Notes on parades. What happened on Red Square

10.05.2023 0 By NS.Writer

A parade is a way to demonstrate force in response to a threat, real or imagined, without using it immediately, this is its whole essence. Nowadays, self-confident countries do not hold parades at all, their power lies in the economy. And the rest - kto kak, пишет journalist-observer Sergey Ilchenko for "DS".

Illustrative photo

The chronicle of old parades, if you look at it over the years and look at the faces, can tell a lot. The Soviet parades of the early 70s were filled with the self-satisfaction of the superpower, from which the inferiority complex of the eternal catch-up peeked out, giving rise to the feeling of constant humiliation in the Soviet leaders. By the mid-1980s, fatigue from the realization of a dead end and imminent collapse became apparent. In 2010, the Kremlin rode a new wave of self-satisfaction: the West forgave Georgia torn to shreds, and on the 65th anniversary of the Victory, Moscow rolled out a "life was successful" parade. More than 11 thousand Russian and foreign military, 160 combat vehicles and 120 airplanes and helicopters, the latest S-400, Iskanders, S-300s, Bukys, Topols also passed. Guests from NATO: Britain, the USA, France and Poland, and representatives of ten conquered nations of friendly CIS countries marched along Red Square. Three thousand veterans from 24 countries gathered to watch it, and Angela Merkel, Hu Jintao and the Chairman of the Council of Europe Thurbjörn Jagland were on the podium next to Putin. This was the star time of the St. Petersburg gangster, who rose to the top precisely because of his insignificance.

Alas, star time is in the past. Pride and contempt for Western weaklings pushed the Kremlin dwarf to take an adventure, and the Pontov pyramid collapsed. The 2023 parade was a record short — only 45 minutes — and record poor.

There was no technique as such. Nothing was flying, only the ancient 34, ancient tractors with the Yars ICBM containers and a dozen or so unremarkable armored vehicles passed through the square - of those that the Ukrainian Armed Forces burn by the dozens. Army soldiers marched, but mostly cadets (what happened suddenly?). On the faces of the commanders of the boxes, you could read bewilderment and extreme disgust at everything that was happening. After the soldiers, the operetta Cossacks passed by - on foot, since they hardly know how to ride horses, and there was nowhere to get horses for them. The scene turned out to be similar to the Hyrkin reenactors, when they, having already played and drunk the brought alcohol, cheerfully march to the train to go home.

The aging gangster, with an open international arrest warrant, mumbled an incoherent speech about how "civilization is again at a decisive, turning point," and Russia is holding this line, in the "fight against international terrorism" and values "imposed by globalist elites" — topics that visited Moscow only 13 years ago. Seven presidents from the countries of the former USSR who arrived in Moscow for the parade, and five of them initially announced that they would not come, looked like a bewildered and diverse crowd, evoking the proverb about "soup of seven...".

There was a rumor that the five bowers were strongly persuaded by their Chinese comrades to come, trying to support their vassal and help him avoid final humiliation. However, the Chinese themselves preferred not to send a delegation of any level. Lukashenko was constantly lagging behind and getting lost, apparently, thinking that he had nowhere to go, they were keeping an eye on him. In vain, by the way - Alexander Hryhorevich is still full of surprises. Putin looked up at the sky all the time - he definitely wanted to go back to the bunker, he felt bad in the daylight. If it weren't for the seven guests, he probably wouldn't have appeared at the parade at all, entrusted Medvedev to speak - but seven presidents, two of whom, a Tajik and a Kyrgyz, even allowed themselves to be decorated with St. George's ribbon (and Lukashenko and Tokaev were shorn!) protected Putin from strikes by Ukrainian UAVs are better than any Russian air defense. However, they will threaten in their words - neither the West nor Ukraine, Putin has not dared. So Medvedev's speech, to whom the sea of alcohol is always knee-deep, would probably have revived what was happening.

Despondency was also visible on the faces of the guests in the stands. The propagandistic slogan "this year the parade is more modest, but the president's voice is louder" came out as a frank tuff. No harsh modesty, even in the spirit of the parade on November 7, 1941, was felt. There was only a musty atmosphere of the bunker - the same one that the Kukryniks depicted in the picture "The End".

That was the end. Parade of the defeated. The last parade before capitulation - and this was read in it, in every stroke of it, with all certainty.

PS about 92% of Ukrainians believe in Ukraine's victory over Russia — a joint survey by the Razumkov Center and the Democratic Initiatives Foundation.

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