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.

This film was the first colour film in the USSR. 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.

I have translated both the full black-and-white version of the Parade, including Marshal Zhukov’s speech, and the shorter colour version. The subtitles can be downloaded separately for the black-and-while film, and for the colour film.

Below the video frames are the complete transcripts, kept here for the reference. I was translating Zhukov’s speech, based on the Russian transcript here. What I found disconcerting, is that the BW documentary was edited to remove any reference to Stalin’s contribution and guidance! It seems the editing was done during the time, when Hrushjov 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.

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…

After the 24th of June 1945, the Victory Day parades were held in the USSR 3 more times – at the anniversary dates on the 9th of May 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.

In order to be re-uploaded with 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 I found 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

There is such a parade now in Russia, and its name is The Immortal Regiment! This year, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federative branch of the Regiment holds it march and commemoration on-line.

Transcript of the BW 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.
Dmitrij Donskoj’s army went from here to the Kulikovo battle.
Here Minin and Pozharskij mustered their army.
Many times did the Red Square see great Lenin at its ancient towers.
And it was here, on the 7th of November 1941,
that the words of the coming Victory sounded for the whole world to hear.
It was from here that the battalions marched to defend their Moscow.
Today, on the 24th of June 1945,
it is here the country welcomes her sons, who returned victorious.
It’s nine in the morning.
The elected by people deputies to the Supreme Council of the USSR are entering the Red Square.
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-celebrated Marshals of the Soviet Union
go 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 in the same order on the Red Square.
The Karelia Front.
The 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 First Baltic Front.
The Commander of the 1st Baltic Front is Army General Bagramjan.
The Third Belorussian Front.
The commander of the Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasilevskij.
The glorious banners of the Second Belorussian Front.
Marshals Konev, Meretskov, Malinovskij, Dolguhin.
The heroes of the First Belorussian Front.
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General Chujkov.
The representatives of the Polish battle units.
They fought together with the Red Army for the liberty and independence of the democratic Poland.
The commander of the First 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.
The commander of the Fourth Ukrainian Front, Army General Eremenko.
There are 77 Heroes of the Soviet Union in the combined regiment of the Fourth Ukrainian Front.
The commander of the Second Ukrainian Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union Malinovskij.
The commander of the Third 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 infamous divisions of SS, “Dead Head”, “Great Germany”,
the divisions of Feitel 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.
9:55
The leaders of the Party and the Government are heading to the Red Square.
Comrades Molotov, Mikojan, Voroshilov, Voznesenskij.
Comrades Kalinin, Zhdanov, Andreev.
Comrade Stalin.
Members of the Polit-Bureau, leaders of the Party and the Government of the Soviet Union are standing on the Mausoleum.
Marshal of the Soviet Union Rokossovskij 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 Parade.
Greeting, comrades.
Best health, comrade commander.
[…] with Victory and […] Motherland.
Hurrah!
From the speech of Marshal of the Soviet Union 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!
Battle friends!
On behalf of the Soviet government and the all-Union Communist party of the Bolsheviks,
I welcome and congratulate you on your great victory over German imperialism.
Today, the capital of our Motherland, Moscow,
on behalf of the Motherland, honours the valiant Soviet soldiers who won this victory.
Today, the victorious soldiers, 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 take up arms
to defend the honour, freedom and independence of their Fatherland.
The war with Nazi Germany – that insidious and powerful enemy – was a difficult and terrible test 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 have suffered military setbacks.
The enemy was getting closer to the heart of our Motherland – Moscow, and was preparing to triumph.
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 and our Red Army did not lose heart.
Inspired by the 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 decidedly beat the enemy
to beat according to all the rules of the 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 German territory,
completely defeated the Hitlerite army
and hoisted the banner of Victory over Berlin.
So 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 Hitler government was destroyed.
The hotbed of German-fascist aggression in Europe has been eliminated.
Humanity is rid of its worst enemy – German fascism.
The Patriotic Was is over.
A victory is achieved, such as history has never known till now.
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 soldiers who defended the honour, freedom and independence of our Motherland!
Glory to the great Soviet people – the victorious people!
Glory to the mastermind and organizer of our victory –
the great party of Lenin! 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.
During the long months of 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 Bagromjan heads the combined regiment of the First Baltic Front.
These troops fought their way till the Riga bay,
and completed the routing of the Zemland group of the enemy
The combined regiment of the Third Belorussian Front.
The Front that had the honour to be the first to cross the border of the Nazi Germany,
and storm the key to western PRussia, the city of Königgsberg.
The Second Belorussian Front.
They conducted the heroic break-through at Oder,
and came to the shore of the Baltic Sea.
The best warriors of the combined regiment of the First Belorussian Front carry 26 banners.
It was them, who captured Reichstag and hoisted the Banner of Victory over Berlin.
The battle banners of the Polish army.
Warriors fighting for the freedom and independence of democratic Poland went into battle with them.
The First Ukrainian Front.
Its path goes from the Ukrainian steppe and to Prague.
Thousands of kilometres through the whole of Ukraine and Poland,
Silesia, Saxony, Czechoslovakia,
have covered these legendary warriors.
Army General Eremenko leads 7 battalions of the combined regiment of the Fourth 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 Second Ukrainian Front.
They liberated Ukraine and placed the Germans into the famous Korsun-Shevchenko cauldron.
Their path lies from Belgorod till Budapest.
The Third Ukrainian Front.
Warriors of this Front carried the glory of the Russian weapons
from the banks of Don and till 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 assault and landing forces on Kerch, Taganrog, Mariupol, Konstanca and Varna.
Baltic Comendors (navy artillery officer), who destroyed the German divisions at the walls of Leningrad.
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.
It’s alumni are the legendary Chapaev,
Marshal Budjonnyj, the renowned commanders of the Patriotic War:
Marshals Konev, Malinovskij, Dolguhin.
The military schools of The Red Army.
The famous Soviet military hardware enters the Red Square.
The anti-aircraft divisions open the hardware parade.
The defended the sacred sky over Moscow during the turbulent nights of the first part of the War.
Guard’s mortars, or “Katjusha” as it became tenderly called by the Soviet people.
The anti-tank batteries. The “stiletto fire” cannons.
It is 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 fortifications of the enemy from reinforced concrete;
tore down into dust the forts of Königsberg, Breslau and Poznan.
The roar of its cannons with forever be remembered by the vanquished Berlin.
The Soviet tanks – the force that the praised German hardware could not resist.
The living history of the Great Patriotic War passed on this day in front of the ancient walls of Kremlin.
In the evening, Moscow lit thousands of lights, honouring the victors.
The celebrations 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 restored in 1984

