Immortal Regiment

Even before the name appeared, similar actions were organized in some cities of the USSR. The earliest known was held in 1965, marking the 20th anniversary, when students of Novosibirsk school number 121 walked through the streets of the city with photographs of participants in the war.[1] In 1981, on the Square of the Fighters of the Revolution in Art. A procession of mothers in black robes with portraits of their dead sons (the idea belonged to the director Yulia Sinelnikova) took place in the Rostov Oblast.[2] In the post-Soviet years, similar events took place both in Russia and in a number of other countries. In Jerusalem in 1999, citizens took to the streets portraits of soldiers on Victory Day. In 2007, the Chairman of the Council of Veterans of the Tyumen Region Gennady Ivanov, concieved a parade of citizens holding pictures in a procession[3][4][5], with him gaining the idea of organizing a "Parade of Victors", in which people with portraits of their front-line relatives walked along the main Tyumen street.[6][7] The initiative, at the call of Gennady Ivanov, was taken up by other regions of Russia, and two years later the "Parade of Winners" took place in Kazan, Kemerovo, and about 20 regions.

In 2010, on the initiative of the Deputy Mayor of Moscow Lyudmila Shvetsova, a procession with photographs of veterans first took place in the capital.

In 2011, journalists Sergey Lapenkov, Sergey Kolotovkin and Igor Dmitriev noticed that fewer and fewer veterans took part in street processions on Victory Day. In the spirit of the holiday, they built on this idea and created an official organization. 9 May 2012 became the birth date of the movement in its modern form.[8] A column of city residents passed through the streets of Tomsk, who carried placards with photographs of their relatives who fought in the Great Patriotic War. The rally, called the Immortal Regiment, was attended by more than six thousand people who carried more than two thousand portraits of war participants.[9]

Since it was concieved in 2007, the initiative has been met with unprecedented support. Coverage in regional and federal Media has led to the popularity of the idea proposed by the creators of the action, has increased dramatically. After May 2012, a community of coordinators from different cities and countries began to take shape around Tomsk. In December 2012, representatives of more than 15 cities of Russia expressed a desire to organize an action. By February 2013, the number of cities had grown to 30[10][11] and was also expanded to four countries (Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Israel).[10][12]

Since it was introduced in 2012, it has been conducted in cities such as Moscow, Washington D.C., Dushanbe, Berlin, and Yekaterinburg. By 2015 it had received national status. The Immortal Regiment therefore has become one of the most important elements of the celebrations of Victory Day in Russia. In 2015, the "Immortal Regiment" was held in 1150 settlements of 17 countries[13], and 42 countries in 2016. In 2015, Moscow organizers proposed a march of the Immortal Regiment on the Red Square. To obtain the necessary permission, a corresponding request was sent to the President of the Russian Federation on behalf of three public organizations: the Immortal Regiment - Moscow, the All-Russian Popular Front and the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. On 9 May 2015, the event took place for the first time on the Red Square, immediately after the 2015 Moscow Victory Day Parade in honor of the 70th anniversary.[14] The intention to participate in the procession was expressed by more than 150 thousand people.[15][16] According to the Moscow Police, more than 50 thousand people took part in it, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. The procession column passed from Belorusskaya Square to the Kremlin and completed the procession on Moskvoretskaya Embankment.[17] The procession cost the state budget about 7,000,000 Russian rubles.[18]

•  Armenia – The event took place for the first time in this country in 2016. It is organized jointly by the Armenian Immortal Regiment NGO will and the Ministry of Defense. It usually begins at the Aram Khachaturian statue in Yerevan and aside from honoring the memory of the Armenians who served in the Second World War and the home front laborers of the republic during this period, also honors those who fell in the Artsakh War and the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh clashes.[30]
•  Azerbaijan – The event took place for the first time in this country in 2015.
•  Belarus – The event took place in the country from 2012 to 2018.
•  Estonia – The event took place for the first time in this country in 2015.
•  Georgia – The event took place for the first time in this country in 2016.
•  Kazakhstan – The event took place for the first time in this country in 2013.
•  Kyrgyzstan – The event took place for the first time in this country in 2013.
•  Latvia – The event took place for the first time in this country in 2015. Although Latvia does not officially recognize 9 May, the large Russian community holds the procession as the main event near the Victory Memorial to Soviet Army in Riga.[31][32]
•  Lithuania – The event took place for the first time in this country in 2016.
•  Moldova – The event took place for the first time in this country in 2016. On 15 April 2020, President Igor Dodon ordered the postponement of the diamond jubilee Victory Day celebrations, which included the Immortal Regiment march, to Liberation Day due to the coronavirus pandemic in Moldova.[33][34]
•  Tajikistan – The event took place for the first time in this country in 2016. In 2017, Tajik authorities decided not to go ahead the march due to security concerns and "Islamic traditions that do not approve of the public display of pictures of deceased people".[35]
•  Turkmenistan – The event took place for the first time in this country in 2016. In 2020, the Immortal Regiment took place at the Joint Turkmen-Russian Secondary School[36] and at a military parade that was held at a square in front of the Halk Hakydasy Memorial Complex in the capital of Ashgabat. The procession was led by a cadet of the Berdimuhamed Annayev 1st Specialized Military School carrying a portrait of Berdinuhamed Annayev (the grandfather of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow).[37][38]
•  Ukraine – The event took place in the country from 2012 to 2014. During the celebrations of the Victory Day over Nazism in World War II in Ukraine, the annual Immortal Regiment march is frequently disrupted by nationalists waving flags of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. One year, those who took part in the march counteracted the nationalist opposition, chanting "Fascism will not pass" before laying flowers at the Eternal Flame.[39] In 2017, President Petro Poroshenko described it as an example of a "highly sophisticated political speculation and manipulation by people’s feelings".[40]
•  Uzbekistan – The event took place for the first time in this country in 2016. The authorities of Uzbekistan refused to hold the rally in 2017.[41]

The procession in Donetsk, 2016.

•  Abkhazia – The event took place for the first time here in 2014.
•  Donetsk People's Republic – The event took place for the first time here in 2015. Portraits of participants in the War in Donbass, including deceased militant leaders Mikhail Tolstykh and Arsen Pavlov, have also participated in the procession.[42]
•  Luhansk People's Republic – The event took place for the first time here in 2015.
•  Transnistria – The event took place for the first time here in 2013.
•  South Ossetia – The event took place for the first time here in 2013. The Immortal Regiment in South Ossetia takes place in two stages: photographs of soldiers of the Great Patriotic War, followed by portraits of South Ossetian and Russian soldiers who died in the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War and the Russo-Georgian War.[43]

The Regiment at the Monument to the Soviet Army in Sofia in 2019.

The procession is also done in the following countries:

Many of the traditions and customs in Israel during Victory in Europe Day are the same as in Russia, with Immortal Regiment marches being held in cities with large populations of Red Army veterans and their descendants.

At the end of summer and autumn of 2018, various Left-wing forces organized the "Shameful Regiment" marches, on which photographs of prominent political figures who supported raising the retirement age.[55][56] It took place as part of the 2018 Russian pension protests.