Military parade on Red Square in Moscow in 1941.
At that time, dozens of German divisions were desperately rushing towards Moscow, and all the troops in the city were transferred to the front, and Moscow was in danger of being bombed indiscriminately at any time.
Stalin, who was going to evacuate, made a decision that changed the fate of the Soviet Union:
A military parade was held under the noses of the German army.
In the early morning of November 7, the sky of Moscow was covered with goose feathers.
Yevgeny, a reporter for the Soviet Union's Western Front "Red Army Pravda", as a reporter covering the military parade, stood in the left stand of Lenin's tomb on Red Square in Moscow and saw Stalin walking to the rostrum on Lenin's tomb.
He heard Stalin say two words.
The first sentence is, "The wind is so strong. 」
The second sentence reads: "The Bolsheviks were so lucky that even God helped them." 」
At 8 o'clock in the morning, a military parade that will go down in history officially began.
In the early morning of November 7, 1941, Klochkov Tiyev couldn't help but shiver at the heavy snowfall.
Klochkov was a political instructor for a company of the 316th Infantry Division of the Soviet Red Army.
He had just been urgently drafted into the army 4 months earlier – in fact, the entire 316th Infantry Division had just been formed.
On the morning of November 7, Klochkov's infantry division was called to the side of Red Square in Moscow.
The whole assembly process was very mysterious, and the superiors never told them exactly what they were going to do, at first they just said that the citizens of Moscow wanted to see the soldiers defending the city march in formation.
It was not until the evening of November 6 that a clear order was heard: the whole procession was marching through Red Square to be paraded by Comrade Stalin.
Parade through Red Square? to be inspected by Comrade Stalin?
Isn't this a military parade?
In the cold of November 1941, Klochkov knew what a dangerous move it was to hold a military parade on Red Square at this very moment.
Red Square, Moscow
At the beginning of November 1941, the Soviet Union had almost been defeated by Germany.
On June 22, 1941, Hitler launched the "Barbarossa Plan", dispatching 190 divisions with 5.5 million men, 4,900 aircraft, 3,700 tanks, and 47,000 artillery pieces to attack the Soviet Union in three directions.
The most tragic "Soviet-German war" during World War II broke out.
Because the Soviet Union was not mentally prepared for the invasion of Germany, and the combat effectiveness of the Soviet Red Army, which had just been purged by Stalin, was seriously reduced, so the Soviet army lost its armor in front of the German army, which was almost the most advanced fighting quality in the world at that time, and lost 1,200 combat aircraft on the first day of fighting (800 of which were blown up before they could take off).
On the northern front, the Soviet Red Army retreated 450 kilometers in two weeks, losing the entire Baltic Sea coast, with 24 divisions completely annihilated, and 20 divisions losing 60% of their personnel and equipment; on the central front, the Soviet Red Army retreated 350 kilometers, 30 divisions were completely annihilated, and 70 divisions lost more than half of their personnel; on the southern front, 70 divisions of the Soviet Union's strongest Southwestern Front were all annihilated after 10 days of hard fighting in Kiev, and more than 600,000 people were captured.
Only 3 months into the war, the Soviets were pushed to the brink of a precipice – the Germans were already on the capital Moscow.
On September 30, 1941, the Germans took advantage of the victory to launch the "Typhoon Plan" - gathering 1.8 million troops, supported by 1,700 tanks and 11,000 artillery pieces, to launch a general attack on Moscow.
In the first stage, the Germans easily annihilated 600,000 Soviet Red Army in the Vyazma area and won a complete victory.
Immediately, all the positions on the outskirts of Moscow were overcome.
According to Hitler's optimistic estimates, Moscow had lost its ability to resist, and he prepared for a military parade of German troops on Red Square in Moscow on November 7, 1941.
November 7 is the glorious traditional holiday of the Soviet Union, the "October Revolution Day", which commemorates the overthrow of the bourgeois regime by the October Revolution.
Just as the French had to sign the surrender agreement in the train car where Germany had signed the agreement when Germany was defeated in World War I, Hitler was most than happy to humiliate his enemies in the way that most stinged his opponents.
Some of the officers and men of the German army have already received new dresses for the November 7 parade.
At this time, Moscow is indeed in danger.
On October 10, 1941, Moscow Radio announced that the Soviet defense line in Mozhaisk, a suburb of Moscow, had been broken by the Germans.
This news finally made the citizens of Moscow realize: the Germans really called.
For a time, the whole of Moscow was in chaos: the subway was shut down, prices were skyrocketing, German spies and "Soviet traitors" were engaged in sabotage and rumors, and the Soviet government and embassies had begun to evacuate to Kuibyshev (present-day Samara).
All indications are that the fall of Moscow is only a matter of time.
At critical moments, there is a person's posture that is very important.
On the morning of October 19, Stalin wandered for almost 2 hours in front of a special train at the Moscow railway station, and after a phone call with the commander of the Western Front, Zhukov, and repeated confirmations, he decided to abandon the evacuation, get back into the car, and return to the Kremlin.
