2016 Moscow Victory Day Parade

The 2016 Moscow Victory Day Parade will be an upcoming military parade that shall take 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 the Second World War 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 will deliver his thirteenth holiday address to the nation on this day, right after the parade inspection that will be presided over by Minister of Defense General of the Army Sergey Shoygu and led by the Commander-in-Chief or the Russian Ground Forces, Colonel General Oleg Salyukov.

As per tradition, 26 other Russian major cities (Sevastopol and Kerch in the disputed Crimea included) will hold their parades on this day, and joint civil-military parades will be hosted by 50 other towns and cities nationwide.

Kazakhstan will not hold any parades this year (either on this day or on 7 May), but Belarus will carry on with the annual veterans' parade on this day in Minsk.

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[1]before the full blown parade practice run-throughs for all the participating units will commence.

All parade practice runs began on March 26, 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 of leading the parade proper, distinguished by their dark blue and red dress uniforms, snare drums and fifes, plus the color guard unit.

The Kremlin Regiment's Cavalry Escort Squadron will be present for the 3rd consecutive year.

The April 15 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.[2]

On April 18 RT filmed the first ever 360 video featuring the parade practice run atop a T-90 MBT.[3]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 April 22, this time using the former's Su-27s during the flypast practice run-through.[4]Both videos were met with mixed reviews online.

This was followed by, starting April 28, 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.[5]

Timeline for preparatory activities in Moscow

Debut appearance of the National Guard of Russia

This year's parade will, as always, feature the ODON Division which will, for the very first time, march under the banner of the newly established National Guard of Russia, created on April 5, 2016, and replaced the now defunct Internal Troops.

First ever parade to include active women in the Armed Forces

After the positive response and rave reviews of the first ever girls' cadet company that marched in Red Square in 2015, the 2016 parade will, for the very first time, feature 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. Aside from the Moscow National Pensions School girl cadets this year's first women's company will be composed of 2 platoons 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".

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

Ground Column

Mobile Column (in order of appearance)

Air Fly Past Column

References

  1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-sYnt9QISo
  2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVFstQuTWAk
  3. ↑ https://www.rt.com/news/340065-moscow-wwii-parade-360/
  4. ↑ https://www.rt.com/news/340645-moscow-ww2-parade-360/
  5. ↑ https://www.rt.com/news/341853-victory-day-digital-parade/
  6. ↑ http://www.janes.com/article/59508/modernised-strategic-bombers-to-debut-in-victory-day-parade-over-moscow
  7. ↑ http://sputniknews.com/videoclub/20160422/1038440979/aerobatic-teams-victory-parade-rehearsal.html

See also

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