Moscow to hold Red Square parade, mass gatherings, salute on V-Day

MOSCOW, May 9 (Itar-Tass) -- Moscow will celebrate Victory Day with a
military parade on the Red Square, mass gatherings and the salute. The
celebrations on this national favourite holiday will be traditionally
sweeping in the Russian capital. "The festive events will be held all over
the city. About 200 all Moscow actions and more than 1,000 actions in the
city districts are scheduled, so that each Muscovite and a Moscow guest
will be able to feel the greatness of Victory Day and to participate in
the festive events," a source in the Moscow public relations committee
said.
The Victory Day highlight will be a military parade on the Red Square.
The Kremlin will give a festive reception on behalf of the Russian
president for the veterans of the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945. Some 70
war veterans will represent Moscow at the reception.
The festive concerts will be given at the best Moscow stages, namely
the new stage of the Bolshoi Theatre, in the Hall of Church Assemblies at
the Christ the Savior Cathedral, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and at the
Theatre of the Red Army. Festive events are scheduled at the Moscow parks
of culture and leisure, outdoor museums and other Moscow historical sites.
However, the festivities will be the most picturesque in downtown
Moscow. The festive performance "Glory to the Generation of Winners!" is
to be held on the Teatralnaya Square, "We are Born under the Banner of
Victory" on the Lubyanka Square, "Loud Hurrah to the Victory!" on the
Tverskaya Square.
An annual Ball of Victory entitled "At six o'clock in the evening"
will last at the Hermitage Garden until late evening. All guests will be
able to feel the atmosphere of the victorious May at the ball. The field
kitchen, a brass orchestra, an old gramophone, war orders and military
blouses and people in the clothes of the fashion of the forties will
participate in the ball. Military students, cadets, students and members
of military and patriotic clubs of Moscow are traditionally invited to the
ball. The war veterans will be honored, and a festive concert will be
given at the ball. The veterans of the Great Patriotic War, including
members from the club of legendary female pilots Aviatrissa, the veterans
of the regiment of bombers named after Hero of the Soviet Union Marina
Raskova are invited as honorary guests to the ball.
Mass gatherings under the motto "Great Victory of the Great People", a
festival of Moscow students "Songs of Victory" will be held at the Gorky
Central Park of Culture and Leisure. The best university student music
companies and the laureates of the Moscow contest "The Sails of Hope" will
perform on the park stages. Russian folk songs and wartime songs will be
performed at the concert. A major gala concert featuring the pop singers
will be given on Monday evening.
The program entitled "The Victory Steps in Every House" will be held
at the Sokolniki Park, "The Date of Combat Glory Came Again" at the
Izmailovo Park, "Let's Pay Tribute to Those Great Years" at the Fili Park.
The 10th Easter Festival will be held on the Poklonnaya Hill.
Moscow students in the clothes after the fashion of the forties and
the military uniform of the Great Patriotic War times will go out in the
Moscow central streets to congratulate people on the holiday and to
present flowers to the war veterans. The multimedia shows dedicated to the
favourite films and songs about the war will be held on the central
holiday stages. The pictures from the movies and the war movie soundtracks
will be broadcast on the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall facade. The
multimedia program entitled "The Chronicles of War Feat" will be staged on
the Poklonnaya Hill. Another light music show dedicated to the melodies of
the wartimes will be staged on the Chistye Prudy Boulevard. The pieces of
the Soviet composers of the Great Patriotic War times will be played.
Light music fountains will be mounted on the Chistye Prudy pond and an
installation of the war chronicles will be staged on the front of the
nearby building. The spectators will be able to read the text of the songs
to be broadcast on the building facade and will be able not only to listen
to these songs, but also to sing them. The Chistye Prudy Boulevard
greenery will be illuminated particularly for the holiday. An exhibition
entitled "No one is forgotten! Nothing is forgotten!" will be staged on
the Boulevard Ring. The Video Gift screen will be placed on the Revolution
Square, where people will tell about the war heroes in their families
under the interactive patriotic educational project "Heroes of My Family."
The salute will culminate the holiday in 13 Moscow districts. Some
4,500 salute gunshots will be fired from 70 guns in 30 salvoes each.
Some 221,500 veterans of the Great Patriotic War live in Moscow.