 Joseph Stalin mentioned all these historical figures and events in his speech before the parade on 7 November 1941.“The war you are waging is a war of liberation,” Stalin exclaimed, “a just war.Let the manly images of our great ancestors—Alexander Nevsky, Dimitry Donskoy, Kuzma Minin, Dimitry Pozharsky, Alexander Suvorov and Mikhail Kutuzov—inspire you in this war!