Conscripts open a new season of guard mounting in Kremlin

The sixth changing of the guard season for foot sentries and mounted sentries of the Presidential Regiment (Kremlin Regiment) opened on Cathedral Square at the Moscow Kremlin on Saturday, April 17. Conscript foot sentries were entrusted to take part in the ceremony for the first time.
 The soldiers rehearsed each detail of the ceremony so many times, it became automatic. At the stroke of noon, the Kremlin Regiment’s company of special guards enters Cathedral Square under the chime of the Kremlin clock and the sounds of the march. Then Russia’s state flag is marched in, and horsemen of the honorary cavalry bodyguard demonstrate marching drills with arms and a “cavalry carrousel.”
Soldiers in this ceremony demonstrate their ability to perform with arms in step with each other.  The guard uses the SKS (the Simonov self-loading carbine). A salvo fired into the sky has become the climax of this year’s changing of the guard.
The ceremony was choreographed by a group from the Presidential Protocol Administration, Heraldic Council, Federal Guard Service and the Kremlin commandant. The organizers carefully considered Russian army tradition: they studied military regulations, starting with the Articles of War from Peter the Great’s reign.
The changing of the guard ceremony of the Kremlin Guard for the first time in the history of new Russia took place in April 2005. This year it will take place at 12:00 am each Saturday on the Kremlin’s Cathedral Square and at 14:00 on the last Saturday of each month on the Red Square.