Russia annually celebrates May 9 as Victory Day. At 12:43 a.m. Moscow time on May 9, 1945, the Instrument of Unconditional Surrender of Nazi Germany was signed, which ended the Soviet Union’s Great Patriotic War.
TASS has put together key facts and figures about Victory Day
Memorable date
Russia celebrates Victory Day pursuant to the Federal Law “On Days of Military Glory and Memorable Dates of Russia” signed by Russian President Boris Yeltsin on March 13, 1995. Initially, the date was set by a decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet of May 8, 1945. In 1945-1947, it was a day-off and then declared a working day (by a decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet of December 23, 1947) and in 1965 it again became a day-off (pursuant to a decree by the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet of April 25, 1965).
The procedure of celebrating Victory Day is set forth in the Federal Law of May 19, 1995 “On Immortalizing the Victory of the Soviet People in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War.” Pursuant to this law, military parades involving armaments and military hardware and artillery fireworks are held on May 9 in Moscow, hero cities and cities accommodating headquarters of military districts, fleets, combined arms armies and the Caspian flotilla.
In addition, festive processions, gatherings, assemblies and reception ceremonies are held across Russia on May 9 to honor veterans of the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War.
In contemporary Russia, military parades have been held on Moscow’s Red Square since 1995 accompanied by the passage of heavy military hardware since 2008. In 2020, all festive events in Moscow were put off or transformed into the online format due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, except for the fly-past and fireworks. The military parade on Moscow’s Red Square took place on June 24 that year.
In 2023-2024, May 9 Victory Day parades were cancelled in some Russian regions for security reasons. The military parade on Moscow’s Red Square on May 9, 2024 involved more than 9,000 troops (including a parade unit of about 1,000 combatants of the special military operation in Ukraine), 75 weapons systems and combat aircraft.
War casualties
The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the Great Patriotic War (40% of all human losses in World War II), with civilian deaths accounting for the larger part of these losses. According to data of the Extraordinary State Commission for the Establishment and Investigation of Atrocities of the German Fascist Invaders, the German troops destroyed fully or partially over 1,700 cities and towns, more than 70,000 villages and settlements in the USSR. Direct damage to the state and the population amounted to 679 billion rubles in 1941 prices.
Heroes of the Soviet Union
A total of 11,657 people were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for heroic deeds during the Great Patriotic War (3,051 of them posthumously), including 95 women and 44 foreign nationals. Of this number, 159 people were bestowed with this title twice, including 154 individuals who received this award two times, three people who were awarded it three times (fighter pilots Ivan Kozhedub and Alexander Pokryshkin and military commander Semyon Budyonny) and two people who were awarded it four times (military commander Georgy Zhukov and CPSU Central Committee Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev). Diving specialist, Captain 3rd Rank Leonid Solodkov became the last Hero of the Soviet Union on December 24, 1991.
As of May 8, 2025, Soviet lawyer and statesman Boris Kravtsov (Moscow) is the last of the living Heroes of the Soviet Union who was awarded this title during the Great Patriotic War. In 2008, Soviet artillerist Pavel Syutkin living in Sochi in the Krasnodar Region became the last Hero of Russia who received this title in his lifetime for heroic deeds during the Great Patriotic War.
In 2024, war veteran Ibrahim-Pasha Sadykov (living in Makhachkala) became the last Hero of Russia who received this title in his lifetime for heroic deeds in the Great Patriotic War.
War veterans
According to data of Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, there were about 7,000 veterans of the Great Patriotic War living in Russia as of early 2025. Pursuant to effective legislation, the war veteran status also extends to home front workers, widows of war participants, former concentration camp prisoners, residents of besieged Leningrad (currently St. Petersburg) and Sevastopol, and also residents of besieged Stalingrad (currently Volgograd) who received this status in April 2023.
Victory jubilees
For the first time, the jubilee of 20 years of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War was widely celebrated in the Soviet Union in 1965. Subsequently, large-scale festive events were held in the USSR also in 1975 and 1985. Non-jubilee dates of the Victory were celebrated more modestly and the celebration was limited to a festive gathering in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses. The Soviet leadership invited representatives of the heads of socialist countries and the heads of foreign Communist and left-wing parties to all jubilee festivities. In 1975, representatives of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition came to the USSR.
Russia has kept the tradition of inviting the heads of foreign states to the celebration of Victory jubilees, with the only exception in 2000, TASS writes.
