interesting appearance, which looked like an observation point at the top of a hill, and the military formations were advancing not chaotically, but in orderly rows. On May 1, 1922, a new ceremony related to the taking of the military oath appeared in the regulations of the military parade. This tradition was maintained until 1939. Like the parades of the imperial army at the first post-revolutionary processions, the crews moved in a long formation in two lines. It was quite difficult to move in clear rows along the broken stone pavement in this order.
The next significant changes in the appearance of Red Square took place after the death of Lenin, the first leader of the Land of Soviets, in 1924. A temporary tomb of the Leader of the Revolution was built in front of the Senate Tower. Four months later, a wooden mausoleum with stands on the sides appeared in its place. It was from these tribunes that from now on all the leaders of the country began to greet the demonstrators passing during the processions. And at the entrance to the mausoleum there is a post No. 1, where the cadets of the military school are constantly on duty.
On February 23, 1925, Mikhail Frunze for the first time carried out not bypassing, but bypassing military formations, sitting astride a horse.
On February 23, 1925, Mikhail Frunze, who replaced Trotsky as leader, for the first time carried out not bypassing, but bypassing military formations, sitting on horseback. The last parade with the participation of this hero of the civil war was the May Day festive procession of 1925, at which for the first time volleys of salute were given from the cannons installed inside the Kremlin. Voroshilov, who after Frunze took up the duties of the leader of the parade, also circled the troops on horseback. From May 1, 1925, representatives of various types of troops were dressed at the parade in monotonous tunics, and the diversity in uniforms that was present earlier was no longer observed. Against the general background, only a company of Baltic sailors and a column of a higher school of military camouflage stood out with white caps. In addition, infantry formations were now held in a new "checkerboard" order. They were followed by scooter cyclists, cavalry and, finally, armored vehicles, represented by armored vehicles and tanks. From that day until now, the massive passage of military equipment during parades has become an obligatory item. This May Day parade was distinguished by another innovation, namely the participation of aviation. During the procession, eighty-eight airplanes flew over the square in a discordant wedge.
1927-07-11 The square is still without paving stones - it will appear between 1930-1931, when the second wooden Lenin mausoleum will be replaced with a reinforced concrete one with granite facing. There is no central stand on the Mausoleum either; before that, Soviet leaders stood on a small stand on the side. The pole with loudspeakers is the remnant of a tram line that ran here in 1909. Only openwork pendants for wires were removed from the pillars.
A distinctive feature of the parade on November 7, 1927 was that it was received by a civilian, Chairman of the Central Executive Committee Mikhail Kalinin, although the head of the parade was the Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council Voroshilov. There were no armored cars and tanks at this festive procession, as the situation in the country was tense to the limit. Stalin, who was on the sidelines, feared a military coup, since Trotsky's authority in the troops was still quite high. But the combined North Caucasian cavalry regiment took part in the parade, which, with a whoop, raced across the square in black cloaks.
In the parade on May 1, 1929, Red Square appeared for the last time in its old form with a completely broken pavement and an inappropriate wooden mausoleum among stone walls. The lampposts standing in the middle of the square significantly limited the width of the passing columns and made it difficult for vehicles to pass. Due to the poor condition of the paving stones, before each parade, they had to be sprinkled with sand in order to facilitate the movement of military equipment and reduce the slipping of horse hooves. In this May Day parade, Russian-made armored vehicles passed through Red Square for the first time, but the vehicles lacked combat weapons, which were replaced by sheathed mock-ups. They simply did not have time to equip the equipment with weapons. But at the November 7 parade, all combat vehicles already had full-fledged standard weapons.
The May Day parade of 1930 took place in conditions when most of the square was fenced off, behind which a new Lenin's mausoleum of stone was being erected at an accelerated pace. The reconstruction was completed by November 7 of the same year. The square was paved with the strongest paving stones of diabase, and its grandeur was now added by a new mausoleum, faced with red granite. The stands at that time were located only on the sides of the tomb. During the filming of this parade, live sound was recorded on film cameras for the first time.
