On June 24, 1945, the first parade dedicated to the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War was held in Moscow on the Red Square. The combined regiments of the fronts, the combined regiment of the people’s Commissariat of defence, the combined regiment of the Navy, military academies, military schools, and the troops of the Moscow garrison were brought to the Victory Parade. The parade was commanded by Marshal of the Soviet Union K. K. Rokossovsky, and the parade was taken by Marshal of the Soviet Union G. K. Zhukov. From the podium of the Lenin Mausoleum, Stalin watched the parade, as well as Molotov, Kalinin, Voroshilov, Budyonny and other members of the Politburo.

We celebrated the 80th anniversary of the Victory Parade at our Telegram channel “Beorn And the Shieldmaiden”, starting at this post.

From the Telegram post of the Russian Foreign Ministry:

During the preparations for the Parade 12 regiments were created and trained, representing all the Red Army Fronts that took part in the fighting against the Nazi invaders. Each regiment included over 1,000 distinguished & honoured Red Army soldiers and officers, Heroes of the Soviet Union and cavaliers of the Order of Glory.

The ceremony involved in total 298 infantry platoons, 13 cavalry squadrons, and 350 artillery batteries, including 386 guns and 613 armoured vehicles. Commander of the Moscow Military District, Colonel General Pavel Artemyev, was in charge of organising and overseeing the Parade.

The Victory Parade began at 10 am and lasted for two hours. Soviet Union Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky commanded the units, while Marshal Georgy Zhukov reviewed the parade teams. The Parade was in many aspects highly symbolic, even as regards the breeds and colours of the horses rode by the two great Soviet Marshals — Zhukov rode a light grey Tersk horse as a symbol of glory and victory, while Rokossovsky rode a black horse symbolising honour and grace.

After the Marshals reviewed the units and greeted the participants, a military orchestra with 1,400 musicians marched into the centre of Red Square to perform “Glory,” a patriotic song composed by Mikhail Glinka. Georgy Zhukov then ascended the podium on the Lenin Mausoleum to deliver his famous address:

“Mankind has been liberated from German Nazism — humanity’s deadliest enemy.

For three years, the Red Army had to fight against Germany and its satellites on its own. Throughout the entire war, the Nazi army had to keep its main forces on the Soviet-German front — this is where the Reich’s war machine was crushed, and this is where the victorious ending of the war in Europe came from.”

When Marshal Zhukov concluded his remarks, the state orchestra performed the national anthem, and 50 rounds of fireworks were fired from the Kremlin walls. This is when the Red Army columns — over 40’000 soldiers and officers and 1,850 units of armour vehicles and military equipment.

At the end of the celebrations, to the sound of 80 drums beating, a column of Soviet soldiers threw 200 banners of the defeated Nazi Wehrmacht onto the ground near the Mausoleum. These banners had been selected by a special commission from among 900 trophy banners brought from Germany.

The Parade ended at noon to the tune of the Moscow Garrison’s composite brass orchestra. Overall, 24 marshals, 249 generals, 2,536 officers, and 31,116 non-commissioned officers and soldiers took part in the procession. The celebrations culminated with an image of the Order of Victory floating in the sky.

After the June 24, 1945, the Victory Day parades were held in the USSR 3 more times – at the anniversary dates on the May 9, 1965, 1985 and 1990. Next time it was conducted in already Russia on the 9th of May 1995, and then annually after that date. In the USSR military parades were customarily held annually on the 7th of November, commemorating the October Revolution.

While translating Zhukov’s speech, based on the Russian transcript here, we found a disconcerting detail: the B/W documentary was edited to remove any reference to Stalin’s contribution and guidance! It seems the editing was done during the time, when Hrushev waged his personal vendetta against Stalin’s memory. The colour version, though it does not include Zhukov’s speech, has Stalin “rehabilitated” and properly referenced.

‼️ It was only on the 75th anniversary of the Victory, that Georgy Zhukov’s speech could be heard for the first time without redactions — in the two and a half reconstructed video of the Day of the Victory Parade, presented in a separate article.

