What is the date of the Independence Day of Russia, and what is the reason for this significant date?
The Independence Day of Russia is celebrated on June 12. Two variants of the name - Day of adoption of the Declaration on the state sovereignty of Russia and otherwise - the Day of Russia existed until 2002. In order to understand where this important national holiday came from, we will plunge into history and we will spend twenty years back in the severe nineties.
Declaration of Independence of Russia
On June 12, 1994, the first President of the Russian Federation Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin signed a special decree on this day, calling it the Day of the adoption of the Declaration on the State Sovereignty of Russia, which was signed four years earlier at one of the last congresses of People's Deputies of the RSFSR, The Soviet Union became independent. And that same day and year Russia found its first president.
The collapse of a huge country was perceived by people in different ways. Most of the population was in confusion and bewilderment. The people at all did not understand what would happen next, what should they do? They still looked up and expected something. Therefore, in the conditions of the then uncertainty, devastation and chaos in which all the former regions of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics stayed, the attempt to create a new, and even the most important, holiday of the country looked, to put it mildly, dubiously and clumsily. Newly-manifested citizens of Russia interpreted all the measures and announcements carried out by the new government in different ways. Most Russians believed that this is just another day off, when you can go out for a picnic or work at the dacha.
Such a disparaging attitude towards the state holiday, complete lack of understanding and unconsciousness of the importance of the date prompted in 1998 the President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin to make an attempt to popularize and attach significance to this significant date, proposing henceforth to call the day of June 12 the Day of Russia. But the official status of the Day of Russia was received on February 1, 2002, as soon as the new Labor Code was adopted.
Proclamation of Russia's Independence
Some confuse Russia's Independence Day and November 4 - Day of Military Glory. On November 4, 1612, Moscow was liberated from the Polish invaders, whose army consisted exclusively of German mercenaries. In that difficult year for Russia and the day, the all-Russian army of the Zemstvo, under the leadership of Minin and Pozharsky, drove the mercenaries out of the capital, carrying a list of the famous icon of the Kazan Mother of God, which allegedly helped win. These are just assumptions, but the fact remains - with the intervention of higher forces or not, the victory was won by the Russian army. But there was no question of any proclamation of independence - Russia was already a completely free state.
Independence Day of Russia
How do celebrate Russia's Independence Day? To begin with, on this day, the President of the Russian Federation, on the basis of custom already in place, awards the outstanding citizens of the country with State Prizes for the previous year. The festive ceremony continues with the reception at Cathedral Square. And by the evening on Red Square people are gathering, waiting for a festive concert, at which popular artists perform.