russia: victory day in Moscow

8 May 1945 is an important day in history. Many countries consider this to be VE day, that is, victory in Europe day. This is the day WW2 officially ended in Europe, when the Nazis signed a surrender document in the evening. (Though I think there was a little fighting for the next couple days until everyone got the official memo.)

Russia celebrates the next day, on 9 May. This is because Stalin made the announcement to the country on 9 May. Technically the document was signed after midnight Soviet time, so I suppose 9 May is the correct date in Russian history.

For many Russians, the first two weeks of May are holidays, due to the bigger number of national/official holidays. My school had just the first week of May off, so I was in Moscow when 9 May rolled around. It was a Wednesday, which is sortof annoying as far as holidays go, it meant we just got the one day off, in the middle of the week.

Claire and Caroline and I decided to get together, to watch an iconic event in Moscow, a military parade of tanks!! Claire happens to live in a flat that has a fantastic view of part of the parade route, Caroline and I were more than happy to hang out in her flat for a few hours.

We were all up early, because we were afraid the metro stations would completely close during the parade, I think we were at Claire's flat more than an hour before the parade started. I think the parade officially starts somewhere near Red Square, then keeps going heading out of the city.

If you're one of the high and mighty people of the city, or are friends with those people, you might be lucky enough to score a ticket to watch the event in Red Square. The parade in Red Square also involves soldiers, which has to be neat to watch. They don't follow the entire tank route, that would take them all day. I doubt I'm ever going to know the right people in order to get that ticket, but I can dream.

Once the tanks started rolling I was surprised at how fast they moved. There were different styles and colours of tanks, I have no idea what the technical differences are. Some of the soldiers were visible, some were not. Those who were visible smiled and occasionally waved at the crowd. It's a VERY patriotic event, to say the least.

From Claire's balcony we watched the whole thing, it was great not to be smushed by the crowds of people lined up on the street. Still, if that had been my only option for watching, I probably would've done it. 

After people started clearing out we cooked breakfast. Good food, and a way to wait until pedestrian and vehicular traffic were back to normal. Then we went out, heading to Victory Park. The metro station there was insanely crowded, it wasn't easy to figure out how to get out and up to street level. (This happens to be the deepest metro station in the city, and some entrances were designated entry or exit only.)

We got up to street level near the Victory Arch, which resembles the arc de triomphe in Paris. Not surprisingly, there were decorations put up for the holiday, and gabillions of people trying to take photos.

The park was going to host a big fireworks display, which I'd thought would be fun to join. As soon as I saw the massive numbers of people already there, (5+ hours early!) I knew I would not enjoy myself.

After people watching for a little while all three of us went home. Figuring out which entrance we needed to get into the metro station was just as crazy as figuring out which exit we'd needed earlier in the day. Madness I tell you, we were out with every Muscovite, and visitor to the city. 

I got lucky that night when I realized the view from the window of my bedroom showed me the entire fireworks show, YAHOO!! It didn't last long, only 10 minutes or so. In that sense, I was glad we hadn't stayed in the park. I got my own private show instead, a perfect way to end the day.