On October 20, 2018 the final Horse and Foot Ceremonial Guard Mounting of the season was held at Moscow’s Kremlin Cathedral Square.
The final ceremony featured participation of the Honor Guard and Cavalry Escort of the Presidential Regiment as well as the President’s Band. All these groups are regarded to be the hallmark of the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival as their brilliant performances highlight both its evening and daytime programs.
Held in Moscow’s Kremlin the Horse and Foot Ceremonial Guard Mounting is a stunning and spectacular ceremony weaving together different historical epochs of the Russian glorious army as well as showing deep rooted historical continuity of the country’s military traditions.
The nowadays Horse and Foot Ceremonial Guard Mounting was established in autumn of 2004. The new ceremony has been created in accordance with the
The 2018 ceremonial program has retained all the basic elements which have already become traditional. Thus, the traditional part of the ceremony has been based on dynamic regrouping of its participants performing special arms drills. Exceptional synchronization and preciseness of movements are crucial for brilliant performance of all ceremonial program elements.
Every year the military personnel taking part in the ceremony seek to take the audiences’ breath away by performing brand new elements. This year’s ceremonial program has been updated on the occasion of the Service of Moscow’s Kremlin Commandant and the President’s Band of the Service of Moscow’s Kremlin Commandant of the Federal Guard Service of Russia celebrating their 100th and 80th anniversaries, respectively.
This year the program of the Honor Guard has featured a new element called reverse. Arranged as a square of six columns with six people each the military personnel consequently, column per column, start flipping their arms spinning it one and a half turns first in counter and then in clockwise directions. The new arms drill with the touch of the domino visual effect allowed the reverse element becoming one of the highlights of this year’s program.
But the greatest hallmark of the Kremlin’s military personal has always been their unique ceremonial marching step. Three quarters of the marching guard are conscripts who have been serving in the Honor Guard since December 2017. The marching guard and the flag group include conscripts from 18 Russian regions including Barnaul, Vologda, Ekaterinburg, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Kaluga, Kaliningrad, Moscow and the Moscow Region, Nizhniy Novgorod, Penza, Perm, Ryazan, Samara, Tver, Ulyanovsk, Chelyabinsk and Yaroslavl. Yet the most difficult arm drills are performed by the military personnel serving in the Army under contract.
Performance of the Cavalry Escort of the Presidential Regiment is full of beautiful and extremely difficult elements of the horse mounting art featuring the so called horse carousel, eight, mill, candle and chain. The Cavalry Escort riders also perform arm drills with bladed weapons.
The whole Foot and Horse Ceremonial Guard Mounting is being held under the accompaniment of the President’s Band of the Service of Moscow’s Kremlin Commandant. On the occasion of the double jubilee Colonel Evgeniy Nikitin, Conductor of the band and Honored Artist of Russia, has composed a ceremonial counter march which is being performed during the flag group marching.
This year’s season three of the Foot and Horse Ceremonial Guard Mounting ceremonies have been held on Red Square.
Exceptional perfection of all the movements performed by the Presidential Regiment units strikes with its beauty and grandeur. Thus there is no wondering why thousands of people gather at Moscow’s Kremlin Cathedral Square to watch this breathtaking performance. The Foot and Horse Ceremonial Guard Mounting has become one of the hallmarks of Moscow’s Kremlin in recent years.
The ceremony is not a year round event. It is held annually during the warm time of the year (since April to October) on Saturdays at 12 o’clock at Moscow’s Kremlin Cathedral Square.
To have a look at the ceremony can anyone buying a ticket to visit the premises of the Moscow Kremlin State Historical and Cultural Museum and Heritage Site.
All in all 32 Foot and Horse Ceremonial Guard Mounting ceremonies of the Presidential Regiment were held in 2018.