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Victory Day Parade

75 years ago, on June 24, 1945, the legendary historical parade in honor of the Victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War was held in Moscow. Mikhail Sholokhov attended it.

The Victory Day Parade began on Red Square at 10 a.m. All the guest stands were filled with people. There were lots of foreign guests there. The combined regiments of ten fronts and the Navy took part in the parade. Under the walls of the Kremlin there were fluttering military banners with which the victorious warriors reached Berlin.

Marshal Georgy Zhukov commanded the parade, and Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky commanded the troops.

With the battle of the Kremlin chimes Zhukov drove to Red Square on a white horse. Rokossovsky rode out to meet Zhukov on a black horse. They met across from the mausoleum. Rokossovsky reported on the readiness of the participants. A detour of troops began. Marshal Zhukov greeted the soldiers of the combined regiments and congratulated the participants in the parade on their victory over Nazi Germany. Then Georgy Zhukov climbed the podium, where on behalf of the Soviet government and the CPSU (b) he congratulated the Soviet people and the valiant armed forces on the Great Victory. The orchestra, consisting of 1,400 combined musicians, performed the anthem of the USSR. Then, from the Kremlin’s guns, they fired 50 rounds of artillery salute. About 35 thousand people took part in the solemn procession.

The march of the combined regiments was completed by a column of soldiers who carried the lowered banners and standards of the defeated German troops. Under a fraction of the drums, they were thrown to the foot of the mausoleum.

In the final part of the parade on Red Square, 1850 units of military equipment passed. The Victory Parade ended with the performance of the march of Semyon Chernetsky “Glory to the Homeland”.

Among the guests at the Victory Parade were Mikhail Sholokhov and his wife Maria with their daughter Svetlana. The Sholokhovs had a pass to enter Red Square on the day of the parade and an invitation ticket to the Victory Parade on Red Square in Moscow. These invaluable documents are stored in the collections of the National Sholokhov museum-reserve.

Svetlana Sholokhova recalled: “Mikhail Sholokhov and his family attended the parades in Moscow. But this parade, of course, was special for everyone.

It was a gray day, it was raining, but this did not affect the mood. It was elevated that day with us. At the parade there were a lot of people, interesting guests.

The front-line soldiers of the various regiments participating in the Great Patriotic War ranks marched in rows. Among them there were many war heroes. At the foot of the mausoleum there stood famous marshals. There were a lot of front-line vehicles at the parade.

When the soldiers began to throw fascist banners at the foot of the mausoleum, there was no limit to our delight.”

This parade was special for Mikhail Sholokhov, who passed on all fronts of the Second World War as a war correspondent for the newspapers “Pravda”, “Krasnaya Zvezda”, and the Sovinformburo. With the soldiers who marched victoriously on Red Square, the writer was at the forefront more than once during the battles. Marshal Ivan Konev called the writer “Recklessly brave”. Soldiers read works of Mikhail Sholokhov between fights. They gave them strength, inspired to win.

In the evening there was a festive fireworks show. And on June 25, a reception was held in the Grand Kremlin Palace in honor of the participants in the Victory Parade, to which Mikhail and Maria Sholokhov were invited.

Ekaterina Karbysheva