Congratulate Russia with the National Unity Day!

On the eve of the National Unity Day, celebrated in Russia on November 4, the party “United Russia” holds the all-Russian action “How do you see the future of Russia?”. Everybody may congratulate the country with the holiday and outline its future – for that it is enough to send an SMS with the congratulation to the phone number +79258550281. The action starts today, November 2, and will last till 20 o’clock on November 4. All messages will be demonstrated on the special panel in the course of the festive meeting, which is to be held in Moscow in the National Unity Day, and on the official site of the party “United Russia”, www.er.ru reports.

The National Unity Day will be celebrated for the fifth time this year. The holiday was established in the memory about liberation of Moscow from Polish interventionists by the Russian Territorial Army in 1612. Historically this holiday is connected with the end of the Anxious Time in Russia in the XVII century. Under the Anxious Time the historians understand the events of nearly three decades from the death of Ivan the Terrible in 1584 and till 1613, when the first from the Romanoff’s dynasty – the Tsar Michael Fedorovitch had ascended the throne.

The idea to declare November 4 the National Unity Day was stated by the Inter-religious Council of Russia in September 2004. It was supported by the State Duma committee on labor and social policy. On September 29, 2004, the Patriarch of Moscow and Russia Alexei has publicly supported the initiative of Russian State Duma to declare November 4 the National Unity Day.

On November 23, 2004, the bill, which proposed to alter the Russian Labor Code: abolition of the celebration of November 7 – the anniversary of the October Revolution and December 12 – the Constitution Day and introduction of a new holiday – the national Unity Day, was introduced to State Duma. The bill has been passed in the first reading at the meeting of Russian State Duma. On December 27, 2004, the bill was passed in the third reading and thus has become the law.