Posted on 11/04/2005 9:24:19 AM PST by lizol
Russians Celebrate New National Holiday
By MIKE ECKEL, Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW - Russia celebrated a new national holiday Friday, although many people did not even know its name or what it stood for.
With the Kremlin trying to balance strong nostalgia for the Nov. 7 Soviet holiday marking the Bolshevik Revolution with efforts to inspire patriotism in the fractious and sprawling nation, President Vladimir Putin signed an order last year establishing the "Day of People's Unity," designed to commemorate Moscow's liberation from Polish invaders in 1612.
State-run TV led newscasts with explanations of the holiday and showed footage of people performing traditional music and dances, followed by broadcasts of classic Soviet-era films and children's cartoons showing folk traditions and fairy tales.
In central Moscow, about 500 people protesting illegal immigration marched along several streets, along with other right-wing political groups, Ekho Moskvy radio reported. Some participants chanted "No to Occupiers!" and "Throw Out the Occupiers!" the station reported.
Human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyevna lamented the fact that the anti-immigrant groups were being allowed to hold rallies on a holiday ostensibly intended for national unity.
"Recently, I've gotten the impression that Moscow, and federal, authorities are infected with xenophobia, or are afraid of these people or are trying to hoping to use them for their own purposes," she said in comments on Ekho Moskvy.
The Day of People's Unity is the second holiday set up to replace the Great October Socialist Revolution holiday, one of the Soviet Union's most important celebrations.
In 1996, President Boris Yeltsin re-christened the Bolshevik holiday, which was celebrated on Nov. 7 but took place in October under the old calendar in use during the 1917 revolution, as the Day of National Reconciliation and Accord.
In a poll conducted by the respected Levada Center, 63 percent of respondents opposed the decision to scrap the Nov. 7 holiday. When asked what holiday Russia would celebrate Friday, 51 percent did not know and only 8 percent referred to it by the correct name.
The Oct. 14-17 poll of 1,600 people nationwide had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
A Russian Orthodox Church leader earlier this week compared the holiday to Victory Day, the major holiday marking the World War II defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 a holiday many Russians see as the proudest moment in the nation's history.
"It is a day of victory, an undeservedly forgotten day of victory," Metropolitan Kirill told a news conference Wednesday. "Moscow was liberated."
The new holiday comes amid Kremlin efforts to strengthen patriotism, warning that separatism could tear the multiethnic country apart.
Ultranationalist demonstrators march in downtown Moscow, Friday, Nov. 4, 2005, to mark a new state holiday, the Day of People's Unity, designed to commemorate Moscow's liberation from Polish invaders in 1612. The banners read: Russians forward, bottom, Russia is against occupants, top. The small banners at right read: DPNI, the Russian acronym, which identifies one of the ultranationalist organizations, The movement against illegal immigration, which participates in the march. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
A monument commemorating the 2 leaders of the uprising - city elder Koz'ma Minin and Prince Dmitriy Pozharsliy. It was installed on Red Square before Kremlin in 1818 and actually was the first monument in Moscow. So, commemorating of freeing of Moscow isn't a recent one.
I think - on the first picture - he's just trying to cover his eyes from the bright sun with the right palm :-)))
I think this regime won't be a real threat to the world due to its technological lag, but it will still be a deadly threat to Russian people. The sad thing is that most of the educated and more civilized Russians seem not to realize the danger.
.... The result will be a full-blown "russo-fascist" regime.
Why didn't Russia become a "russo-fascist after the economic crisis in 1998?
Is Russia the only state in which there are ultra-national organisations?
I don't trust a Polish patriot giving advices to Russians. Most people are patriots of their countries, and are subject to double standards in favor of their countries.
Some people can overcome double standards, but I've never seen this from you.
Nothing personal, the Poles were just unlucky enough to get defeated close to the seventh of November, that's all...
Yeah--I heard about neo-Nazi march during this new official Russian holiday. It's a shame although as long as there were no riots, it was legal. Nevertheless, every society must watch extremist groups espousing violent ideologies. These groups easily can go from violent rhetoric to action.
Remember, remember, the Fourth of November...
Remember, remember, the fourth of November!
Oh, we do, next time we'll do it better :-)))
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Downsized Russian holiday
By CONSTANTINE PLESHAKOV
(...)
It is as difficult for a Russian to identify Poles as an invading force as it is for an American to see a colonial exploiter in a visiting British tourist. Furthermore, over the past 250 years Russia has invaded Poland several times and occupied it twice -- first in the days of the Romanovs and then during the reign of Stalin. Poland was able to liberate itself from Russia only 15 years ago, in 1989.
(...)
After all that you have done to us, the Poles are saying, you now call us invaders and celebrate victory over us as your national holiday? Hey, if you are looking to fill in a long weekend in the fall, how about a real invasion -- Napoleon's in 1812? By the way, the guy left the Kremlin in October -- so how about celebrating that?
Putin doesn't want to celebrate the victory over Napoleon because he covets French investments and political partnership with Paris. No matter how ridiculous the demonization of Poland is, it is easy.
It would have been nice to laugh Putin's nation-building scheme off by saying it belongs to the world of computer games, where you designate attributes to characters at random: First, I am the bad guy, then you are. But this year's celebration of the Day of People's Unity (that's the name Putin chose for his cyber holiday) has turned ugly. About a thousand young thugs went to the streets of Moscow chanting "Russians, rise up!" and "Moscow is not for foreigners!" They demanded expulsion of illegal immigrants from the city -- refugees from the impoverished Caucasus and Central Asia who had come to Moscow to sweep streets and build luxury condominiums.
The 85-year-long celebration of the 1917 revolution had failed to evoke the ghost of Stalin, but Putin's Day of People's Unity does resuscitate a mean wraith -- the one of nationalistic pogrom.
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