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VICTORY DAY PARADES HELD ACROSS FORMER SOVIET UNION
Monsters and Critics
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1637917.php/Victory-Day-parades-held-across-former-Soviet-Union
May 9 2011
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (centre left) and Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin (centre right) watch the Victory Day parade at the Red
Square in Moscow, Russia 09 May 2011. Russian people celebrate the
Victory over Nazi Germany in the WWII on May 09. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
Moscow - Russia and other former Soviet republics marked the 66th
anniversary of World War II victory over Germany with military parades
and memorial services.
Soldiers marched across Moscow's Red Square on Monday, following
a minute of silence for the victims of the war and the sounding of
bells from the Kremlin's Spassky Tower.
The hour-long ceremony saw a march past by about 20,000 soldiers and
flag-bearers in serried ranks, with guests of honour looking on.
'I congratulate you for our great victory. We are obliged to remember
the cost at which it was won - health and strength to our veterans,
who defended our motherland,' said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
in a speech.
More than 100 combat vehicles rumbled across the Red Square's
cobblestones, most of them top-of-the-line Russian army equipment such
as T-90 tanks, Buk-M anti-aircraft rockets, Smerch rocket artillery
and Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The Russian air force successfully employed a Soviet-era tactic to
guarantee good weather for the parade by sending planes to bomb clouds
to the north of Moscow with silver pellets and cement powder, which
caused them to rain and disperse before reaching the Russian capital.
More than half a dozen bomber aircraft participated in the operation,
which cost some 4.3 million dollars, according to news reports.
Smaller victory parades took place in cities across Russia's
eight times zones from the Pacific Ocean port city Vladivostok to
Kaliningrad, a Baltic Sea port that was known as the German city
Koenigsberg until Soviet conquest in 1945.
Most former Soviet republics, now nations independent of the Kremlin,
also held memorial services. A parade in the Ukrainian capital Kiev
featured a mix of marching infantry units and school bands, followed
by blasts from ceremonial cannon.
'The victory over Nazism - this is our collective holiday which unites
the people of Ukraine with all peoples of the world,' said Ukrainian
President Viktor Yanukovych in a speech. 'For us, May 9 is a holy day.'
A fistfight broke out in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv when
about 30 Ukrainian nationalists clashed with pro-Russian marchers
celebrating the Victory Day. One man was shot in the leg by an air
pellet pistol, but no arrests were reported.
In Yerevan, the capital of the Caucasian state Armenia, Russian and
Armenian soldiers laid flowers next to an eternal flame memorial
honouring war dead.
Although most citizens of the former Soviet Union consider the war
against Germany to have been a just one, some non-Russian nationalists
consider Soviet liberation of their regions during the latter phases
of the conflict the beginning of years of Russian occupation.
An estimated 8.7 million Soviet soldiers and 18-20 million Soviet
civilians died as a result of Germany's 1941 invasion of the Soviet
Union. The conflict is still known as the 'Great Patriotic War'
in most former Soviet republics.
From: A. Papazian
Monsters and Critics
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1637917.php/Victory-Day-parades-held-across-former-Soviet-Union
May 9 2011
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (centre left) and Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin (centre right) watch the Victory Day parade at the Red
Square in Moscow, Russia 09 May 2011. Russian people celebrate the
Victory over Nazi Germany in the WWII on May 09. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
Moscow - Russia and other former Soviet republics marked the 66th
anniversary of World War II victory over Germany with military parades
and memorial services.
Soldiers marched across Moscow's Red Square on Monday, following
a minute of silence for the victims of the war and the sounding of
bells from the Kremlin's Spassky Tower.
The hour-long ceremony saw a march past by about 20,000 soldiers and
flag-bearers in serried ranks, with guests of honour looking on.
'I congratulate you for our great victory. We are obliged to remember
the cost at which it was won - health and strength to our veterans,
who defended our motherland,' said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
in a speech.
More than 100 combat vehicles rumbled across the Red Square's
cobblestones, most of them top-of-the-line Russian army equipment such
as T-90 tanks, Buk-M anti-aircraft rockets, Smerch rocket artillery
and Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The Russian air force successfully employed a Soviet-era tactic to
guarantee good weather for the parade by sending planes to bomb clouds
to the north of Moscow with silver pellets and cement powder, which
caused them to rain and disperse before reaching the Russian capital.
More than half a dozen bomber aircraft participated in the operation,
which cost some 4.3 million dollars, according to news reports.
Smaller victory parades took place in cities across Russia's
eight times zones from the Pacific Ocean port city Vladivostok to
Kaliningrad, a Baltic Sea port that was known as the German city
Koenigsberg until Soviet conquest in 1945.
Most former Soviet republics, now nations independent of the Kremlin,
also held memorial services. A parade in the Ukrainian capital Kiev
featured a mix of marching infantry units and school bands, followed
by blasts from ceremonial cannon.
'The victory over Nazism - this is our collective holiday which unites
the people of Ukraine with all peoples of the world,' said Ukrainian
President Viktor Yanukovych in a speech. 'For us, May 9 is a holy day.'
A fistfight broke out in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv when
about 30 Ukrainian nationalists clashed with pro-Russian marchers
celebrating the Victory Day. One man was shot in the leg by an air
pellet pistol, but no arrests were reported.
In Yerevan, the capital of the Caucasian state Armenia, Russian and
Armenian soldiers laid flowers next to an eternal flame memorial
honouring war dead.
Although most citizens of the former Soviet Union consider the war
against Germany to have been a just one, some non-Russian nationalists
consider Soviet liberation of their regions during the latter phases
of the conflict the beginning of years of Russian occupation.
An estimated 8.7 million Soviet soldiers and 18-20 million Soviet
civilians died as a result of Germany's 1941 invasion of the Soviet
Union. The conflict is still known as the 'Great Patriotic War'
in most former Soviet republics.
From: A. Papazian