Victory Day in St. Petersburg

I had no idea I had arrived to St. Petersburg on one of the most important days of the year here - Victory Day. The main streets of the city were all closed down for the parade and for the masses of pedestrains (some with flags, others with ribbons, many dressed in sexy pseudo-uniforms and non-sexy real uniforms) that took over the streets for the day. The whole city was draped in the red, white, and blue Russian colors, as well as the very red Soviet flag. It was a Soviet victory, not a Russian one, and I guess this was obvious and evident to everyone but me; I just couldn't stop staring at all of the red stars. I finally met Genya, my Russian pen pal, and his mom, Ira, (both really great) and the three of us walked among the crowds all day. Though Ira was born in Moldova, she spent most of her life in Russia, and unlike most Russian Jews you meet in the States, these are real Russian patriots. Ira says Russia gets a bad wrap, and explained to me that when Russia came into the Baltics it built up infrastructure and did lots of good. The Occupation Museums in every Baltic city I visited clearly disagree. They document atrocities commited by the two occupiers, Russia and Germany, after 22 years of Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian independence (these countries became independent in 1918, after the revolution, and then were taken over by Soviet forces before WWII). According to Genya and his mom, Ira, who come almost every year the number of veterans in the parade gets dramatically smaller and smaller each time. The veterans in the parade were divided into military sections - navy, army etc. - but there were also sections devoted to "Blockade Survivors", "Children of the Blockade", "Orphans of the Blockade"etc.

It felt like the war had just ended. This truck had a guy with a bullhorn hanging out the passenger side getting the crowd all pumped up about the victory, in that same voice you here on the radio clips from 1945.
The Communist party, strong as ever (almost). Lots of old people, but more young ones than I expected too.
According to what people have told me, drinking outside in Russia is illegal (UPDATE: I looked this up and it's actually legal to drink anything that has less than 9% alcohol by volume outside). I didn't see anyone over the age of about 12 without a beer bottle/can in their hands yesterday after the parade. The city's teens were splayed out along the river, many in this beautiful square of Isaac's Cathedral. Overlooking the crowd was the famous statue of Peter the Great on a horse up on its hind legs. His wife commissioned this monument, the first to be built upon his death.
When the whole city is trying to get smashed outside, the lines at the off-license places are out the door. Lines for the port-o-potties (at least there WERE port-o-potties) were even longer. Still, many men took the easy way out and peed right off of the sidewalks on main streets.