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.

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Paul

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.

The rest of the Moscow pictures can be found HERE

We were also in St Petersburg and Riga. Those pics will be uploaded soon to the same imageevent site, but in a different folder.

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Paul

looks pretty cool...you should have taken more pictures of hot russian girls.

pmoisse the PDD Moscow correspondent...

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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.

Dick wagging parade.

"Our missiles are bigger than your missiles"

ahh nostalgia.

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.

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Paul

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.

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.

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.

Last edited by Magnetonium on May-14-2008 at 02:24

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