Unity Day (Russia)

Unity Day, also called the National Unity Day (Russian: День народного единства, romanized: Denʹ narodnogo yedinstva) and the Day of People's Unity, is a <a href="/facts/Public_holidays_in_Russia/Xr1Wo3tV">national holiday in Russia</a> held on 4 November [<a href="/facts/Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates/kb3020Wy">O.S.</a> 22 October]. It commemorates the popular uprising which ended the <a href="/facts/Polish%25E2%2580%2593Lithuanian_occupation_of_Moscow/XTRcF2nW">Polish occupation of Moscow</a> in November 1612, and more generally the end of the <a href="/facts/Time_of_Troubles/Fsy8WErd">Time of Troubles</a> and turning point of the <a href="/facts/Polish%25E2%2580%2593Muscovite_War_(1605%25E2%2580%25931618)/94AvKrG1">Polish intervention in Russia</a>.
The day's name alludes to the idea that all classes of Russian society united to preserve Russian statehood when there was neither a <a href="/facts/Tsar/qTE59C0T">tsar</a> nor a <a href="/facts/Patriarch_of_Moscow_and_all_the_Rus%2527/p6ljc41N">patriarch</a> to guide them. In 1613 tsar <a href="/facts/Mikhail_Romanov/kn1NnMKD">Mikhail Romanov</a> instituted a holiday named Day of Moscow’s Liberation from Polish Invaders. It was celebrated in the <a href="/facts/Russian_Empire/hg1g5SpV">Russian Empire</a> until 1917, when it was replaced with <a href="/facts/October_Revolution_Day/eBcY7cjb">October Revolution Day</a>, a commemoration of the <a href="/facts/Russian_Revolution/kk1z6pnH">Russian Revolution</a>. Unity Day was reinstituted by the <a href="/facts/Russian_Federation/jfkCwyxn">Russian Federation</a> in 2005, when the events of the year 1612 have been celebrated instead of those of 1917 every 4 November since. The day is also the <a href="/facts/Feast_day/HIapcqYk">feast day</a> of the Russian Orthodox icon of <a href="/facts/Our_Lady_of_Kazan/alKqRgQK">Our Lady of Kazan</a>.

Unity Day (Russia) open-in-new

Unity Day (Russia)