So Kate and I were lucky enough to get to see some of the Victory Day Parade in Moscow on May 9th. It was bloody impressive. There were thousands of people on the south bank of the river across from the Kremlin to watch some of the show, and thousands more in parks around the city watching on screens. You could hear the troops singing from inside the Kremlin walls.
When we arrived, we ended up in the area where the soldiers would form up and start marching along the river towards Red Square. The Special Forces / Airborne / Naval Commandos would sing (loud) as they marched.
18 guns in front of the Kremlin fired a salute as the proceedings within the Kremlin were coming to an end and the troops inside started to parade out
Mechanized Infantry
more mech. infantry
T-90 tanks
Anti-aircraft missiles
Strategic Rocket Forces
There was also more mechanized infantry, marines, self-propelled artillery pieces and surface-to-surface rocket launchers.
Posted by pmoisse on May-12-2008 09:37:
Antonov with Su-27 escorts
Tu-144 "Concordeski" with MiG-31 escorts
Antonov with Tu-95 Bear bomber and MiG-29 escorts
Tu-122 "Blackjack" bombers
Su-25 "Frogfoot" attack planes
Su-27's and MiG-29's in formation. It was the Sukhoi's that dumped the flares and got a huge cheer from the crowd
Victory Park. This huge park is a year-round memorial park and the huge white builting in the background is a WW2 museum
Highly decorated naval officer. I believe one of his medals is the Order of Lenin. There were lots of veterans out in the crowds and it was so neat to see people just coming up and shaking their hands and thanking them. The amount of respect and pride was unreal.
We were also in St Petersburg and Riga. Those pics will be uploaded soon to the same imageevent site, but in a different folder.
Posted by jerZ07002 on May-12-2008 16:48:
looks pretty cool...you should have taken more pictures of hot russian girls.
Posted by Krypton on May-12-2008 21:12:
pmoisse the PDD Moscow correspondent...
Posted by Magnetonium on May-13-2008 00:58:
F*cking yeah! I am glad you enjoyed the show - even though its annual, this year's is special, so there was more weaponry on display. I got to witness a parade in 1990 at the age of 6, the last time there was a "great" one. But that was the stagnant Soviet era one, so I am not dwelling about it. Fuck the communists.
Posted by DJ Shibby on May-13-2008 03:07:
Dick wagging parade.
"Our missiles are bigger than your missiles"
Posted by Q5echo on May-13-2008 04:15:
ahh nostalgia.
Posted by pmoisse on May-13-2008 18:50:
quote:
Originally posted by DJ Shibby
Dick wagging parade.
"Our missiles are bigger than your missiles"
Sure there's that aspect on the surface, but the whole weekend was about 1941 to 1945 and the veterans and suvivors from that time. I felt that the parade was more a show to spark that pride in the old guard who saw all of that wash away during the wasted post-war & cold-war years. This was a parade for them. These veterans would also be the first to speak out against starting a shooting war since they know the horrors of such an endeavour.
I know that on a macro geo-political level that this plays out very differently and I can't argue that. I also wouldn't disagree that there isn't some degree of chest-beating going on.
Still, the feeling that I got from on the street said something very different. Bear in mind, this is also a country with mandatory conscription so everyone has either worn the uniform, or has kids who might wear a uniform in the next few years. I hardly think that any of the people watching, and shaking the hands of veterans would be too eager to start a large-scale conflict. Their society has come too far to piss it all away like that now.
Posted by atbell on May-14-2008 01:49:
Along the military promotion line of thinking, I recently heard that Canadian's will line the 401 (the major high way in Ontario) collecting on the over passes to show thier respect when military casualties (from Afgan) are retured to be buried. Aparently the procesion is quite impressive.
Posted by guerra-monstru on May-14-2008 01:55:
quote:
Originally posted by jerZ07002
looks pretty cool...you should have taken more pictures of hot russian girls.
Hard to since there not too many good looking girls in russian forces.
Posted by Magnetonium on May-14-2008 02:17:
quote:
Originally posted by DJ Shibby
Dick wagging parade.
"Our missiles are bigger than your missiles"
Wrong, you have that Russophobic mentality going again. This is NOT about Russia vs. USA or Russia "flexing muscles". It was hardly a march of military weapons, just a few bombers flying by and dozen tanks marching on. Soviet parades were much more massive. And besides - this is the May 9 parade, to commemorate the Soviet victory in WW2 (which for many reasons is very important day, because over 25 million Soviet citizens lost their lives). Its a moment of pride, history, remembrance. Russians celebrate important holidays in style. May 9 is one of the most important holidays in the Russian calendar.
And by no chance this is "going back to the Cold War times". Because its not easy to come up with something original for WW2 celebrations or something to replace the previous ways of doing military parades. Its like trying to replace vodka with apple juice for a traditional Russian party - it just doesnt make sense. Whenever there's some sort of a military-related celebration in Russia, there's no better way to do it.
Posted by Krypton on May-14-2008 03:01:
Posted by Magnetonium on May-14-2008 12:09:
quote:
Originally posted by Krypton
LOL, OK, so I didnt see this year's parade, hahah ;-) clearly more weaponry displayed than I thought - but seriously, any Soviet military parade would have kicked this one's arse.
Kinda odd that in the West you guys dont celebrate/commemorate WW2 victory ... hardly anything close to the way Russians do it. But then again, it was more personal for Russian people, as almost every single family lost someone in that war - a father, brother, son, wife, children, entire families and villages. It was such a devastating war, it will be engraved for a long time in Russian memory.
