AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko
Russian soldiers in Red Army World War II uniforms sit in the back of a GAZ AA during the November 7 parade, with St. Basil Cathedral and the Spasskaya Tower in the background, in Red Square in Moscow, November 7, 2018.
When Soviet troops marched through Moscow on November 7, 1941, they were marking the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution that swept communists into power and led to the creation of the Soviet Union.
Those troops didn't stop in Moscow, however. They continued on to meet Nazi troops, whose leading elements were closing in on the Soviet capital after invading in June that year.
The November 7 parade has continued in the decades since. Under Russian President Vladimir Putin, the occasion has been used to mark the Soviet triumph in World War II more so than the October 1917 uprising - part of what has been called the Kremlin's selective remembrance of Russia's 20th-century history.
The victory that began at Moscow was significant. Rodric Braithwaite, the UK's ambassador in Moscow between 1988 and 1992, has said the "first defeat of the German army came in the Battle of Moscow in 1941."
Moscow's mayor on Wednesday called the 1941 parade "a symbol of courage and faith" that led to "the first difficult step toward victory over the Nazis."
Below, you can see how Russia marked the occasion this year.