National unity day

Friday, 30 October 2026

Dear students, we continue to inform you about holidays and culture in the Russian Federation.

National Unity Day is celebrated in Russia on November 4. It was established in 2004 and was first celebrated in 2005. From that moment on, the day is a day off.

National Unity Day was established in memory of the events of 1612, when the people's militia, led by zemstvo elder Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, liberated Moscow from the Polish invaders. It is believed that they were the ones who were able to unite and rally the population in order to liberate Russia from the invading Poles.

Historically, the holiday is associated with the end of the Time of Troubles in Russia in the 17th century. The Time of Troubles, the period from the death of Tsar Ivan the Terrible in 1584 to 1613, when the first of the Romanov dynasty reigned on the Russian throne, was an era of deep crisis of the Moscow state caused by the intersection of the royal dynasty of Rurikovich.