Moscow Victory Parade

[Alejandro_]

Hello everyone:

With respect to Stalin not riding a horse:

Stalin wanted to ride a horse because it is (or it was) a tradition in Russia/USSR to review the troops in a horse and not in a Jeep (Churchill, Roosvelt).

What happened is that for some reason, the horse Stalin was riding prior to the parade throw him to the floor and he injured one of his shoulders. Thus he decided that Zhukov would ride the very same horse in the parade while he would be watching the parade from the balcony above Lenin's mausoleum.

More on this can be read in the book: Berlin 1945 by Anthony Beevor (an excellent book by the way.

Best regards

[Alternative Scenario]

I am not sure it was in the Beevor book but one of the resons why Zhukov was given the same horse was that Stalin knew it was a difficult mount would have liked to have seen Zhukov make a mess of it and be thrown - which Stalin's warped mind would been a great victory

Zhukov performed well on the day but was exiled anyway - tough!

[Andy H]

Not sure if this is fact but I read that though some people spat at the German prisoners etc, but most just stood in deadly silence, especially the women who were remembering there dead sons, and more than likely thinking "There bit for the grace of God go I"

Andy H