Photo: https://iz.ru/
Today, Russia celebrates Military Glory Day and the 105th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. These two events are closely intertwined and inseparable from one another.
Back in 1941, when in some places the front line was 30 km from the center of Moscow, it was decided to hold a military parade on November 7 to mark the 24th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution on Red Square. It was a bold decision for those days.
All precautions were taken, and even the time of the parade was moved at the last minute by two hours earlier, to 8 a.m. The commanders of units which took part in the parade were notified the day before at 11 p.m. Those members of the public who were to be invited to the parade were not informed of the postponement until 5 a.m., because there was the risk that Nazi Germany might carry out an air raid to destroy the leadership of the Soviet Union.
On the eve of the parade, military meteorologists reported that there would be heavy snowfall and a blizzard in Moscow on November 7. In such weather enemy aviation could not pose a threat. So, it turned out that on this festive day not a single German plane could reach Red Square. In order to protect the parade, 550 fighters were redeployed from the front. The next day it was reported that anti-aircraft gunners and pilots of the 6th Fighter Corps shot down 34 German planes on the outskirts of Moscow.
On the night of November 7, on the order of Joseph Stalin, Supreme Commander in Chief, the Kremlin stars were uncovered and lit, and the Lenin Mausoleum was cleared of camouflage. A few minutes before the parade began Stalin and those members of the government who were in Moscow climbed the Mausoleum podium. Army General Georgy Zhukov was at the command post, Lieutenant General Pavel Artemyev commanded the parade, and Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Budyonny accepted it. Stalin opened the parade with a speech to the people. And already then it was said about successes in the battle for Moscow.
In some directions the enemy was stopped, the enemy began to turn to the defense, and the goals that the Wehrmacht had set in its Typhoon operation remained unfulfilled, the Nazis were unable to take the capital of the Soviet state. A month later, on December 5, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive, pushing the enemy away from Moscow.
The first to march through Red Square on November 7, 1941 were cadets of the artillery school, and then with the unfurled battle flags to revolutionary marches marched artillerymen, anti-aircraft gunners, sailors and infantrymen. Cavalry, machine gun tanks, T-34 and KV tanks marched on Red Square. Right after the parade the Red Army soldiers were sent to the front. In total, more than 28,000 people, dozens of tanks, artillery pieces and vehicles participated in the 1941 parade. The parade lasted only 25 minutes, but it was enough to show that the Red Army was not broken, and to raise the morale of the defenders of the Fatherland and the Soviet citizens who worked in the rear for the victory. The whole world heard about this parade, because foreign journalists were also allowed on Red Square.
Not without reason, historians compared the 1941 parade to a successful military battle, because it greatly influenced the spirit of the Red Army and the Soviet people, inspired and strengthened faith in our victory. The next parade on Red Square was already in June 1945, and it was the Victory Parade.
That is why, in 1995, the Day of Military Glory of Russia was established and is celebrated annually on November 7. Meanwhile, today in Moscow, the Communist Party will lay wreaths and flowers at the Lenin Mausoleum and the monument to Marshal Zhukov, and then the Communists will hold a solemn meeting in honor of the 105th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution.
There are no more people left alive who witnessed the events of October 1917 but we, their descendants, remember that the salvo from the cruiser Aurora signed the birth of a new era not only in our country. It was thanks to October that the GOELRO plan was implemented, Stalin's five-year plans were fulfilled and overfulfilled, then our Red banner flew over the Stag, our Yuri Gagarin was the first human to journey into outer space. We were able to do a lot thanks to the fact that the workers and peasants made the revolution of 1917. No matter what they may say now about the mistakes made, history has no subjunctive mood. Only October Revolution, as Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said in his speech devoted to this date, helped modern China to revive, inspired the victory of the peoples of Korea and Vietnam, helped to defeat the revolution in Cuba, and contributed to the destruction of colonial empires throughout the world. And one should not diminish the impact of the October Revolution.
We live in a great country that always extends a helping hand to people in need around the world. Now the Russian military are helping the people of Donbass to get rid of the Nazi scum that has raised its head on our brotherly Ukrainian land, helping the Russian people to fight for their right to speak their native language and pass on to their children the customs and manners of the Russian people. On this festive day, the 103rd humanitarian convoy is being sent to Donbass with everything the civilian population needs. Life goes on...