Russia and the whole world celebrated the 72nd anniversary of the Victory over fascist Germany. In Moscow, the military parade took place. The step of about 10 thousand servicemen marched. 114 units participated in the military equipment parade, which opened the legendary tank of the Great Patriotic War - T-34. On the pavement of Red Square for the first time there was a technique designed to protect the Arctic. Due to bad weather, I had to cancel participation in the aviation parade.
Military parades took place in many cities of the country. The holiday continued folk festivities, and completed the festive fireworks.
And at three o'clock on the Red Square an endless river of human beings flowed - the "Immortal Regiment". Children, grandchildren and great-grandsons carried portraits of those who forged Victory. Surprisingly, by this time the sun came out and warmed up. People led and carried children, sang songs. In 2016, around 700 thousand participants of the action passed through the Red Square, in 2017, 850 thousand people passed through the square. The endless human river could not leave anyone indifferent. As in past years, at the head of the column with a portrait of a veteran front-line soldier and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
More than 700 thousand participants of the action "Immortal Regiment" took to the streets of St. Petersburg. Siberia, the Urals and the Far East - more than 1.5 million people took part in the action. In total in 2017, nearly 8 million people took part in the action, which is 2.5 million more than in 2016.
The movement, which began with the initiative of Tomsk residents in 2012, is gaining strength and multiplying. In Magadan, in 2015, 500 people came out with portraits of their relatives, but in 2016 their number increased to 6,000. In 2017, along the streets of the capital Kolyma, there were already 8,000 people.
The action, which was born in the people, not upside down by decree, not overgrown with unnecessary tinsel, united people. People take part in the action themselves to carry portraits of those who are most worthy of it, who gave their youth, health, life for this victory in the festive columns in honor of the Victory Day.
The action "Immortal Regiment" was held in many cities of the near abroad. Tens of thousands of people came to Minsk and Chisinau, Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius, Astana and other cities of Kazakhstan.
The action was attended by cities and villages of Donbass. It was not easy to go through the "Immortal Regiment" in the cities of Ukraine. But if in Kiev the radicals managed to spoil the mood for people, then in Mykolayiv and Dnepropetrovsk the youngsters were pretty crushed. 14 cities of Ukraine took part in the action.
The action "Immortal Regiment" has long gone beyond the borders of the post-Soviet space. The most surprising thing is that it united people who left Russia and the former republics of the USSR. The action was held in New York and other US cities, in Manchester, in the cities of Canada, Australia, China, which also suffered huge losses in World War II, in the cities of Italy, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Vietnam, Costa Rica, Qatar, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Japan, Panama, Czech Republic, Israel, Lebanon, Nigeria, Malta, Austria. For the first time this year, the action took place in the Kingdom of Thailand.
In the US and Canada, the descendants of the participants of the northern convoys, representatives of the Serbian, Croatian, Greek and Slovak communities joined the action. Passing by the motorists signaled to the participants of the action, passers-by photographed the participants.
The American ambassador to the Russian Federation, John Tefft, in his "LJ" expressed his admiration for the action "Immortal Regiment". The diplomat wrote that the action personifies the high price paid by the peoples of the USSR for victory in World War II.