From parade to parade, the number of its participants and military equipment constantly increased. The only problem was that the narrow Voskresensk gates of Kitai-Gorod limited the passage of military vehicles. In 1931, these gates were finally demolished, and the monument to Minin and Pozharsky blocking the passage was moved to the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed. In 1936, the Kazan Cathedral was also demolished, and Vasilievsky Spusk was cleared of buildings. In the heat of the moment, the Historical Museum and the Temple were almost removed, but prudence prevailed, and the priceless monuments remained in their place.
The tradition of extraordinary military parades was clearly visible in the 30s. The commemorative parade on February 9, 1934, timed to coincide with the 17th Party Congress, was striking in its scale. Forty-two thousand soldiers took part in it, of which twenty-one thousand were infantrymen, and one thousand seven hundred were horsemen. On that day, five hundred twenty-five tanks marched through the central square of the country, and the parade itself lasted more than three hours! The inspection showed that over a five-year period, the technical equipment of the Red Army has increased many times, turning it into a formidable, well-trained force, which was noted by the foreign diplomats and correspondents present. The Times wrote that the Soviet Army did indeed show first-class discipline and organization, although it pointed out the fact that one tank, a naval machine gun and a searchlight were disabled during the march. Such embarrassment, of course, sometimes happened. In case of an unforeseen breakdown of equipment, detailed plans were even developed for its rapid evacuation away from the eyes of observers. However, at a parade in 1932, a foreigner took pictures of the collision of two carts.
At the parade of the troops of the Moscow garrison. 1934 year.
In response to the beginning of the militarization of Germany and the change in the political situation in Europe in 1935, Stalin decided to demonstrate the full power of the Soviet military forces. Five hundred tanks took part in the May Day parade, eight hundred aircraft took off, the flagship of which was the eight-engine Maxim Gorky, accompanied by two fighters. Behind them, bombers flew in several tiers, which literally covered the sky over the square with their wings. A real sensation was caused by the five red I-16s that appeared in the sky. Having descended almost to the battlements of the Kremlin wall, these fighters roared overhead with a roar. According to Stalin's order, each of the pilots of this five received not only a monetary award, but also an extraordinary title.
Since the imperial eagles located on the towers of the Kremlin and the Historical Museum no longer fit into the overall picture of Red Square, in the fall of 1935 they were replaced by stars made of metal with Ural gems. Two years later, these stars were replaced with ruby red with backlighting from the inside. In addition, at the end of the 30s, a central tribune was installed in front of the mausoleum, which now towered over the inscription "Lenin", symbolically emphasizing the importance of the people standing on it.
The May Day parade of 1941 was the last peaceful procession of the pre-war country. In the conditions prevailing in Europe, the demonstration of the power of the USSR was of particular importance, especially considering that among the foreign representatives there were also the highest ranks of the Wehrmacht. Budyonny believed that how successfully the Soviets showed their power and preparation could depend on whether the Soviet Union would be drawn into a confrontation with the Germans. Huge moral stress led to the fact that some participants simply fainted, and therefore almost everyone had a bottle of ammonia in their pocket. Marshal Timoshenko's speech from the rostrum had a clearly traced main idea - the USSR's aspiration for a peaceful policy. A novelty of this parade was the participation of motorcycle units, which were just beginning to form in the Red Army. The demonstration flight of the newest dive bombers was also significant. However, according to the report of one of the Wehrmacht officers after the parade, "the Russian officer corps was in a deplorable state and made a miserable impression", and "the USSR will need at least twenty years to restore the lost command personnel." On the basis of what the stated conclusions were made, one can only guess.
The parade took place on November 7, 1941.
One of the most memorable and significant was the solemn parade of troops leaving Red Square directly to the front, which took place on November 7, 1941. These days, the front came as close as possible to the heart of our Motherland and was at a distance of seventy kilometers. The stars of the Kremlin towers were covered with covers, and the gilded domes of the cathedral were painted over for security and camouflage purposes. Contrary to Hitler's desire to mark the anniversary of October with a parade of German troops in the center of Moscow, the Soviet leadership organized its own parade, the purpose of which was to instill confidence in our compatriots and dispel the atmosphere of chaos and hopelessness that reigned at that time in the capital.
