So with that said, here's a run-down of some of the highlights from the parade. First of all, the parade itself:
Next, some history, courtesy of South Front:
Great Patriotic War: To the 70th Anniversary of The Great Victory, War scenes
Celebrating Victory Day: The Soviet Union's Great Service to Humanity!
New Eastern Outlook has also created a stunning video in remembrance of the great sacrifice Russians gave, something that too many have forgotten, or cynically denied:
The Parade Itself
Putin delivered a heartfelt speech at the celebration. Here's the video.
And here's the transcript. An excerpt:
Hitler's reckless adventure became a tough lesson for the entire world community. At that time, in the 1930s, the enlightened Europe failed to see the deadly threat in the Nazi ideology.Putin himself took part in the Immortal March, carrying a portrait of his father, who fought in the war.
Today, seventy years later, the history calls again to our wisdom and vigilance. We must not forget that the ideas of racial supremacy and exclusiveness had provoked the bloodiest war ever. The war affected almost 80 percent of the world population. Many European nations were enslaved and occupied.
... in the last decades, the basic principles of international cooperation have come to be increasingly ignored. These are the principles that have been hard won by mankind as a result of the ordeal of the war.
We saw attempts to establish a unipolar world. We see the strong-arm block thinking gaining momentum. All that undermines sustainable global development.
The creation of a system of equal security for all states should become our common task. Such system should be an adequate match to modern threats, and it should rest on a regional and global non-block basis. Only then will we be able to ensure peace and tranquillity on the planet.
...
These parade ranks include grandsons and great-grandsons of the war generation. The Victory Day is our common holiday. The Great Patriotic War was in fact the battle for the future of the entire humanity.
Our fathers and grandfathers lived through unbearable sufferings, hardships and losses. They worked till exhaustion, at the limit of human capacity. They fought even unto death. They proved the example of honour and true patriotism.
...
We bow to those who died from famine and cold in the unconquered Leningrad, to those who were tortured to death in concentration camps, in captivity and under occupation.
We bow in loving memory of sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, grandfathers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, comrades-in-arms, relatives and friends - all those who never came back from war, all those who are no longer with us.
And now, some of my favorite pictures from the parade:
You can view more pictures here and here.
But while all these nations celebrate the victory against Nazism, the disease still runs rampant in various nations. In response to Kiev's recent Victory Day propaganda, Russians have created their own graphics, showing the reality of present-day Ukraine. So, to close, here are some of those creations. The Soviet Union may have won WWII, but Nazism is alive and well, right on the Russian Federation's border. You know what they say about history...
smoke streams from jets overhead. You are not forgotten GIs.