Russia marks People’s Unity Day

Russia marks People’s Unity Day on Sunday, a national holiday to commemorate the 1612 expulsion of Polish invaders from Moscow by the volunteer army of Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin. Later in the day, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill is to perform divine service at the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow, an event that will see the much-revered Icon of the Mother of God of Kazan brought to the Cathedral. Also on Sunday, President Vladimir Putin will lay flowers at the monument to Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky on Moscow’s Red Square. The ceremony will be attended by the heads of the main four religious confessions of Russia.

This year celebrations of National Unity Day in Russia are going to be particularly solemn as Sunday will mark 400 years since the liberation of Moscow from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1612.

That period of Russian history is known as the Time of Trouble, when the country was on the brink of collapse. The nation, however, found strength to unite and defend its independence. To commemorate the events a new state holiday was established in Russia in 2005- National Unity Day.

There are two monuments on Red Square in Moscow symbolizing the victory over Polish invaders: the Monument to Minin and Pozharsky and Kazan Cathedral. A recent survey by VTSIOM (Russia`s Public Opinion Research Center) shows that fifty percent of the respondents do not know what is celebrated on November 4.