The 1918 May 1 Parade () was a

military parade A military parade is a formation of military personnels whose movement is restricted by close-order manoeuvering known as Drill team, drilling or marching. Large military parades are today held on major holidays and military events around the ...

of the Moscow Garrison on 1 May 1918 on Khodynka Field. It was the first parade of the recently established

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

and the first military parade held in modern

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. As of 2019, the parade is the only one of its kind to not have been held on Red Square. The parade was attended by the

Chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian SFSR

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

, his spouse

Nadezhda Krupskaya Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya ( rus, links=no, Надежда Константиновна Крупская, p=nɐˈdʲeʐdə kənstɐnʲˈtʲinəvnə ˈkrupskəjə; – 27 February 1939) was a Russian revolutionary, politician and politic ...

and his sister

Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova (; – 12 June 1937) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary, politician, and the younger sister of Vladimir Lenin and Anna Ulyanova. Biography Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova was born on 6 February 1878 in Simbirsk and ...

. The site of Khodynka was chosen due to the holiday of

International Workers' Day International Workers' Day, also called Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of Wage labour, labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs every yea ...

and its status as a peaceful holiday rather than a military one. Musical accompaniment was provided by the Massed

Military Band A military band is a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind instrument, wind and percussion instruments. The conducting, conductor of a ...

s led by Lyudomir Petkevich. The ceremonies began at 10:00 AM ( MSK) with the performance of ''

The Internationale "The Internationale" is an international anthem that has been adopted as the anthem of various anarchist, communist, socialist, democratic socialist, and social democratic movements. It has been a standard of the socialist movement since ...

'', the then Soviet anthem. British diplomat and Unofficial Ambassador to the Bolsheviks R. H. Bruce Lockhart described the mood during the parade as "May was excited and feverish". Immediately after the parade, a demonstration of workers took place on

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Red Square Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', p=ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːɪtʲ) is one of the oldest and largest town square, squares in Moscow, Russia. It is located in Moscow's historic centre, along the eastern walls of ...

, where a temporary tribune was erected in what is now Lenin's Mausoleum.

References

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Оформление Красной площади на параде 1 мая 1918 года

Кинохроника парада
Vladimir Lenin May 1918 in Europe 1918 in Moscow Military parades in Russia May Day

See also

References

External links