The decision to hold the parade was announced the night before on November 6 by Stalin personally at a solemn meeting, which began twenty minutes after the air raid was cleared off, caused by an attempt by two hundred German bombers to break through to the capital. Preparations for the parade took place in the strictest secrecy, and the event itself was equated with a military operation. To ensure safety, the start of the parade was scheduled for eight in the morning, and all participants were instructed in the event of an air raid. The host of the parade was the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense Marshal Budyonny, who was accompanied by the commander of the parade, Lieutenant General Artemyev.
For the first and only time that day, Stalin made a speech from the rostrum of the mausoleum, calling his compatriots sisters and brothers. His speech full of patriotism had the expected effect, inspiring the soldiers and residents of the capital leaving for battle to the inevitability of our victory over the aggressor. In the solemn parade on November 7, 1941, about twenty-eight thousand people took part, and the most numerous were the NKVD troops in the amount of forty-two battalions. An interesting fact is that the beginning of the parade was not recorded on film, since for the sake of secrecy, the filmmakers were not warned about the upcoming event. Operators with cameras arrived at the square later, having heard the broadcast from the parade on the radio.
For the first and last time, the previously classified T-60, T-34 and KV-1 tanks took part in that memorable parade. Unlike other celebrations, military equipment was supplied with ammunition in case an order was received to move towards the front, however, the strikers were still removed from the weapons for security and were kept by the squad commanders. After this symbolic November parade, the whole world realized that the USSR would never submit to the enemy. A commemorative reconstruction of this procession took place seventy years later in November 2011 and has been held annually on November 7 since then.
The next celebration on Red Square took place only three and a half years later on May 1, 1945, when everyone was already living in anticipation of victory, and in the depths of the fascist lair the last bloody battles were fought. Until 1944, the "Internationale" was performed at military parades, which was the country's anthem. At the May Day parade of 1945, the new USSR anthem was played for the first time. A year later, the People's Commissariat of Defense will be renamed the Ministry of Defense, and the Red Army will be called the Soviet Army.
An even more solemn and jubilant event was the victory parade of 1945. The decision to hold the holiday was made by the leadership on May 9, and two weeks later an order from the command was transmitted that each front should allocate a consolidated regiment of 1059 people to participate in the march. On June 19, the red banner triumphantly hoisted over the Reichstag was delivered to Moscow by plane. It was it that was obliged to be present at the head of the column, and those who directly hoisted the banner in Germany should carry it. However, in preparation for the parade, these heroic people showed unsatisfactory abilities for drill, and then Zhukov ordered to transport the banner to the Museum of the Armed Forces. Thus, in the main parade of the 20th century, held on June 24, 1945, the main symbol of victory never took part. He will return to Red Square only in the jubilee 1965th year.
Marshal Zhukov hosted the Victory Parade, accompanied by his adjutant, riding a white stallion in the pouring rain, which slightly spoiled the solemn atmosphere of the event. The parade itself was first filmed on color trophy film, which had to be developed in Germany. Unfortunately, due to color distortions, the film was later converted to black and white. The sequence of the combined regiments was determined by the order in which the fronts were positioned in the conduct of hostilities towards the end of the war from north to south. The procession was led by the regiment of the 1st Belorussian Front, whose fighters hoisted the banner in Berlin. And the apotheosis of the holiday was the deposition of enemy German banners at the Mausoleum. The parade lasted just over two hours. Stalin ordered the demonstration of workers to be excluded from the holiday program. Muscovites and front-line soldiers waited a long time for the very speech of the country's leader, but the Leader never addressed his people. Only Marshal Zhukov uttered a few phrases from the rostrum. There was no symbolic minute of silence at the holiday in memory of the victims. The film about the parade flew around the country and everywhere it was screened with a full house. It is necessary to clarify that only two decades later, in 1965, May 9 will become an official Victory Day.
On August 12, 1945, a parade took place on Red Square again, but it was a procession of athletes, which was characteristic of the 1930s. A notable fact of this event was that the representatives of the United States stood on the platform of the Mausoleum for the first and last time. A large-scale event with the participation of twenty-three thousand participants lasted for five hours, during which the continuous movement of columns continued, and most of the square was covered with a special green cloth. The impressions received from the sports parade made Eisenhower say that "this country cannot be defeated." On the same days, atomic bombs were dropped on Japanese cities.
