Russia to mark National Unity Day - holiday of civil society Wed.

MOSCOW, November 4 (Itar-Tass) - Russia on Wednesday is marking the state holiday - National Unity Day. It is devoted to the heroic deed of people's militiamen headed by Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky who in 1612 liberated Moscow from Polish invaders.

This event put an end to the Time
of Troubles period and marked the beginning of building the Russian state.
Unity Day, Day of People's Unity (or National Unity Day) was
celebrated in Russian Empire until 1917 and in Russia from 2005. Held on
November 4 (October 26, Old Style), it commemorates the popular uprising,
which expelled the Polish-Lithuanian occupation force from Moscow in
November 1612, and more generally the end of the Time of Troubles and
foreign intervention in Russia in the Polish-Muscovite War (1605-1618).
Its name alludes to the idea that all the classes of Russian society
willingly united to preserve Russian statehood when its demise seemed
inevitable, even though there was neither Tsar nor Patriarch to guide
them. In 1613 tsar Mikhail Romanov instituted a holiday named Day of
Moscow's Liberation from Polish Invaders. The holiday, held in October,
was abandoned in 1917. November 4 is also the feast day for Our Lady of
Kazan, the holy icon which the Russian Orthodox Church probably venerates
most.
According to a recent poll, only 23 percent of Russians know the name
of the holiday, up from 8 percent in 2005. 22 percent identified the
holiday as the Day of Accord and Reconciliation, the name of the November
7 holiday in the 1990s. Only 4 percent knew that the holiday commemorates
the liberation of Moscow from Polish invaders, down from 5 percent in 2005.
President Vladimir Putin re-established the holiday in order to
replace the commemoration of the Bolshevik revolution, known as The Day of
Great October Socialist Revolution during Soviet period and as The Day of
Accord and Conciliation in post-Soviet times, which formally took place on
November 7. His decision angered some sections of the public, particularly
the communist party, who pressed on with celebrations on November 7.
Putin's predecessor, Boris Yeltsin took a limited action of changing the
name of the holiday; by completely removing it, Putin has sparked a
controversy that continues today.
There have been concerns about the manifestations of ultra-nationalism
during the celebrations of the National Unity Day. In November 2005 and
2006, rallies were held in Moscow at which demonstrators shouted "Russia
for Russians!," made neo-Nazi salutes, and held placards with swastikas,
anti-semitic and anti-immigration slogans. President Putin and the mayor
of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, have condemned such slogans and sentiments.
Taking in 2005 its legal place among the "red-letter days" it in
essence ousted the Great October Revolution holiday that had been marked
for almost a century, and turned into the "civil society holiday," as
Russia's current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin once said.
According to the established tradition, the parliamentary majority
party - United Russia that in 2004 was the initiator of the revival of
National Unity Day on Wednesday will organise numerous festivities in
Moscow and regions. For United Russia members, the same as for all
Russians, the holiday "has a special meaning symbolising the solidarity of
the people irrespective of origin, confession and status in the society,"
deputy head of the United Russia faction in the State Duma (lower house of
RF parliament) Vladimir Pekhtin said on the eve of the festivities. He
invited "all who are not indifferent to the future of Russia" to join the
festive meetings of United Russia, the central of which will be held on
Moscow's Poklonnaya Hill.
Member of the party's General Council, chairman of the education
committee of the Duma Grigory Balykhin expressed confidence in an
interview with Itar-Tass that National Unity Day "is already considered
generally recognised." "It takes some time for November 4 to become as
popular as November 7 had been," he is certain. "It is impossible to just
erase from memory November 7, the day that became for the older generation
a holiday of birth of the country, the Soviet Union," he noted. "But
already today, not only for United Russia members, but also for the
opposition, National Unity Day is a significant holiday - they (opponents)
cannot but realise that we will not advance further without uniting
efforts, and this is true not only for overcoming the crisis," believes
the parliamentarian.
Incidentally, the "opponents," namely the Liberal Democratic Party of
Russia (LDPR) will not stay aside from the festivities and intend to
gather up to 1,500 their supporters for a rally near the Pushkin Square.
The Communist Party (CPRF) will traditionally ignore the holiday on
Wednesday, as they prefer to mark another anniversary of the October
Revolution on November 7.
More than 40,000 policemen and military of the Russian Interior
Troops, including over 6,000 - in the Russian capital, will be on duty
ensuring law and order during the festive events all over the country on
November 4.
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.Medvedev to attend Pozharsky Chapel opening in Suzdal.

SUZDAL, November 4 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
will spend National Unity Day in Suzdal where he arrived on Tuesday
evening.
The RF head of state will attend an opening ceremony of a chapel in
honour of Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and will visit the Transfiguration
Cathedral of the Saint Euthymius Monastery.
The Saviour Monastery of Saint Euthymius is a monastery in Suzdal,
Russia. The monastery was founded in the 14th century, and grew in
importance in the 16th and 17th centuries after donations by Vasili III,
Ivan IV and the Pozharsky family, a noble dynasty of the region. Among the
buildings erected during this period were the Assumption Church, the bell
tower, the surrounding walls and towers, and the seven-domed Cathedral of
the Transfiguration of the Saviour. The cathedral was built in the style
of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir-Suzdal. Its interior contains restored
frescoes by the school of Gury Nikitin of Kostroma, dating from 1689. The
tomb of Dmitry Pozharsky lies by the cathedral wall.
Pozharsky is buried in a family vault of the Saint Euthymius
Monastery. In 1850, after visiting Suzdal Grand Dukes Nikolai Nikolayevich
and Mikhail Nikolayevich were unhappily surprised to see that the burial
place of the great commander liberator was forgotten. They made a donation
for the building of the monument to Pozharsky. In 1858, a voluntary
fundraising for the memorial headstone was announced all over the Russian
Empire. The construction of the chapel-mausoleum took almost a quarter of
a century - it was opened in June 1885.
However, in summer 1923 after the monastery was turned into a camp for
political opponents, the tombstones, including from the Pozharsky grave,
were removed.
In November 2007, Medvedev who then occupied the post of first vice
prime minister, approved the idea of the revival of the memorial. After
that a board of trustees was formed for the implementation of the project.
Patriarch of Moscow and All-Russia Alexy II made the first donation.
The memorial chapel is built from brick fronted with cast marble and
its carved decoration was fully reconstructed by drawings taken from the
archives. The chapel's bronze door with bas-relief and haut-relief was
made at workrooms of the Russian Academy of Arts. A copy of the Christ
Pantocrator mosaic icon is installed on its main frontispiece.
Suzdal is mentioned in the Primary Chronicle in 1024. At the beginning
of the 12th century Suzdal became the centre of the princedom. In 1967,
Suzdal was given the "city-museum" status and in 1978 UNESCO put the city'
s monuments on its World Heritage List.
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