The Immortal Regiment is a massive civil event in major cities in Russia and around the world every 9 May during the Victory Day celebrations. It is also a public non-profit organization, created in Russia on a voluntary basis with the aim of "immortalizing" the memory of home front workers, armed forces service personnel, partisans, personnel of resistance organizations, and personnel of law enforcement and emergency services. It involves people carrying on the memory of war veterans, with participants carrying pictures of relatives and/or family friends who served in the country's labor sector, paramilitary units, the Soviet Armed Forces and law enforcement organizations during the Second World War.
Local residents in Saint Petersburg take part in the 2016 Immortal Regiment, carrying portraits of their ancestors who fought in the "Great Patriotic War"
2018 Immortal Regiment participants march with a Soviet Victory Banner in Saint Petersburg
2017 Immortal Regiment in Kaliningrad
The 2016 procession in Maykop, the capital city of the Russian Republic of Adygea
Victory Day is a holiday that commemorates the Soviet Union victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. It was first inaugurated in the 15 republics of the Soviet Union following the signing of the German Instrument of Surrender late in the evening on 8 May 1945. The Soviet government announced the victory early on 9 May after the signing ceremony in Berlin. Although the official inauguration occurred in 1945, the holiday became a non-labor day only in 1965.
Victory Day celebrations in Moscow, 9 May 2005
Marshal Zhukov reading the German capitulation. Seated on his right is Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder.
Field-Marshal Keitel signing the ratified surrender terms for the German military
People in Saint Petersburg at the Immortal Regiment, carrying portraits of their ancestors who fought in the Great Patriotic War (World War II).