Russia commemorated the 75th anniversary of the parade in 1941 when Soviet Union soldiers headed for the wartime front lines of WWII. Thousands of Russian servicemen wearing historic uniforms of the time marched through Red Square in Moscow.
Marching alongside Russian tanks and waving flags, the soldiers dressed in 1940s uniforms performed a reenactment of the historic parade. Russia’s TASS news agency reported that approximately 5,000 people were taking part in the march, which was observed by some World War Two veterans.
Veteran Ivan Bushmin, 89, a World War II soldier of the Soviet Union, came to Moscow’s Red Square to recall the 1941 parade. He remembers that parade as being something special. He was assigned straight to the front lines after that parade, Reuters reported.
At that point in the war, the Nazi forces were attacking only a short distance to the west of the capital city, Moscow. The Red Square parade in 1941 was part of the Russian Armed Forces ferocious and, in the end, successful defense of the capital city.
Another veteran who watched the military parade marching through Moscow’s Red Square commented that such reenactments will serve to remind the younger generation of the war and what it means to their freedom today. “Why are we doing this?” he said. “Our population must remember how their fathers and grandfathers defended ‘Mother Russia’ from the treacherous fascist Germany, who so ferociously attacked our homeland.”