News of Stalin's decision not to leave soon spread, and the defenders and citizens of Moscow began to regain their confidence: the metro began to operate again, a group of unscrupulous merchants and spies were arrested and shot, prices began to stabilize, and a large number of citizens, especially women, volunteered to join the ranks of sappers, digging trenches and building fortifications day and night.
And there was more to Stalin than that.
On October 28, 1941, Stalin summoned the commander of the Moscow garrison, General Artemyev, and the commander of the Air Force, General Zhigarev.
In the conference room, Stalin asked them the question: "In a few days, the anniversary of the October Revolution, shall we hold a military parade on Red Square?"
The two generals were stunned at once: at this time, dozens of German divisions were desperately rushing towards Moscow, all the troops in the city had been transferred to the front line, and Moscow was in danger of being bombed indiscriminately at any time.
But Stalin asked again: "I ask again, do you want to hold a military parade?"
At this time, the two generals had already comprehended Stalin's determination and said that they must hold this military parade well.
A few days later, Stalin summoned his henchmen Beria and Molotov and once again expressed the idea of holding a military parade.
Beria and Molotov, in their astonishment, expressed their support.
Now that the opinions are unanimous, the next question is: how?
Holding a military parade in a besieged city square is indeed extremely risky.
The first question facing Stalin was: would the Germans launch a general offensive during this period?
To this end, Stalin twice summoned Zhukov, the commander of the reorganized Western Front.
Zhukov's reply to Stalin was that the Germans would not launch a major attack in the near future, since the Germans had also suffered considerable losses in the previous battles and needed to be replenished.
However, if the German army does not attack, will the air force dispatch bombers? The parade site is densely populated, and if a bombing breaks out, the consequences will be unimaginable.
一代名帅朱可夫
It was Zhukov who gave the guarantee: the air defense forces outside Moscow would be fully strengthened, and a number of fighter planes would be transferred to try not to let a single bomb fall on Red Square.
After receiving these two guarantees, Stalin had a little idea in mind, and then made a series of arrangements: Advance the military parade from 10 a.m. to 8 a.m., and try to end the parade before dawn to avoid air raids; medical teams are on standby at all times in case there are casualties caused by air raids and bombings, but the parade must not be stopped; and all newspapers, periodicals, and propaganda machines are on standby, and the live parade must be broadcast to the whole world in real time......
Stalin also made a special point of emphasizing that no one should be allowed to know about the parade until the last moment, except for a few people who knew about it.
In the early morning of November 7, 1941, the sky of Moscow was covered with goose feathers.
Yevgeny, a reporter for the Soviet Union's Western Front "Red Army Pravda", as a reporter covering the military parade, stood in the left stand of Lenin's tomb on Red Square in Moscow and saw Stalin walking to the rostrum on Lenin's tomb.
He heard Stalin say two words.
The first sentence is, "The wind is so strong. 」
The second sentence reads: "The Bolsheviks were so lucky that even God helped them." 」
At 8 o'clock in the morning, a military parade that will go down in history officially began.
Under the watchful eyes of hundreds of thousands of Moscow citizens who had come to watch the ceremony, Stalin gave the first speech.
It stands to reason that it was the commander of the parade who should have spoken at the parade, but at this time it was only Stalin who could speak.
Stalin began: "Comrades, today we are here to celebrate the twenty-fourth anniversary of the October Revolution under serious conditions.
The treacherous attack of the Germans, and the war they forced us to wag, posed a danger to the continent.
We have temporarily lost some areas, and the enemy has already advanced to the gates of Leningrad and Moscow.
"The enemy is counting on the surrender of our country immediately after the first blow.
Although our army and navy suffered temporary defeats, they still heroically repelled the enemy's attacks on all fronts and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy.
And our country, our whole country formed a unified battle camp so that together our army and navy would crush the German invaders. 」
At the end of Stalin's speech, through the snow and mist, echoed over the entire Red Square: "Let the heroic posture of our great ancestors Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Kuzma Minin, Dmitry Pozharsky, Alexander Suvorov, Mikhail Kutuzov inspire you in this war!
"Fight for the complete crushing of the German invaders!
"Destroy the German invaders!
"Long live our glorious motherland! Long live the freedom and independence of our motherland!"
"Under the banner of Lenin, march towards victory!"
As soon as Stalin's speech ended, the national anthem of the Soviet Union at that time - "The Internationale" sounded on Red Square.
At this time, hundreds of thousands of citizens and troops who braved the bitter cold to arrive and the troops who were being inspected shouted "Ula!" and "Long live the Soviet Union!" on Red Square, and many were already in tears.
Military parade on Red Square in 1941
The parade then began.
The first to pass through the review stand were the cadets of the Artillery Academy and the Leningrad Military Academy.
This was followed by the 2nd and 316th Infantry Divisions, naval units, and the Dzerzhinsky Division, an internal security unit responsible for the security of the Moscow region, which was now also being pulled out and ready to go to the front.
Many officers and men had just returned from the front line, and they had not gone through the parade and rehearsal at all, and their ranks were not neat and their steps were not uniform, but they had firm eyes and high fighting spirit.
Their guns were loaded with live ammunition, and each of them carried their bags - after leaving Red Square, they would not return to the barracks, but would go straight to the front line to fight the invading German army in a final desperate struggle.