Victory Day Part I (Parade) - 9 May 2013

Victory Day in Moscow is always on May 9 and is always a big holiday. The entire city shuts down and everyone has off from work. This holiday commemorates Russia's victory over Germany in WWII. The Russians lost 19 million people in the war - more than any single country or group - and they are very, very proud of the fact that they still defeated the Germans. Even the little kids here seem to know a whole lot more about WWII than any American I know.

Part of the city-wide celebration involves a parade of Russian military tanks up Tverskaya from Red Sqaure. And guess what, Tverskaya just happens to be the very street where we live! So we had an easy front-row seat for this impressive display of national pride and sheer force.

Tons and tons of people crowded along the sidewalk.

This first pic is directly across from one of the exit gates from our building:

Of course Siena came to watch the parade too.

Eventually she got bored and lay down on our feet. 

Crowds walking toward where the tanks end up.

A few military guys for crowd control.

And, here come the tanks! Just your average parade in Moscow...

Anyone need some missiles (maybe Syria?)?

More missiles!

And here's a video of even more tanks parading along the road (I started out with just photos but there were so many tanks one after another, I switched to video):

May Day in Moscow - it's kind of a big deal...

May 1 is Workers Day and the Russians take it very seriously. I think it is like our Labor Day but somehow bigger and more significant because there are still a lot of "workers" here. Or maybe it feels like a Big Deal because we're in such a dense city so pretty much everything feels more intense. Or maybe it's because it's May 1 and finally, finally, it feels like spring, so everyone is out celebrating the sunshine and warmer temps. Who knows.

All I know is that literally steps outside of our building this morning there were throngs of people everywhere with flags and balloons. Standing in the street and on the sidewalks, everywhere. From what I can gather, they were all waiting for a huge parade down Tverskaya Street (like Broadway in NYC only wider and even busier) which has been completely closed. Makes for a pretty impressive display of organized chaos.