2017 Moscow Victory Day Parade

The 2017 Moscow Victory Day Parade was a military parade that took place in Red Square in Moscow on 9 May 2017 to commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945. The annual parade marks the Allied victory in World War II on 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 fourteenth holiday address to the nation after the parade inspection presided over by Minister of Defense General of the Army Sergey Shoygu.

Naval cadets from the Pacific Naval Military Institute "Admiral Stepan Makarov".

For the Military Band Service of the Armed Forces of Russia, the 2017 parade was the first for its current Senior Director of Music, Colonel Timofey Mayakin, who was appointed in this capacity last August 2016, succeeding the now deceased Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov, the former Senior Director of Music and conductor of the Moscow area massed bands for the holiday parades for a record 14 years, who was in the 2016 Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 crash.

President of Moldova Igor Dodon was present at the parade after confirming that he would be present at the parade in a meeting with Putin.[1]

Members of the Young Army Cadets National Movement during the parade.

The 2017 Moscow parade was the first and only parade so far in modern times to have its flypast segment cancelled due to bad weather for the first time since the flypasts resumed in 2008. General of the Army Shoygu, Colonel General Salyukov as well as parading officers from all service branches (land, sea and air) also wore new officer uniforms (the Ground and Aerospace Forces uniforms being a throwback to the M1943 dress uniforms). ODON National Guardsmen also wore new 4 button uniforms with a new shoulder board design.

Preparatory activities
9K331MDT Tor-M2DT air defence system on DT-30PM transporter chassis
Pantsir-SA air defence system on DT-30PM transporter chassis
President Putin greeting the commanders of the contingents participating in the parade.

Beginning in November/December 2016, 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 before the full blown parade practice run-throughs for all the participating units will commence.

All parade practice run began on 5 April 2017 in the Alabino training range with the first practice run through for the ground column, kicking off the month long national preparations for the 72nd 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 in the morning. From the 1st week up to the 3rd week of April, the Alabino military training center serves as the parade training ground for the estimated 14,000 military personnel in attendance for the Moscow parade, plus more than 126 vehicles and 78 aircraft.

Arctic military equipment such as the Tor-M2DT missile are due to make their first national parade appearance on this very day.[2] Joining the ground column for the first time will be cadets from the Defense Ministry's Young Army Cadet Program.

The flypast practice run began at the Kublinka air base on 10 April 2017 - the very day RT premiered its series of 360 degree videos for this year's national parade.[3][4]

Timeline for preparatory activities in Moscow
  • 5 April towards 9 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
    • 25–30 April, 2–6 May - evening parade practice run-throughs
    • 4–5 May - Air flypast practice runs
    • 7 May - general practice run at 10am MST

Full order of the 2017 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, Colonel Timofey Mayakin
  • Corps of Drums of the Moscow Military Music College

Ground Column

Mobile Column

Air Fly Past Column
President Putin and President Dodon greeting veterans.

The Russian MoD canceled the flypast segment minutes before the parade began on account of the bad weather on that day, which made it difficult for the aircraft to proceed as scheduled from their air bases. If the weather had improved the flypast would have been composed of the following:

Other parades
The parade in St. Petersburg.

As per tradition, 26 other Russian major cities (Sevastopol and Kerch in the disputed Crimea included) held their parades on that day (some of them now including flypasts), and joint civil-military parades were hosted by 50 other towns and cities nationwide. Parades were held in both the pro-Russian territories in eastern Ukraine (the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, both featuring the former United Armed Forces of Novorossiya and the republican MVD and EMERCOM units) and celebrations were held in almost all the former republics of the Soviet Union (save for the Baltics).

See also

References
  1. "Igor Dodon can take part in the Victory Parade in Moscow » Accent TV". a-tv.md. Retrieved 2017-04-06.
  2. "Newest Arctic military equipment to take part in V-Day parade in Moscow for first time". TASS (in Russian). Retrieved 2017-04-06.
  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzM3ETzpZkI
  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmFMIcb8qfo
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