Transcript of the colour documentary

Moscow. The Red Square.
On the 24th of June 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 Barents Sea till the Black Sea.
The combined regiments of the Fronts.
Here are they, who took Dniepr and Odr,
who conquered the snowy Carpathian passages,
who return 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’s 9:55 in the morning.
Comrade Stalin and leaders of the Party and the Government of the Soviet Union are on the Mausoleum tribune.
Marshal of the Soviet Union Rokossovskij 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 they banners before the Mausoleum,
Banners, enshrined in the undying glory of countless victories.
Leningrad Front
Third Belorussian Front
The best people of the Front – pilots, tankmen, cavalry, infantry.
Russian infantry, the heirs to Sovorov’s hawks.
They persistently beat the enemy, and beat it assuredly, according to all the rules of Stalin’s military teachings.
Third Ukrainian Front
The combined regiment of the Navy.
The protectors 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.
The divisions of the Moscow Garrison marched after the combined front-line regiments.
The military hardware parade was opened by the anti-aircraft defence.
They defended the sacred sky over Moscow during the turbulent nights of the first part of the War.
Soviet artillery – the best artillery in the world.
It wiped off the face of the earth the long-lasting fortifications of the enemy from reinforced concrete;
tore down into dust the forts of Königsberg, Breslau and Poznan.
The roar of its cannons with forever be remembered by the vanquished Berlin.
The Soviet tanks – the force that the praised German hardware could not resist.
The Victory Parade is the vivid display of the heroic path that our people followed under the guidance of great Stalin.