Video: '1941 October Revolution Parade [HD Color]'

(Friday, November 7, 1941, 8:00 a.m. Moscow Standard Time; during World War II) — With German forces within 45 miles of the Soviet capital in the the Battle of Moscow, the 1941 October Revolution Parade — featuring a rare public appearance by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin — took place today on the 24th anniversary of the October Revolution.

In a speech delivered to the soldiers on the parade on Red Square who would go to battle immediately after the parade — many of whom would be killed in battle with Nazi German forces — Stalin said:

“Comrades, men of the Red Army and Red Navy, commanders and political instructors, men and women guerillas, the whole world is looking to you as the force capable of destroying the plundering hordes of German invaders. The enslaved peoples of Europe who have fallen under the yoke of the German invaders look to you as their liberators. A great liberating mission has fallen to your lot. Be worthy of this mission! The war you are waging is a war of liberation, a just war.”

Video: '1941 October Revolution Parade [HD Color]' (Nov. 7, 1941, at 42:25)

“May the victorious banner of the great Lenin be your lodestar! For the complete destruction of the German invaders! Death to the German invaders! Long live our glorious Motherland, her liberty and her independence!”

Every year in modern Russia, November 7th is a holiday in honor of the 1941 parade as a substitute for celebration of the October Revolution, as a Day of Military Honour.