Columns for the great mayday parade began forming early in the morning in Moscow on May 1, 1937. Tens of thousands of people streamed through the streets, searching for the marching groups from their factories, schools, government institutions, and cultural organizations. Bakhmutskii, a zealous party organizer from Dinamo, Moscow's foremost electric machine plant, was in charge of his factory's contingent. His eyes intently scanned the swelling crowd as he checked to see who was present and, more important, who was still missing. During the anniversary Revolution Day parade the previous November, some party members had arrived later than the workers, and shamefully, many of Dinamo's employees had not shown up at all. This time, Bakhmutskii would note who had stayed home. Along the great snaking throng, workers from Serp i Molot, a steel plant, Trekhgornaia Manufaktura, a textile factory, Krasnyi Proletarii, a machine-building factory, and Likerno-Vodochnyi, a distillery, among hundreds of other enterprises, could be seen forming up in jostling rows behind fluttering red banners. The wording on the banners, emblazoned in gold and black, had been composed by party leaders and disseminated first to the Central Committees of the republics, then through regional, city, and district committees to the party committees in the factories and other workplaces. Handmade signs, proudly lettered with heartfelt slogans, were nowhere to be found in this year's parade. The “official” slogans, published in the newspapers for all to read, had an ominous tone that seemed at odds with the celebratory holiday tradition:

1. “Strengthen Revolutionary Vigilance!”

2. “End Political Carelessness in Our Midst!”

3. “Unmask to the End Each and Every Double Dealer!”

4. “Destroy the Enemies of the People, the Japanese-German-Trotskyist Wreckers and Spies!”

5. “Death to Traitors to the Motherland!”