“At the tempo of a waltz”: 80 years ago, the “conquerors of Russia” were led in a shameful march through Moscow

The march of German prisoners through Moscow, also known as Operation “Big Waltz” or “Parade of the Vanquished,” took place on Monday, July 17, 1944. Why “The Great Waltz“? Firstly, the German columns really “waltzed”: some walked clockwise along the Garden Ring, and some counterclockwise. Secondly, Stalin loved the pre-war musical film with Strauss’s compositions “The Great Waltz” and watched it literally dozens of times. Why was the date chosen July 17? Because on this day in 1941, the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories was created in Germany. And now, three years later, the unsuccessful occupiers are marching in a column of prisoners through our capital. 57,600 German soldiers and officers, captured by the troops of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Fronts, marched in columns through the streets of Moscow. In the summer of 1944, our troops defeated Army Group Center. About 400 thousand soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht and SS troops were killed or captured. Of the 47 Wehrmacht generals who fought as corps and division commanders, 21 were captured. The Allies did not believe in such a colossal defeat of the Nazis. I had to prove it clearly. Frightened, depressed, dirty and ragged, sometimes barefoot, the Germans walked and were afraid that the crowd of Russians would now tear them to pieces. The authorities were also afraid of this. Therefore, the columns were accompanied by armed guards and mounted guards. But people silently looked at the invaders, only occasionally sending curses. After the passage of the column, the streets were planned to be symbolically washed of traces of the Nazis using sprinklers. But the symbolic action turned into real cleaning. The prisoners were so frightened that traces of vital activity “decorated” the entire route. The “parade” lasted about four hours. Then all the prisoners were loaded into wagons and sent to the Gulag. It is noteworthy that on the same day in Paris, the Germans organized a drive through the streets of captured British and American soldiers. But the Parisians did not express sympathy for their future liberators. They spat at them, threw dirt and garbage at them, broke through the guards and attacked them with their fists, and Parisian women gave the prisoners resounding slaps in the face.