MOSCOW (Reuters) - Thousands of Russian servicemen dressed in historical uniforms marched through Moscow’s Red Square on Monday to mark the 75th anniversary of the 1941 parade when Soviet soldiers headed to the front lines of World War Two.

Alongside tanks and waving flags, the soldiers wearing 1940s uniforms re-enacted the historic parade, watched by some World War Two veterans. Russia’s TASS news agency said around 5,000 people were taking part in the march.

Russian World War Two veteran Ivan Bushmin, 89, came to Red Square to recall the 1941 march.

“That parade was something special. We went straight to the frontlines from that parade,” he said.

At that point in the war, the attacking German forces were only a few dozen kilometers to the west and the parade was part of the then Soviet Union’s fierce and finally successful defense of the capital Moscow.

Pavel, 86, who watched the military marching through Moscow’s center, said such re-enactions remind younger generation of the war.

“Why do we do this?” he said. “So that they remember our fathers and grandfathers defended our homeland from fascist Germany, which treacherously attacked our homeland.”