Posted by guerra-monstru on May-14-2008 13:19:
quote:
Originally posted by Magnetonium
LOL, OK, so I didnt see this year's parade, hahah ;-) clearly more weaponry displayed than I thought - but seriously, any Soviet military parade would have kicked this one's arse.
Kinda odd that in the West you guys dont celebrate/commemorate WW2 victory ... hardly anything close to the way Russians do it. But then again, it was more personal for Russian people, as almost every single family lost someone in that war - a father, brother, son, wife, children, entire families and villages. It was such a devastating war, it will be engraved for a long time in Russian memory.
How come they don't celebrate when Stalin's rule ended? He killed more Russians than the Nazis did??!
Posted by Krypton on May-14-2008 16:08:
quote:
Originally posted by Magnetonium
Kinda odd that in the West you guys dont celebrate/commemorate WW2 victory ... hardly anything close to the way Russians do it.
Probably because the Eastern Front was such an epic battlefield. No other battlefield compares to the Eastern Front (1941-1945). Millions died in battle. Leningrad, Stalingrad, Crimea, Kursk, etc. So epic because the Germans were so close to victory. Moscow at one point was only 20 miles from the front line. And as you said, almost all Russians were affected directly by the invasion.
Posted by LazFX on May-14-2008 17:18:
approves!
call me an old fuck, but damn some of those pics remind me of being a little kid after watching Red Dawn & Shit....
The Parades back in the day during the times of the Cold War....
AWESOME!! for a plastic army collector when I was a wee lad...
awesome but yet very scary for a kid, watching all of the fear being fed to us by the media back then...... just as it is today...
fucking people man...
Posted by pmoisse on May-14-2008 18:39:
hahaha DRAAAAGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Seriously, when we walked out of the train station is a slightly sketchy area of St Petersburg, I felt like Rocky in Rocky IV getting off the plane. Except there were no chaperrones (that I could see ) and no snow.
Originally posted by guerra-monstru
How come they don't celebrate when Stalin's rule ended? He killed more Russians than the Nazis did??!
Stalin was a fucking psychopath, pardon my language. You are probably right about that. Plus the millions of people he starved to death or ethnically displaced. And ordinary Russians are to this day blamed for his shit (even though Stalin was ethnic Georgian).
quote:
Originally posted by Krypton
Probably because the Eastern Front was such an epic battlefield. No other battlefield compares to the Eastern Front (1941-1945). Millions died in battle. Leningrad, Stalingrad, Crimea, Kursk, etc. So epic because the Germans were so close to victory. Moscow at one point was only 20 miles from the front line. And as you said, almost all Russians were affected directly by the invasion.
Soviet Union was going to win that war one way or another. There was an easy / smart to way to win it - but Stalin and his cronies were such retards they went to such extremes as to kill off millions of people in dumb and despicable ways in battle, aka the dumb way to win the war. What kind of moron sends Cossacks on horses to battle German tanks? Thats so retarded. And it resulted in many stupid casualties. No wonder why Stalin almost pushed the war to his own defeat. Just send a few thousand troops with hunting rifles into a column of tanks - eventually they'll break through and win (at a cost). Thats so dumb. On the Western battlefields, things were quite different, and as a result Americans lost less troops in the entire war than Soviets did in one battle.
I have no pride or respect or appreciation for the actions of the communist leaders and brass when it comes to Soviet-era battles. Even for WW2 - I am very embarassed the way Soviet leadership handled the war. So many people died when they didnt have to, and many other left to die - like the Leningrad blockade - Stalin ordered troops to SHOOT ANYONE who tried to leave the city to escape the blockade. The moron wanted people to stay there and suffer the Nazi daily shelling and shooting. Ordinary people, women and children. Imagine how many starved to death ... War was won mainly because of sheer manpower superiority, with the help of great Soviet military technology of course. If Soviet armies didnt outnumber German troops 2 to 1, I doubt Soviets were going to win that war.
Even the great Soviet T-34 tanks - often manned by untrained and often enough drunk soldiers. Get into a tank, get couple hours training and go fight crack German tank lines.
That Soviet mentality still lingers on today in many places. Quantity, not quality. Human life - pfffft. And as a result many thousands of Russians die every year from stupid accidents, alcohol/drug overdosage, stupid risks, crime, etc. Reckless behaviour.
I hate that dam communist disease so much. So many times I tried to picture what Russia would be today if October "Revolution" failed. Definitely not any worse than today, thats for sure. I dont care if that means losing the Soviet "achievements" like Sputnik - because they were built on people's blood, lives and ways of live, many of them. Its no achievement in my opinion. Posted by guerra-monstru on May-15-2008 00:05:
quote:
Originally posted by Magnetonium
Stalin was a fucking psychopath, pardon my language. You are probably right about that. Plus the millions of people he starved to death or ethnically displaced. And ordinary Russians are to this day blamed for his shit (even though Stalin was ethnic Georgian).
Yeah, that's the one thing i don't understand why people(former USSR states) blame Russian's for everthing. It probably has to do with Russia getting all the better land with natural resources. But I've read that Stalin was angry with any one who called him Georgian rather than a Russian. So he saw himself as Russian.
Posted by Magnetonium on May-15-2008 00:22:
quote:
Originally posted by guerra-monstru
Yeah, that's the one thing i don't understand why people(former USSR states) blame Russian's for everthing. It probably has to do with Russia getting all the better land with natural resources. But I've read that Stalin was angry with any one who called him Georgian rather than a Russian. So he saw himself as Russian.
Kremlin changes everything One full floor tour of the entire facility and you'll feel the destructive power and capabilities of the Russian leaders
fucking people man...
