November 04, 2014

Unity Day: Whose Unity?


Unity Day: Whose Unity?

As you read this, Russians are wrapping up a relaxing four-day weekend spanning the first four days of November. Rounding out this long weekend is the mysterious November 4 holiday “Day of People’s Unity” – but what exactly is it celebrating?

By all measures, the Day of People’s Unity (or simply Unity Day) is still a baby holiday. It was only instituted as a federal holiday in 2005, replacing the diplomatically named “Day of Accord and Conciliation,” the new, post-Soviet  name for the Anniversary of the October Revolution (celebrated throught the Soviet era on November 7). This way, instead of celebrating a revolution with a questionable legacy, the country got off work in honor of the liberation of Moscow in 1612, some significant part of which allegedly occurred on November 4. The change was suggested by the Interreligious Council of Russia in a petition to the Duma:

We believe that November 7, the day of Russia’s tragic division, did not become a day of accord and conciliation… [the subsequent events] led to the deaths of millions of our fellow citizens. The liberation of Moscow from foreign invaders in 1612, on the other hand, unified our people and put an end to the fratricidal bloodshed.

Nearly everyone in the Duma voted in favor of the change – except the Communists. This prompted an alternative interpretation of the holiday’s provenance:

A long time ago, in the dark depths of the President’s administration, teeming with creatures too hideous even for horror films, this strange holiday, the Day of People’s Unity, was invented. They invented it, by the way, to rid our fellow citizens of the habit of celebrating the Great October Socialist Revolution anniversary with excessive drink, and to thereby diminish the Communist Party’s influence. (Ivan Davydov, Slon.ru [ru])

Politics of the change aside, what really happened on November 4? After digging through the calendars and historical documents, a historian on Radio Ekho Moskva discovered that, at best, something happened on October 22, 1612 – the Russian volunteer army liberated Moscow’s Kitai-gorod, the last bastion before they could storm the Kremlin. In the Gregorian calendar that would have been November 1 (in the seventeenth century, the two calendars were not as far apart). The Kremlin itself was not liberated until four days later, October 26 (November 5). Thus our historian concludes:

So strictly speaking, on November 4, 2005 [the holiday’s first observance], we will be celebrating the anniversary of November 4, 1612, a day on which nothing of any significance occurred, nothing having to do with “the liberation of Moscow from Polish interventionists,” or “the end of the Dark Times.”

And even if the holiday was meant to reference the liberation of Kitai-gorod on October 22, the same historian makes a valid point:

In general, a phenomenon of social, political, and spiritual life, such as unity of the people, cannot be understood as having been achieved forever and henceforth frozen in its achievement. “Tying” it so tightly to a given date constitutes an assault on real historical facts. We believe that the not-so-significant events of October 22 (November 1), 1612, do not justify assigning this date such a lofty meaning. (Ekho Moskva, July 15, 2005 [ru])

But as Russians get ready to go back to work tomorrow, they give little thought to these historical and political considerations. In the wise words of a commenter on Davydov’s article, November 4, like November 7 before it, is “just that ‘holiday in November.’ ”

 

Photo credit: vseotkritki.ru

Translations: Eugenia Sokolskaya

You Might Also Like

Day of Accord and Reconciliation
  • November 07, 2000

Day of Accord and Reconciliation

Celebrated on November 7, this Russian holiday used to be called Revolution Day and was the most important holiday during the Soviet Era.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
How Russia Got That Way

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Moscow and Muscovites
November 26, 2013

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

Murder at the Dacha
July 01, 2013

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.

Driving Down Russia's Spine
June 01, 2016

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 

Life Stories
September 01, 2009

Life Stories

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.

White Magic
June 01, 2021

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas
October 01, 2013

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.

 
Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

Related Content

Eugenia Sokolskaya
Eugenia Sokolskaya
EUGENIA SOKOLSKAYA came to the United States from Russia when she was four. In addition to a normal public-school education, she also received extensive instruction in Russian literature, film, and history from her parents. She is now a graduate of Swarthmore College and a freelance translator. In 2011, she was short-listed for the Rossica Young Translators Award.
Day of Accord and Reconciliation
November 7, 2000
Day of Accord and Reconciliation

Celebrated on November 7, this Russian holiday used to be called Revolution Day and was the most important holiday during the Soviet Era.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955