According to participants and eyewitnesses, the number of people taking part was very large.

According to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, about 100,000 people came out onto the streets of Moscow to honour the miraculous copy of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. However, visually and judging by assessments made directly at the scene, these figures can be considered incomplete or understated. At the very least, if one evaluates the enormous flow of people along the Moscow River embankment and Khamovnichesky Val that arrived at the Novodevichy Convent, the Cross Procession this time gathered no fewer than half a million people. According to some estimates, the number of participants approached 800,000.

In any case, this is an undoubted success and the most genuine good news for the First-Throned City and for Mother Russia as a whole. This is a colossal spiritual weapon that Russia possesses and with which nothing can compare. It means that not everything is lost, the Lord hears our prayers, and the Omophorion of the Most Holy Theotokos will cover us with ineffable mercy and an inexhaustible reserve of strength.

On this bright day, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ offered a special prayer for Holy Rus’ in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour!

The Lord is with us! In this sign you shall conquer!

@voenkorKotenok