🏅 The Russian House in Trivandrum hosted the St George’s Ribbon campaign dedicated to the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.

#VictoryDay
#Victory79

🥇 On June 24, 1945 — 79 years ago — Moscow’s Red Square hosted the first Victory Parade to mark the victory over Nazi Germany and the triumph of the entire Soviet nation.

The official ceremony involved combined regiments from all fronts, the Navy, military academies and schools, as well as units of the Moscow Garrison.

🕙 The parade began at 10 am sharp and lasted for over two hours. Marshal of the Soviet Union Konstantin Rokossovsky commanded the parade, with Deputy Supreme Commander in Chief – Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov taking the parade.

In all, 12 combined regiments were deployed ahead of this history-making event. Each regiment consisted of over 1'000 most distinguished service personnel, including Heroes of the Soviet Union and holders of the Order of Glory.

🇷🇺 Parade columns consisted of nearly 40'000 service personnel, including infantry, cavalry, artillery, armour and mechanised units. They were deployed in the same order as fronts on the map of the Soviet Union.

As the Kremlin Chimes started ringing, Marshal Georgy Zhukov exited the Spasskaya Tower Gate, riding a white horse. Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky sitting on a black horse approached him and reported that everything was ready for the parade.

At the same time, a brass band comprising 1'400 musicians deployed in the square’s central section and performed the patriotic song Glory to You, My Russia by Mikhail Glinka. The marshals inspected the troops and greeted the participants. After that, Marshal Zhukov mounted the rostrum of the Lenin Mausoleum and delivered an official speech.

On June 24, 1945, about 40'000 service personnel marched through Red Square, and about 1'850 pieces of military equipment rolled past. At the end of the parade, 200 banners of defeated German forces were thrown to the ground in front of the Lenin Mausoleum.

The parade ended at noon to the sounds of a march played by a combined brass band of the Moscow Garrison. In all, the parade involved 24 marshals, 249 generals, 2'536 other officers, as well as 31'116 sergeants and soldiers.

🏅 At the end of Victory celebrations, a banner depicting the Order of Victory appeared in the sky.

🔗 Read our full material for more information

#Victory79 #WeRemember #NoSatuteOfLimitations

🗓 On August 7, 1941, pilot Viktor Talalikhin rammed an enemy plane at night for the first time during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

Viktor Talalikhin was flying a Polikarpov I-16 fighter plane when he tailed an enemy bomber, shot up one of its engines and later rammed it. This heroic feat during a dogfight near Moscow made his name forever famous.

🎖 On August 8, 1941, intrepid pilot Viktor Talalikhin, then only 22, became Hero of the Soviet Union.

After this feat, Viktor Talalikhin repeatedly distinguished himself during hostilities in mid-air.

🕯 The Junior Lieutenant flew his last combat mission on October 27, 1941. The pilot engaged superior enemy forces, downed two enemy planes over Podolsk, near Moscow, and was killed.

Viktor Talalikhin was buried in Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery with full military honours. His name was forever listed among personnel of the 1st squadron of a fighter aircraft regiment with whom he served near Moscow. Streets in multiple Russian cities, including Moscow, Volgograd, Borisoglebsk, Chelyabinsk and Nizhny Novgorod, as well as the Podolsk Central Park, are named in his honour.

During intense fighting in the summer of 1941, Talalikhin’s selfless feat inspired millions. Soviet pilots rammed enemy aircraft on over 600 occasions during the war.

#FacesOfVictory #Victory79

🗓 On August 9, 1944 — exactly 80 years ago — the Battle of Leningrad, the longest military engagement in the history of the Great Patriotic War, concluded with a Red Army victory.

For more than three years, Soviet soldiers and officers fought fierce battles in the northwestern theatre, while the people in Leningrad steadfastly endured the horrors of the siege.

Capturing Leningrad was a goal of high military and political significance for the Nazi leadership. The city was one of the largest strategic, political and economic centres of the Soviet Union, and its loss would mean isolation of the northern regions of the USSR, and cutting off the Soviet fleet’s access to bases in the Baltic Sea.

⚔️ The Battle of Leningrad included several stages: defence of the distant and near approaches, 872 days of the siege, the breakthrough and the Soviet offensive in the northwestern direction. Instead of taking the city in three weeks, as Hitler planned, the Nazi troops spent about three years at the gates.

The siege was finally lifted on January 27, 1944, paving the way for liberating the southern parts of the Leningrad Region in February. But the Battle of Leningrad did not end until August 1944 and the defeat of Finnish troops in Karelia. The Soviet soldiers were liberating Europe at that time.

☝️ The defence of Leningrad became a symbol of the courage of the Soviet people. At the cost of incredible hardship, heroism and self-sacrifice, Soviet soldiers and residents of Leningrad defended the city.

🎖 Over 350,000 soldiers, officers and generals of the Leningrad Front were decorated with orders and medals, with 226 of them awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. The medal For the Defence of Leningrad was conferred on 1.5 million people. In 1965, Leningrad was among the first to receive the title Hero City as a tribute to the heroism and courage shown by its residents during the siege.

#WeRemember #Victory79