Backup at Rumble. An older version on YouTube

This film was the first colour film in the USSR, shot on single tape (previously, a three-colour method was used for colour films). The Victory parade on June 24, 1945 was filmed on German trophy film from the warehouse of “Agfa”. After the film was shot, it turned out that most of the tape had colour defects. As the colour films were not made in the USSR, there was not enough experience in working on colour correction. Therefore, the entire film was transferred to B/W film, and a 19-minute film was edited from the material that was of suitable quality. And many years later, in 2004, the Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents restored the colour version of the film. The film was restored, removing all mechanical damage to the film, restoring the colour and transferring the image to modern colour film.

Backup at Rumble. An older version on YouTube

👉 Source of the B/W is the USSR State Television and Radio Fund via the Russian MFA.

The article was originally published on May 9, 2020 with video uploaded to YouTube Back then, in order to re-upload the film the subtitles, the footage of the B/W film was downloaded from the Classics of the Soviet Cinema YouTube channel. There was one quote in a viewer comment there, which was especially poignant (note that 9 million is the number of combatant losses according to the early estimates after the war, the total number of the Soviet citizens who lost their lives during the Great Patriotic War is 27 million people):

Once my father expressed a piercing and terrible thought: “Ten thousand soldiers and officers of the armies and fronts participated at the principal Parade in honour of the Victory Day on June 24, 1945. The passage of the parade “boxes” of troops lasted thirty minutes. And you know what I thought? During the four years of the war, the losses of our army amounted to almost nine million dead. And each one of them, who gave the most precious thing to Victory – their lives! – is worthy to walk in that parade on the Red Square. So, if all the dead were put in parade formation, then these “boxes” would go through Red Square for nineteen days… ” and I suddenly, as if in reality, imagined this parade. Parade “boxes” of twenty by ten. One hundred and twenty steps a minute. In windings and boots, overcoats, and jackets, in caps, earflaps, “budenovki”, helmets, caps. And for nineteen days and nights this continuous stream of fallen battalions, regiments, and divisions would have passed through the Red Square. Parade of the heroes, parade of the winners. Think about it! Nineteen days!
— V. Shurygin

Related reading:

• 3 Unbelievable Stories & Amazing Historic WWII Videos! by Lada Ray
• Stalin’s Speech at the November 7th 1941 Parade on the Red Square, which is indirectly referenced by the commentator
• There was another Victory parade, held in Berlin on the 7th of September 1945. That was a joint allied parade, where the allies were already drifting away from the Soviet Union, and only USSR had its official representative at it, but that is another story…

