Russian WWII Veterans Re-Create Red Square Parade

Veterans, soldiers, cadets, and patriotic youth groups yesterday re-created the legendary Red Square parade of 1941, simultaneously paying homage to the Soviet Union's World War II effort and marking the anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

The November 7, 1941, parade commemorating the Revolution was the first to be staged following the Soviet Union's entry into World War II and was an act of defiance against Nazi German forces that had advanced to just some 20 kilometers from Red Square.

Formed up in ranks for the parade before Soviet leader Josef Stalin, the troops marched straight to the front.

"We marched, and we saw only Stalin," veteran Ivan Ugryumov said. "We wanted to march very well, but it was snowing, and the cobblestones were slippery ... and we had to watch out for the bayonets of those marching in the row ahead so we wouldn't have our ears pierced by a bayonet."

Parade participants yesterday were dressed in period costume, with some riding horses and others marching in lock step across the wide square to the strains of war-era music. The GUM department store, which stands across from the black granite mausoleum holding the embalmed remains of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, was decorated with long red banners and the dates 1941–2006.