2016 Moscow Victory Day Parade

The 2016 Moscow Victory Day Parade was a military parade that took place in Red Square in Moscow on 9 May 2016 to commemorate the 71st anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945. The annual parade marks the Allied victory in World War II at the Eastern Front, on the same day as the signing of the German act of capitulation to the Allies in Berlin, at midnight of 9 May 1945 (Russian time). President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin delivered his thirteenth holiday address to the nation on this day, right after the parade inspection that had presided over by Minister of Defense General of the Army Sergey Shoygu and led by the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces, Colonel General Oleg Salyukov. This was the second consecutive parade that included a moment of silence.

The Victory Banner in front of the parade

Overview

Guests

Other guests included People's Artist of Russia Joseph Kobzon, American boxer Jeff Monson, American filmmaker Oliver Stone, and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.[1][2]

Preparatory activities

Beginning in November/December 2015, preparations for the parade were well attended at the unit level. Individual unit practices were held in the various military installations for all the participating units in the national and local parades. Unit practices within Moscow Oblast itself started in early March in the Alabino field[3] before the full blown parade practice run-throughs for all the participating units will commence.

All parade practice runs began on 26 March 2016 in Alabino with the first practice run through for the ground column, kicking off the month long national preparations for Victory Day, and will last even until the middle of April when the runs on Red Square for the national parade itself will start, ending with a final general combined practice run of the parade in early May. From the 3rd week of March up to the 3rd week of April, the Alabino military training center serves as the parade training ground for the estimated 12,000 military personnel in attendance for the Moscow parade, plus more than 175 vehicles and 80 aircraft. Also rehearsing for the parade are the massed military bands of the Armed Forces, the MVD, EMERCOM and the Moscow Garrison, all to be conducted for the 14th straight year by Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov, the Senior Director of Music of the Bands Service of the Russian Armed Forces since 2002, with a combined number of more than a thousand military bandsmen, and the world-famous Corps of Drums of the Moscow Military Music College "Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov", under the leadership of Colonel Alexander Gerasimov, the long-time college director, which has always (with a brief break from 2009 to 2011) had the traditional privilege starting 1940 of leading the parade proper, distinguished by their dark blue and red dress uniforms, snare drums and fifes, plus the color guard unit.

The 15 April practice run through in Alabino was the first to be recorded live through a drone and also the first rehearsal run-through ever to be live streamed on YouTube through RT's YouTube channel.[4]

On 18 April RT filmed the first ever 360 video featuring the parade practice run atop a T-90 MBT.[5] This was the first time ever this had been done, giving viewers a 360 degree view of the Alabino grounds during the drive past segment. This was followed by a second 360 video, this time featuring the Russian Knights and Swifts aerobatic teams, made on 22 April, this time using the former's Su-27s during the flypast practice run-through.[6] Both videos were met with mixed reviews online.

This was followed by, starting 28 April, RT's online coverage blog of the parade featuring a rehearsal of the first ever Victory Day Parade in Syria and a 360 video from the Moscow Parade run through of the mobile column.[7] RT's broadcast reach on the parade proper made it the very first ever parade to be seen and streamed live on various social media outlets, aside from the usual telecast, from Red Square, Tverskaya Street and its own studios.

Timeline for preparatory activities in Moscow
  • 26–28 March up to the 2nd week of April - beginning of parade practice runs in Alabino, Moscow Oblast
  • 2nd up to 3rd week of April - General practice run-through in the Alabino training field, including flypast
  • 4th week of April until 2 days before Victory Day - practice runs in Red Square right up to the general practice run
    • 26–30 April, 2–6 May - evening parade practice run-throughs
    • 4–5 May - Air flypast practice runs
    • 7 May - general practice run at 10am MST

Debut appearance of the National Guard of Russia and the Russian Aerospace Forces

This year's parade did, as always, featured the ODON Division which, for the very first time, marched under the banner of the newly established National Guard of Russia, created on 5 April 2016, and replaced the now defunct Internal Troops, together with the Zhukovsky - Gagarin Air Force Academy, under the banner of the 9-month old Russian Aerospace Forces founded in August 2015.

First ever parade to include active women in the Armed Forces
The women's contingent in the Military parade on Red Square, 9 May 2016

After the positive response and rave reviews of the first ever girls' cadet company that marched in Red Square in 2015, the 2016 parade, for the very first time, featured women officers and other ranks of the Armed Forces marching past, honoring the many women who fought during the 4-year long conflict in the battlefield and the home front. This year's first women's battalion was led by Colonel Olesya Buka (one of the longest serving female officers)[8] and was composed of 2 companies of both lady officers, WOs and other ranks from the Military University of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation and the Military Academy of Material and Technical Security "General of the Army A. V. Khrulev".[9]

Full order of the 2016 parade

Bold indicates first appearance, italic indicates multiple appearances, Bold and italic indicate returning appearance, all indicated unless otherwise noted.

Military Bands
  • Massed Military Bands of the Armed Forces under the direction of the Senior Director of Music of the Military Bands Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov
  • Corps of Drums of the Moscow Military Music School

Ground Column

Mobile Column
T-34
RS-24 Yars and GAZ Tiger

Air Fly Past Column

Other parades

As per tradition, 26 other Russian major cities (Sevastopol and Kerch in the disputed Crimea included) held their parades on this day, and joint civil-military parades were hosted by 50 other towns and cities nationwide. Parades were also held in both the pro-Russian territories in eastern Ukraine (the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, both featuring the United Armed Forces of Novorossiya and the republican MVD and EMERCOM units).

Kazakhstan did not hold any parades this year (either on this day or on 7 May), but Belarus carried on with the annual veterans' parade on this day in Minsk, Ukraine held its usual parade and Military tattoo in Kyiv after a 6-year break.

See also

References
  1. Впервые на параде Школьник из Сочи Владимир Коноков, приглашённый на парад в Москву Президентом России В.В Путиным. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry9suYJOHj4 «Expert Online».
  2. Интервью с Путиным, Документальный фильм Оливера Стоуна, 2017 г. Часть первая.
  3. Тренировка парадной каробки(Кантемировская Дивизия). 16 March 2016 – via YouTube.
  4. Репетиция парада победы в Алабине с высоты птичьего полета. 15 April 2016 – via YouTube.
  5. "Ride with a tank in RT's 360 video of Moscow V-Day parade rehearsal". RT International.
  6. "Free your inner pilot with RT's 360 cockpit view of Moscow Victory Day parade rehearsal". RT International.
  7. "#DigitalVDay: Start online journey to Victory Day celebrations with RT". RT International.
  8. https://www.mk.ru/social/2017/05/18/polkovnik-olesya-buka-otvlekla-kolenkami-zapad-ot-supertekhniki.html
  9. https://ria.ru/20160416/1412688831.html
  10. "Modernised strategic bombers to debut in Victory Day parade over Moscow".
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