1418
Illustration: The parade that marched to the front
Spirit of the peopleTurning point

· Day 139 of 1418

The parade that marched to the front

Red Square, Moscow

The enemy was close, yet on 7 November 1941 a parade was held on Red Square. Snow was falling. Soldiers marched past the Kremlin and went straight from the square to the front. The world saw that Moscow would not give in.

Only a few people knew about the parade: it was prepared in secret until the last minute. Heavy snow was falling, and enemy aircraft could not take off. Stalin spoke from the Mausoleum, and the whole country heard him on the radio.

Newsreels of the parade were later shown across the country and abroad. People said: if the parade went ahead, Moscow will not be surrendered.

May the courageous image of our great ancestors, Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Kuzma Minin, Dmitry Pozharsky, Alexander Suvorov, Mikhail Kutuzov, inspire you in this war!
Stalin's speech at the parade, 7 November 1941
See it on the map

Chapter 6 · November 1941

A parade and a road across the ice

The enemy came within 25–30 kilometres of Moscow. But on 7 November a parade marched across Red Square, and the first lorries of bread crossed the ice of Ladoga into Leningrad. On 29 November the Red Army freed Rostov-on-Don, one of its first victories.