A participant in the first Victory Day Parade told about his meeting on May 9, 1945

Harold Kuznetsov, a participant in the first Victory Day Parade in Moscow, told Izvestia on May 9 how he met the news of the defeat of Nazi Germany in May 1945.

According to Kuznetsov, he was born in Donetsk. In 1941, the city was occupied until Soviet troops liberated it in 1943. After Kuznetsov graduated from the Orel Suvorov Military College.

"We went to bed in the barracks, Suvorovtsy, 3rd company. I slept peacefully. Two o'clock in the morning, Sergeant Oleinikov burst into the barracks, <...> chest decorated, a front-line soldier: "Company, wake up! Victory!" And that's it: pillows, blankets, sheets flew up, everything flew up. That's how we met the news of victory. Everyone has been waiting for this day," he said.

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On the same day, WWII veteran Alexei Koblev said that he met the Victory in 1945 happy and with tears in his eyes. He reported that he had arrived at the war in the autumn of 1944 as a tankman. Together with their colleagues, they repaired tanks in the field.