Thursday, June 24, 2010

Pop History Moment: The Moscow Victory Parade



The Moscow Victory Parade was held on this day in 1945; it celebrated (in a typically sombre, hyper-serious, totally Russian kind of way) the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in what they called the Great Patriotic War. On that rainy day Joseph Stalin watched the massed might of the country march past him from atop Lenin's Tomb in Red Square.



I was labouring through the previous post when in the immense mental jumble of mostly nouns and dates came a single thought, like a piercing ray of light... I bet the Moscow Victory Parade is on YouTube. And whattaya know? It IS on YouTube. I so love it when that happens. In fact, I even have a name for it. I call it a 'Research Epiphany'.

This particular epiphany came when I read that the Moscow Victory Parade was the first event in Russian history to be filmed in colour. Let's face it - that's something I gotta see; after growing up with an essentially English view of World War II, I find it exhilarating to experience seemingly familiar events from an unfamiliar perspective. In fact, sharing that sensation is one of the chief raisons d'etre for this blog.
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2 comments:

Daniel said...

Pri-teee weird. I half expected Borat to pop up at the start. Interesting to see all the Willys jeeps and GMC's rolling by, and the ceremonious throwing down of Nazi flaggage. I think Stalin's editors owe a debt to Leni Riefenstahl. But then so do the Clintons. Zing!!

michael sean morris said...

What gets me is why they bothered to film it in colour when everything in it is either khaki or red.