The Presidential Regiment had its last rehearsal today, Sergei Devyatov, Federal Bodyguard Service chief of PR, said to Novosti. Muscovites and visitors are welcome to see the ceremony next Saturday, he added.
The ceremony was previously held only on extraordinary festive occasions, such as a presidential inauguration or a V-E Day anniversary, May 9.
"What we have to do with here is revival of Russia's historical memory. You may call it the nation's visiting card," remarked Mr. Devyatov.
The guards will parade only in warm seasons, at least in the nearest future. All who buy Kremlin entrance tickets can see the regular pageant.
To last fifteen minutes, the noon ceremony starts as soon as the Kremlin chimes finish playing the national anthem. A company of the Guard of Honor and a cavalry regiment emerge in Cathedral Square to pipes and drums from the Arsenal. A parade follows, and regalia are taken out. The company demonstrates manual of arms, and the cavalry regiment a carrousel, all to military marches the Presidential Band is playing.
The pageant is all the more colorful with the uniforms-fruit of long and painstaking archive and museum studies, which bring together the best achievements of many centuries, said Mr. Devyatov.
Czarist Russia knew similar ceremonies. The Kremlin was a rare site for them. They were much more often held at the residences where the Emperor was at the time, usually in St. Petersburg or Petershoff in its environs.
The Soviet years saw ceremonial posting of sentries at the Lenin Mausoleum entrance close to the Kremlin Wall in Red Square. What was known as Post No. 1 was eventually revived, and shifted to the Unknown Soldier's Tomb in the Alexander Garden, which lines the Kremlin Wall to its other side.
