List of German standards at the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945

At the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany, there were a total of 201 German military standards and colours, majority being from the Wehrmacht. Carried by a battalion of Soviet soldiers from the Separate Operational Purpose Division of the NKVD, they were thrown to the steps of Lenin's Mausoleum under drumroll during the march past of the ground column. Around twenty standards at the parade were not Nazi and belonged to previous German units (in 1944 Adolf Hitler ordered to move all military unit standards to museums to prevent their capture in a battle).[1] All the rest were made in 1935.[2] Among them was the standard staff of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH); its banner had been found separately and was not brought to the parade.[3] The staff was carried in a prominent place on the right of the front rank of the first column of soldiers.[4] It has been incorrectly called Hitler's personal standard which went missing during the war.[5] After the parade additional color shots were made showing the flags of various Nazi organizations being thrown to the ground. The shots were added to the official video of the parade.

Soldiers carrying German standards at the parade

The LSSAH standard staff at the parade (first from left)

The standards were selected from a pool of about 900 standards shipped to Moscow from Berlin and Dresden.[3] Some of them were collected by SMERSH trophy teams in May 1945 and some were taken from museums.[5] The show of contempt to the standards at the parade was proposed by Joseph Stalin, stemming from the old custom of "disdain not for the enemy, but for his defied military distinctions" in the troops of Alexander Suvorov.[5] In order to not touch the standards themselves the soldiers wore gloves. The following list is based on the list of standards approved by Colonel Peredelsky on 21 June 1945. It includes 138 battalion, 36 Division and 26 regimental standards.[6] The standard staff of LSSAH was approved separately from the list.[3] All standards are now housed in the Central Armed Forces Museum of Moscow.