Russian Victory Parade in Moscow (1945)

On 24 June 1945, a scant six weeks following the Fall of Berlin and the end of the Great Patriotic War, residents of the USSR’s capital city were treated to the spoils of victory – a massive military parade.

Organized and undertaken on the direct orders of Stalin himself, the 1945 Victory Parade was (and remains) the largest ever held on Moscow’s Red Square. 40,000 soldiers, sailors, and other service personnel accompanied by 1,850 tanks, artillery pieces, and assorted equipment were mobilized for the occasion. (Alas, overcast skies and steady rain prevented a planned flyover by Red Air Force pilots).

The most memorable moment of the two-hour long procession came as Soviet troops bearing the regimental standards of former Nazi units cast them to the ground in front of Lenin’s Mausoleum – while The Leader and his closest Party comrades gazed down from atop the edifice.

The 1945 Victory Parade was, of course, preserved for posterity. The official version, compressed into less than twenty-minutes, but recorded in color (on film stock seized from German studios) was subsequently distributed throughout the country and, in time, the wider world. A version containing English subtitles accompanied by a terrible voice-over has been available for years on YouTube and across the Interwebs.

Source :
www.youtube.com

Bio of General Ivan Petrov (1896-1958)

 

Soviet Army General Ivan Yefimovich Petrov in Moscow, Russia 1945. Photo by Mark Redkin / FotoSoyuz

Ivan Yefimovich Petrov (30 September 1896 – 7 April 1958) was born in Trubchevsk in 1896. He began his military service in the Red Army in 1918, the year when he also joined the Bolshevik Party. Petrov fought in the Russian Civil War near Samara, the Polish Soviet War of 1920 and the Basmachi rebellion in 1922. In the late 1920s and 1930s Petrov served in Central Asia.

During World War II, Petrov participated in the Battle of Odessa, Battle of Sevastopol and was noted for heading the Separate Coastal Army from October 1941 to July 1942 and in November 1943-February 1944, 44th Army in August–October 1942, Black Sea Group of Forces, North Caucasus Front, 33rd Army in 1944, 2nd Belorussian Front, 4th Ukrainian Front, and several other units. In April–June 1945 Petrov was a chief of the 1st Ukrainian Front Staff.

On May 29, 1945 Petrov was awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union. The United States awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross in War Department General Order No. 3 of 1944.

After the war Petrov commanded the Turkestan Military District and was inspector general of land forces. Petrov died in Moscow in 1958 and is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Honours and awards
    Hero of the Soviet Union
    Five Orders of Lenin
    Order of the Red Banner, four times
    Order of Suvorov, 1st class
    Order of Kutuzov, 1st class
    Order of the Red Star
    Order of the Red Banner of Labour of the Turkmen SSR
    Order of Red Banner of Labour of the Uzbek SSR
    Order of the Red Banner of Labour
    Order of Merit, 1st class (Hungary)
    Military Order of the White Lion "For Victory", 2nd class (Czechoslovakia)
    War Cross, 1939 (Czechoslovakia)
    Cross of Grunwald, 3rd class (Poland)
    Medal of Victory and Freedom 1945 (Poland)
    Distinguished Service Cross (USA)
    Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army"
    Medal "For the Defence of Odessa"
    Medal "For the Defence of Sevastopol"
    Medal "For the Defence of the Caucasus"
    Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
    Medal "For the Capture of Berlin"
    Medal "For the Liberation of Prague"

 

Source :
https://diletant.media/articles/35899466/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Yefimovich_Petrov
https://www.facebook.com/groups/237076659811098/posts/1889504567901624/?__cft__[0]=AZWFxi4N0ZJaFrPIiHvF8jL2q2mBgxj8JDP61U8WOAVqn-n-vsXupGgcusXREDmtzuOTkqMeHabciadsQxVc4Lj4-iU357n3uBc0duSorRrKj9m9dfPlcEaIdLCyW8UJ5DwBoA4PIZ_7U45Fns-ChcCmNnk49DyqQ12hMm58QtXaXZLRHM_M4k1j6872YVm5cR8&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R

Pokryshkin, Zhukov and Kozhedub

Three times Hero of the Soviet Union, from left to right: Air Marshal Alexander Pokryshkin, USSR Marshal Georgy Zhukov, and Air Colonel-General Ivan Kozhedub. The picture was taken in Kremlin, 1949.

Source :
Tobi Moll photo collection
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=235344477734384&set=gm.1424061501112602&type=3&theater&ifg=1

General Vladimir Kirpichnikov as a POW of the Finns

Major-General Vladimir Kirpichnikov with a packet of Chesterfield cigarettes at the Kyöliö officers’ prison in November 1943. He was the only prisoner of general rank that the Finns captured during the wars! Kirpichnikov was captured by the Finns near the city of Viborg on 1 September 1941. He was first interrogated in the village of Karisalmi and later moved to Finnish Army headquarters in Mikkeli. The Finns wanted to use Kirpichnikov for propagandist purposes since they knew he had some opinions that were critical of the Soviet regime. However, Kirpichnikov did not agree to work for the Finns. In December 1941 he was moved to Sotavankileiri 1 (Prison camp 1), which was located in the municipality of Köyliö in Western Finland. It was a camp for more than 3,000 Soviet prisoners, including 1,000 officers. According to other prisoners, Kirpichnikov was offered the commander's post of the Russian Liberation Army but he refused. The pictures taken of Kirpichnikov were used as a propaganda tool. Most famous are a picture of Kirpichnikov lighting the cigarette of his interrogator, General Lennart Oesch, and this color photo of Kirpichnikov with a newspaper and a pack of Chesterfield cigarettes. He was also seen in a Finnish propaganda film. After the war was over, Kirpichnikov was sent back to the Soviet Union where he was immediately arrested by the SMERSH. Kirpichnikov was held in a prison camp in Podolsk, then later at Lefortovo Prison in Moscow. He was charged with treason and sentenced to death by the USSR Military Collegium on 8 October 1950. Two days later, Kirpichnikov was shot. Some sources report the date of his execution as 28 August 1950, prior to the recorded death sentence.

Source :

 Book "Finland at War: The Continuation and Lapland Wars 1941-45" by Vesa Nenye, Peter Munter, Toni Wirtanen and Chris Birks 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Kirpichnikov_%28general%29

First Official Link-up Ceremony near the Elbe River

26 April 1945: Major General Emil F. Reinhardt (Commander of the US 69th Infantry Division of Courtney Hodges' First Army) and Major General Vladimir V. Rusakov (Commander of the Soviet 58th Guards Rifle Division of Aleksei Zhadov's Fifth Guard Army) lead the celebrations as the Western Allies and the Red Armies link on the River Elbe near the town of Torgau (Southwest of Berlin, Germany). This was an important propaganda event for both sides, Soviet and American. Every American unit along the Elbe-Mulde line was anxious to be the first to meet the Red Army. By the last week of April it was well known that the Soviets were close, and dozens of American patrols were probing beyond the east bank of the Mulde, hoping to meet them. Elements of the First Army’s V Corps made first contact. At 11:30 on 25 April a small patrol from the 69th Infantry Division met a lone Russian horseman in the village of Leckwitz. Several other patrols from the 69th had similar encounters later that day, and on 26 April the division commander met General Rusakov in the first official link-up ceremony. Photo by George Stevens

Source :
"Victory in Europe: D-Day to VE-Day in Full Color" by Max Hastings and George Stevens
http://9thinfantrydivision.net/battle-history/central-europe/