Transcript of the B/W documentary

The Victory Parade
Filmed by the front-line cameramen of the The Central Studio of Documentary Films
The Central Studio of Documentary Films, 1945
Moscow. The Red Square.
The centuries-old glory of the Russian people is connected with it.
Dmitriy Donskoy’s army went from here to the Kulikovo battle.
Here, Minin and Pozharsky mustered their army.
Many a time did the Red Square see great Lenin at its ancient towers.
And it was here, on the November 7, 1941,
that [Stalin’s] words of the coming Victory sounded for the whole world to hear.
It was from here that battalions
marched to defend native Moscow.
Today, on June 24, 1945,
it is here the country welcomes her sons,
who returned victorious.
It’s nine in the morning.
Walking to the Red Square are those, elected by the people:
the deputies to the Supreme Council of the USSR.
Generals, admirals, Heroes of the Soviet Union,
Socialist Labour Heroes,
the masters of art and literature,
exemplary stahanov-workers of Moscow factories,
the diplomatic corpse, members of the military missions.
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Papanin.
Marshal of the tank armies, Rotmistrov.
The Ambassador of the United States of America, Mr. Harryman.
The world-renowned Marshals of the Soviet Union
proceed to the divisions of their Fronts.
On the square and the adjacent streets,
the troops of the Army and the Moscow Garrison have lined up.
Their alignment precisely reflects the position of the Fronts of the Patriotic War.
From the North to the South,
from the Arctic Ocean and till the Black Sea.
The combined regiments of the Fronts are lined up
on the Red Square in the same order .
Karelian Front.
Commander of the Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union Meretskov.
Marshal of the Soviet Union Govorov is commanding the Leningrad Front.
The warriors of the 1st Baltic Front.
Commander of the 1st Baltic Front is Army General Bagramjan.
The 3rd Belorussian Front.
Commander of the Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasilevsky.
The glorious banners of the 2nd Belorussian Front.
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel-General Batov.
The heroes of the 1st Belorussian Front.
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel-General Chuikov.
The representatives of the Polish battle units.
Тogether with the Red Army, they fought
for independence and freedom of the democratic Poland.
Commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union Konev.
The whole world knows the name of this pilot.
Thrice Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel Pokryshkin.
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Major Glinka.
Marshal of the Tank Troops Rybalko.
Commander of the 4th Ukrainian Front, Army General Yeremenko.
There are 77 Heroes of the Soviet Union
in the combined regiment of the 4th Ukrainian Front.
Commander of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union Malinovsky.
Commander of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union Tolbuhin.
The combined regiment of the Navy.
Vice Admiral Fadeev commands the legendary
defenders of Sevastopol, Odessa, Leningrad.
200 banners of the defeated Hitlertite armies.
The banners of the vaunted SS divisions “Dead Head”, “Great Germany”,
the divisions of Keitel and Guderian.
The personal banner of Adolf Hitler.
Today, as a symbol of the utterly defeated Nazi Germany,
these banners are lowered at the feet of the victors.
It’s 9:55.
The leaders of the Party
and the Government are heading to the Red Square.
Comrades Molotov, Mikoyan, Voroshilov, Voznesensky.
Comrades Kalinin, Zhdanov, Andreev.
Comrade Stalin.
On the Mausoleum, are the members of the Polit-Bureau,
leaders of the Party and the Government of the Soviet Union.
Marshal of the Soviet Union Rokossovsky commands the Parade.
The Parade is taken by Marshal of the Soviet Union Zhukov.
The troops of the active Army and the detachments of the Moscow Garrison
are lined up for the Victory Parade.
Greeting, comrades.
Greetings, comrade commander.
Congratulations on your victory over Germany!
Hurrah!
From the speech of Marshal of the Soviet Union, G.K. Zhukov.
Comrades of the Red Army and Red Navy,
sergeants and petty officers, officers of the Army and Navy,
generals and admirals!
Comrade workers, collective farmers,
workers of science, technology and art,
employees of the Soviet institutions and enterprises!
Comrades in arms!
On behalf of the Soviet government
and the all-Union Communist Party of the Bolsheviks,
I greet and congratulate you
on your great Victory over the German imperialism.
Today, the capital of our Motherland, Moscow,
on behalf of the Motherland,
honours the valiant Soviet warriors, who won this victory.
Today, the victorious warriors
will carry through the streets of Moscow
and past the walls of the ancient Kremlin
their battle banners,
inundated with the immortal glory
of numerous victories.
Four years ago, the German-fascist hordes
attacked our country like robbers.
The Soviet people were forced
to abandon peaceful labour
and to take to the arms
to defend the honour, freedom
and independence of their Fatherland.
The war with Nazi Germany —
that insidious and powerful enemy —
was a hard and formidable ordeal for us.
It was a question of the life and death of the Soviet state,
of the life and death of the peoples of the Soviet Union,
of whether our peoples
should be free or fall into enslavement.
At first, the course of the war was unfavourable for us.
We suffered military setbacks.
The enemy was approaching the heart of our Motherland, Moscow
and was preparing to celebrate victory.
At that time, not only our enemies,
but also many of our friends abroad believed
that the Red Army would not withstand
the powerful onslaught [of the German war machine].
However, our Soviet people,
our Red Army did not lose heart.
[Armed with Stalin’s brilliant foresight,] inspired by [the Lenin-Stalin] party,
