Moscow Parade Marks Date of WWII Victory

The Soviet Union proudly paraded its military might through Red Square today, marking the 45th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany as Kremlin leaders grapple with the reunification of their former foe.

World War II veterans with red ribbons on their suits accompanied some of the tanks and artillery they fought with from Moscow to Berlin during the 30-minute march past President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and the rest of the Soviet leadership standing atop Lenin’s Mausoleum.

The atmosphere was very different from the May Day parade May 1, when thousands of loudly critical protesters poured through Red Square in front of Gorbachev, who walked off the tribunal with other Soviet leaders.

Defense Minister Dmitri T. Yazov, who commanded a World War II rifle regiment, today credited Gorbachev’s “new thinking” with lowering the tension in Europe, divided between East and West after the war.

“At the same time, positive changes have not yet become irreversible,” he said in his orders for the parade. “Military danger still exists in the world.”

The celebration of Victory Day comes as Eastern European countries, freed by Gorbachev’s reforms, are struggling to re-establish democratic rule and rebuild their economies after four decades of subservience to Moscow.

Soviet leaders are also facing secessionist movements in different republics, and these tensions were reflected during Victory Day parades in the Baltic republics of Latvia and Lithuania.

In Riga, the Latvian capital, 5,000 people who oppose the secessionist movements in the Baltics turned the Victory Day parade into a rally against Latvia’s declaration of independence last Friday.

Lt. Gen. Oleg Zinchenko, head of the political directorate of the Baltic Military Region, which includes Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, told the rally that the military wants the Kremlin to intervene in the three republics.

Radio Vilnius reported that there were no confrontations between backers and opponents of Lithuania’s March 11 declaration of independence during a military parade through the Lithuanian capital.

But a Lithuanian radio editor said that 200 young people shouted, “Occupiers, go home!” at war veterans as they marched down a Vilnius street and that paratroopers prevented the demonstrators from blocking the path of the marchers.

In the Moscow parade, the Soviets drove five new pieces of military hardware through Red Square, including their latest tank, a T-80 variant known to the West as the Soviet Medium Tank 1989, for the year it entered service, said a NATO military officer who attended the parade.