May 9th is one of the greatest holidays in Russia. It's anniversary of the victory in WWII. Not many people outside of Russia know about this holiday and what difficult and horrible time it was for all Russian (Soviet back then) people, and not only for Russians of course.
Soviet Union lost 25 million people in World War II. There is no family in Russia whose relatives did not fight or died in the war. Hopefully there will be no wars any more. I cannot imagine what my grandparents and other old people had to go through living at that time, not to mention fighting in the war. Both my grandfathers fought in the war. I did not know my Dad's father as he died before I was born but I knew my other grandfather Stepan who fought in the war. He got all the way to Berlin in his tank and was wounded. He has many medals and awards. He did not talk about the war and we did not ask as we were kids and everything seemed different at the time. Unfortunately, granddad died about 13 years ago. Since then it's a tradition in our family to go to a cemetery to his grave on the Victory Day and bring him flowers.
This year it was the 65th anniversary of the Victory Day. It was celebrated throughout the country. Actually, we celebrate every year.
This year it was special. Moscow had the main parade at the Red Square.
One needed an invitation/pass to get there. Mostly WWII veterans and representatives of foreign governments were present there. 40 thousand soldiers participated in the parade.
For the first time in the history they invited soldiers of the Allies to take part in the parade. It was great! Following the march of the soldiers were tanks and heavy military trucks. Then 127 planes and helicopters flew over the center of Moscow. It was amazing!
We live in the very center of Moscow and for the second year go to the main street to watch planes and military trucks, as the latter always go back to their units from the parade through the main street. It was great! The street was full of people, everyone was happy. There were many veterans in the streets. People congratulated them and thanked for their bravery.
I like to watch tanks and military trucks driving along the main street and wave to soldiers on May 9th. I always smile and wave to every single one of them. Some do not look at the crowd, some do and even wave back, some drivers honked in response. It was fun and did not look real: tanks in the center of Moscow! There were many foreign tourists watching it too: Americans, Brits, Germans, Italians etc.
After watching the tanks we went for a short walk to a park. They played music there and kids sang for veterans. It was very touching.
Chris bought me beautiful flowers for the Victory Day. Lilies smell amazing!
The last picture was taken last year on the same day.
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