In 1946, the question of the passage of tanks through Moscow was sharply raised in connection with the emergency post-war state of houses, which were simply destroyed when heavy equipment moved along the streets. Before preparing for a large-scale inspection of tank equipment on September 8, 1946, the opinion of the chief mayor was listened to, and now the route for the vehicles is being developed taking into account the state of the capital's housing stock.
1957 g.
From the 1957 parade, it will become a tradition to demonstrate various missile systems. In the same year, aviation did not perform at the celebration due to bad weather. The participation of pilots in parades on the main square will resume only after forty-eight years at the May 2005 parade.
Since the May Day parade of 1960, military parades have become a kind of formidable symbol of the confrontation between two political worlds. This celebration began with the adoption by Khrushchev, then in power, of the decision to destroy the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft that burst into the sky over the USSR and proceeded to the Urals. Emotional Nikita Sergeevich took such impudence as a personal insult. A decisive response with the help of an anti-aircraft complex put an end to the possibility of peacefully resolving the urgent issues between England, the USA and the USSR.
1967 year
Since 1965, over the next eighteen years, military parades on Red Square were hosted by L. I. Brezhnev. The order of the location of the main persons of the country on the platform of the mausoleum in those years spoke eloquently about the preferences among the leaders and about the attitude of the first person to those close to him.
The parade on May 1, 1967, held in the year of the 50th anniversary of Soviet power, was distinguished by the holding of a theatrical historical show with the participation of columns of Red Army soldiers dressed in Civil War overcoats, commissars in leather jackets and sailors belted with machine-gun belts. After a long temporary break, a squadron of cavalrymen appeared on the square, behind which carts with machine guns thundered on the pavement. Then the procession was continued by armored vehicles imitating samples of the early 20th century with built-in Maxim machine guns.
In 1968, the last May Day military parade took place. From this year on, on May 1, only columns of workers passed through the square. And military equipment for review was taken out to the square only once a year on November 7. During the years of stagnation, which lasted twenty years and led to the collapse of the USSR, after the signing of an arms reduction treaty in 1974, ICBMs were demonstrated to the people on Red Square for the last time. In 1975 and 1976, armored vehicles did not take part in the parades and the celebrations took only thirty minutes. However, on November 7, 1977, tanks appeared again at the main parade of the country. And on November 7, 1982, Brezhnev appeared on the platform of the mausoleum for the last time.
Parade on November 7, 1982
After a change of several leaders on March 11, 1985, M. S. Gorbachev. At the parade in honor of the 40th anniversary of the victory on May 9, 1985, which was held according to the already familiar scenario, not only Russian soldiers, participants of the Second World War, but also Poles, as well as veterans from the Czech Republic marched in the column of veterans.
1990 year
The last parade of Soviet power on Red Square took place on November 7, 1990, when the head of state, Mikhail Sergeevich, like Stalin, made a speech from the rostrum of the Mausoleum. However, his address to the people was full of trivialities and hackneyed phrases. Soon after that, the collapse of the USSR occurred, followed by the division and division of the army's property …
Victory parades in honor of the feat of the Russian people in the Great Patriotic War began to be held only on anniversary dates, they were held in 1985 and 1990. In the period from 1991 to 1994, this tradition was completely forgotten. However, in 1995, an order dated May 19 appeared in Russia, according to which, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Great Victory, the tradition of holding commemorative celebrations and parades in hero cities was revived, but at the same time the participation of military equipment, which caused great damage to their infrastructure, was excluded. In the same year, demonstration performances were held at Poklonnaya Gora, where new models of military vehicles and equipment were demonstrated. A few columns of war veterans marched along the main square of the country.
Starting from May 9, 2008, military parades on Red Square again became regular, resuming seventeen years later. Today's parades are significantly different not only by the increased technical capabilities and the presence of a mass of colorful special effects, but also by the unprecedented amount of equipment involved, not only military, but also filming, which allows showing the event in the most favorable angles and making close-ups of any place or person. In addition, a huge screen is being installed at the stands, on which a live picture of the passing parade is displayed.
