The Presidential Library's materials to spotlight the military parades of 1941 and 1945

May 9 marks Victory Day of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. The Presidential Library's portal provides the collection Memory of the Great Victory, devoted to the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. It features declassified military documents, books, photographs and newsreels, private collections of the descendants of war participants.

The list of declassified materials presents documents on the preparation and organization of the parade on Red Square on November 7, 1941. Moscow saw many parades within its history. The sacred military tradition of our people became the solemn triumphal meetings of the victorious warriors on the main square of the country. Peter the Great was marching there not as an emperor but as a colonel of the Preobrazhensky Regiment.

The parade on November 7, 1941, marking the 24th anniversary of the October Revolution, became an exceptional event, a turning point in the history of the Soviet people and all mankind.

In those days, the enemy stood at the capital's walls; fierce battles were a few tens of kilometres from the city. The Presidential Library's materials tell about the severity of those days' battles. These testimonies are the edition of 1943 The Battles of the Patriotic War; Defeat of German Troops near Moscow (declassified after the war) and digitized fragments of newsreel Battle of Moscow (September 1941 - January 1942).

And in this difficult time, the General Headquarters makes a decision: there will be a military parade at the walls of the Kremlin!

A grandiose activity on the capital's square was aimed to raise the people's spirits. The official documents described the development plan of the parade as an "operation of the Moscow garrison's troops". Preparations for the parade were top-secret. It proved, in particular, by the memories of eyewitnesses of those memorable events in the film The Defence of Moscow, available on the Presidential Library's portal.

The parade should last 1 hour, 1 minute and 30 seconds. Soldiers left the snow-covered Red Square to be delivered to the front. After the parade, thousands of young people from all over the country longed to be conscripted to the army as volunteers. The central, regional and front-line media wrote about the parade. "Comrade Stalin, on behalf of the Soviet government and the Bolshevik Party, greeted the Soviet people and congratulated them on the 24th anniversary of the Great October anniversary of the Socialist Revolution", wrote the Leningradskaya Pravda newspaper in its November 9, 1941. "He spoke about the difficult conditions of this glorious anniversary but recalled that there were days when our country was in an even more confusing situation. <...> And everyone who listened to the leader's speech at that moment comprehended in his words strong confidence in the victory over German invaders and the inevitable defeat of Nazi Germany".

"They are coming... infantry battalions, rifle units", we read in the same newspaper issue. "<…> They are covered with silver hoar-frost and snow, stern and fit. They look like those legendary heroes of Russia, about whom Comrade Stalin spoke in his speech. These people deserve their great ancestors - Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky...".

The Presidential Library portal's publication History of the USSR: Album of Visual Aids provides a vivid visual impression of the parade on November 7, 1941.

…There were still three and a half severe years of the war until the Victory. The defeat of the Reichstag and the signing of the German Instrument of Surrender drew down the curtain. The decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR declared Victory Day on NaMay 9. On June 22, 1945, the newspapers published order No. 370 of Joseph Stalin, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief: "I am designating the Victory Parade - a parade of the troops of the Army, the Navy and the Moscow garrison on June 24, 1945, in Moscow on Red Square".

Intense preparations for the parade were in Moscow from the end of May. In the first half of June, all the participants got a new uniform and began their pre-holiday training. The rehearsal of the infantry units took place at the Khodynskoye Field, near the Central Aerodrome; on the Garden Ring, from the Crimean Bridge to Smolenskaya Square... Consolidated regiments from every front operating at the end of the war were delivered and prepared for the celebration. It was decided to bring the Red Banner hoisted over the Reichstag from Berlin.

All the media wrote about the Victory Parade. So, the Moskovsky Bolshevik newspaper (1945, No. 147 (June 24) states: "The Russians beat the Prussians again. The clear mind, courageous character and patience of the Russian people... proved to be the decisive force that ensured the historic victory over Nazism. The worst enemy of the Slavic peoples - German predatory imperialism - is defeated. And the Victory Parade - the first parade of the Red Army troops in the current period of peaceful development - will become a majestic demonstration of its might and strength. We can defend the great socialist achievements of our people and ensure the state interests of our Soviet state".

The parade was inspected by the Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov, the First Deputy People's Commissar of Defence of the USSR and Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief. The parade was led by Marshal of the Soviet Union Konstantin Rokossovsky. They appeared in Red Square on white and black horses. After the command "Parade, Attention!" the roar of applause sounded across the square...

It was the moment of ultimate military triumph: a column of Soviet soldiers entered Red Square, carrying 200 banners of the German Nazi troops, defeated on the battlefields. With the drum beat, these banners were thrown to the Mausoleum's foundation as a sign of the complete defeat of the aggressor. The whole square was happy; many experienced soldiers hid tears...

The memory of the Great Patriotic War is eternal. We must not forget the feat of the people who provided our future by sacrificing their lives. The Presidential Library's collection Memory of the Great Victory has been forming since 2010. It is constantly improved with new unique materials. Today it may truly be called the people's collection.