Happy National Unity Day

Today, November 4th, is a huge holiday here in Russia: National Unity Day. The day is similar to the Fourth of July in the US, as it celebrates the Russian victory over the Polish which lead to the unification of Russia as a state. The holiday was celebrated from 1613 until 1916. However, in 1917, following the Bolshevik Revolution, the holiday was abandoned and replaced on November 7th by the Day of Accord and Conciliation (which celebrated the Bolshevik Revolution instead). The Great October Socialist Revolution (another name for the Bolshevik Revolution) was celebrated as a national holiday until 2005 when President Vladimir Putin eliminated it and reinstated National Unity Day on November 4th. We are told that there are groups throughout Russia that still celebrate November 7th, but they are a minority.

The day is particularly important here in Nizhny Novgorod because the cavalry of troops that came to Moscow and defeated the Polish originated in Nizhny Novgorod. If any of you have ever been to the Red Square in Moscow, you surely saw this monument in front of St. Basil's Cathedral (we took this picture last time we were here in Russia).

When we saw this monument we really didn't understand what it stood for, as the plaque is written in Russian. However, last weekend while touring the city with our translator we learned that it was a monument to Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. Minin was a common merchant from Nizhny who was called upon to arm and organize the volunteer forces that would march to Moscow. During the battle he was Prince Pozharsky's "right-hand man." Prince Pozharsky was the man who actually lead the troops in the liberation battle. When the monument was originally produced it was supposed to lie in the Kremlin here in Nizhny, but apparently Moscow requested it come to the capitol and reside in the Moscow Kremlin instead. Nizhny did not want to be deprived of the monument's beauty and significance, so an exact replica sits in front of a cathedral just outside of the Nizhny Kremlin's lower gates.

Late last week Jeff received an email alert from his company reminding us of the holiday weekend. It warned us that there would be large public gatherings and a lot of drinking. As in the US, any time you have the combination of drinking and large groups of people, there is a slight chance for criminal activity, so we were advised to shy away from the celebrations. However, we did walk to the grocery store during the afternoon and observed some of the interesting preparations for the evening's celebration. First, like Fourth of July in Chicago, many of the major streets were closed (and regulated by traffic police) to accommodate the increase in pedestrian traffic. Second, and I think most interesting, liquor was not being sold during the day. We are guessing this is to cut down on over indulgence and the violence that can often accompany it. We are not sure if this was city wide, or just at our grocery store which is near the Kremlin, but in any case the aisles of liquor were blocked off and all displays were covered in plastic wrap.

Later in the evening, as we were preparing to watch the Packer's game, Jeff and I started hearing extremely loud bangs outside of our hotel room. At first we figured it was just cars backfiring (that happens here ALL the time), but when we looked out our window we realized there was a huge fireworks display! Though we weren't out on the streets, we felt like we were part of the celebration, as we think they were being shot off just a few blocks from our hotel. We took a few pictures and the following video.