we were firmly convinced of the victory of our just cause.
Defending every inch of their native land,
showing in battle the wonders of heroism,
the Soviet troops persistently
learned to beat the enemy for sure,
to beat according to all the rules of [Stalinist] military science.
And they learned it.
Having repulsed the onslaught of German troops,
the Red Army launched a decisive offensive,
cleared the Soviet land of the enemy,
transferred the war to Germany territory,
completely defeated the Hitlerite army,
and hoisted the Banner of Victory over Berlin.
Thus, the vile German invaders
shared the fate of all other
invaders who encroached on our sacred Land.
Having raised the sword against us,
the Germans found death by our sword.
By the combined efforts of the great powers —
the Soviet Union, the United States of America, and Great Britain —
fascist Germany was reduced to dust.
Its monstrous war machine is destroyed.
The criminal Hitlerite government is destroyed.
The hotbed of German-Fascist aggression
in Europe has been eliminated.
Humanity has been freed from its worst enemy, German fascism.
The Patriotic Was is over.
The Victory is achieved,
such as history has never known before.
The sources of this great Victory
are our socialist system,
the wise leadership of the Bolshevik party,
the correct policy of the Soviet Government,
the moral and political unity
of the peoples of our country,
the gigantic strength of the Red Army,
and the valiant work of the Soviet people.
Long live our Victory!
Glory to the victorious warriors,
who defended honour, freedom,
and independence of our Motherland!
Glory to the great Soviet people,
the victorious people!
Glory to the inspirer and organiser of our Victory —
the great party of Lenin-Stalin!
[ Glory to our wise leader and commander, Marshal of the Soviet Union, the great Stalin! ]
Hurrah!
The Parade is opened by the combined regiment of the Karelian Front.
They brought their banners from the distant Arctic,
where they were routing the enemy among the marshes and cliffs.
Leningrad warriors.
Over the long months of the blockade,
they were holding off the enemy on the approaches to the Hero-City.
The enemy used all its might to break through to the great city of Lenin,
but the warriors stood firm, persevered,
and threw the enemy far back out of our country.
Army General Bagramyan heads the combined regiment
of the 1st Baltic Front.
These troops fought their way to the Riga bay,
and completed the routing of the Zemland group of the enemy.
The combined regiment of the 3rd Belorussian Front.
The Front, that had the honour
to be the first to cross the border of the Nazi Germany,
and take over by storm the key to Western Prussia,
the city of Königsberg.
The 2nd Belorussian Front.
They conducted the heroic break-through at Oder,
and reached the shore of the Baltic Sea.
1st Belorussian Front.
36 battle banners are carried by the best warriors
of the combined regiment of the 1st Belorussian Front.
It was they, who captured Reichstag,
and hoisted the Banner of Victory over Berlin.
The battle banners of the Polish Army.
Carrying them, warriors fighting for freedom and
independence of democratic Poland went into battle.
The 1st Ukrainian Front.
Its path goes from the Ukrainian steppe and to Prague.
For thousands of kilometres through the whole of Ukraine and Poland,
Silesia, Saxony, Czechoslovakia,
have covered these legendary warriors.
Army General Yeremenko leads 7 battalions
of the combined regiment of the 4th Ukrainian Front.
The warriors of this Front fought their way from Stalingrad
and to the shores of the Black Sea,
and broke through the Carpathian mountains.
The 2nd Ukrainian Front.
They liberated Ukraine, and put the Germans
into the famous Korsun-Shevchenko cauldron.
Their path lies from Belgorod till Budapest.
The 3rd Ukrainian Front.
Warriors of this Front carried the glory of the Russian weapons
from the banks of Don and to the Alp mountains.
They liberated Bulgaria and her capital Sophia,
and chased the Germans from Vienna.
Seamen. The defenders of Odessa,
the participants of the heroic Defence of Sevastopol,
the participants of assaults and landings
in Kerch, Novorossiysk, Taganrog, Mariupol, Constanta and Varna.
Baltic Comendors (navy artillery officer),
who destroyed the German divisions at the walls of Leningrad.
The parade of the Moscow Garrison divisions,
is opened by the combined regiment of the People’s Commissariat of Defence.
The Military Academy, named after Frunze.
The legendary Chapaev studied there,
Also studied there: Marshal Budyonny;
the renowned commanders of the Patriotic War:
Marshals Konev, Meretskov, Malinovsky, Tolbuhin.
The military schools of The Red Army.
The famous Soviet military hardware enters the Red Square.
The anti-aircraft divisions opened the hardware parade.
On the turbulent nights of the first part of the War,
they defended the sacred sky of Moscow.
Guard’s mortars, or “Katyusha”,
as it became tenderly called by the Soviet people.
The anti-tank batteries.
The “kinzhal” (“dagger”) cannons.
It was they who vanquished royal “Tigers” and “Panthers”.
Soviet artillery — the best artillery in the world.
It wiped off the face of the earth
the long-lasting concrete fortifications of the enemy;
tore down into dust the forts of Königsberg, Breslau and Poznan.
The roar of its cannons will forever be remembered
by the vanquished Berlin.
Soviet tanks —
the force, that the vaunted German hardware could not withstand.
On this day, the living history of
the Great Patriotic War passed in front of the ancient walls of Kremlin.
In the evening, Moscow lit thousands of lights,
honouring the victors.
The festivities on the streets
and squares continued late into the night.
The Victory Parade is the result of the heroic path that our people
followed under the guidance of Lenin’s Communist Party.
The film was restored in 1984
The Central, Order of Lenin and Red Banner, Studio of Documentary Films
The End

Transcript of the colour documentary

The Victory Parade
Produced by the Central, Red Banner decorated, Studio of Documentary films 1945
Moscow. The Red Square.
On June 24, 1945,
here, at the walls of the ancient Kremlin,
the country welcomed her sons, who returned victorious.
The heroes of unparalleled battles on all of the fronts of the Patriotic War,
from the Barents to the Black Sea.
The combined regiments of the Fronts.
Here are those, who crossed Dniepr and Oder,
who conquered the snowy Carpathian passages,
who returned freedom to Kiev and Minsk,
who liberated Sevastopol and Odessa,
who fought on the streets of Budapest, Königsberg, Vienna,
and who hoisted the banner of our Victory over Berlin!
200 banners of the defeated Hitlertite armies
are lowered at the feet of the victors.
Guests are assembling on the tribunes:
Deputies to the Supreme Council of the USSR,
the participants of the celebrations from the Academy of Science,
generals, Heroes of the Soviet Union, masters of art and literature,
exemplary Stahanov-workers of Moscow factories.
It is 9:55 in the morning.
Comrade Stalin and the leaders of the Party
and the Government of the Soviet Union are on the Mausoleum tribune.
Marshal of the Soviet Union, Rokossovsky commands the Parade.
The Parade is taken by Marshal of the Soviet Union, Zhukov.
Marshal of the Soviet Union Zhukov addressed from the Mausoleum tribune
warriors of the Red Army, workers, collective farmers,
intellectual workers, to all the working people of the Soviet Union.
The Patriotic War is over, said Marshal Zhukov.
A victory, never before seen in history, is achieved over the Nazi Germany.
We won because we were led to Victory by our great leader,
and a genius commander, Marshal of the Soviet Union, Stalin.
Karelian Front
The victorious warriors carried their banners before the Mausoleum,
banners, steeped in the undying glory of countless victories.
Leningrad Front
3rd Belorussian Front
The best people of the Fronts — pilots, tankmen, cavalry, infantry.
Russian infantry, the heirs to Suvorov’s eagles.
They persistently beat the enemy,
and beat it assuredly, according to all the rules of Stalin’s military teachings.
3rd Ukrainian Front
The combined regiment of the Navy.
The defenders of Odessa, participants of the heroic
defence of Sevastopol, the city of the undying glory.
Baltic Comendors (navy artillery officer),
who destroyed the German divisions at the walls of Leningrad.
Following the combined front-line regiments,
marched the divisions of the Moscow Garrison.
The military hardware parade was opened by the anti-aircraft defence.
On the turbulent nights of the first part of the War,
they defended the sacred sky of Moscow.
Soviet artillery — the best artillery in the world.
It wiped off the face of the earth
the long-lasting concrete fortifications of the enemy;
tore down into dust the forts of Königsberg, Breslau and Poznan.
The roar of its cannons will forever be remembered
by the vanquished Berlin.
Soviet tanks —
the force, that the vaunted German hardware could not withstand.
The Victory Parade is the vivid display of the heroic path
that our people followed under the guidance of great Stalin.