Documents of Presidential Library tell history of celebration of Defender of Fatherland Day

Defender of the Fatherland Day will be celebrated in our country on February 23rd, 2025. This year's celebration is being held under the theme of Defender of the Fatherland, which was declared by the President of the Russian Federation to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War and to honor veterans. The event aims to preserve historical memory and express gratitude for the sacrifice and heroism of those who fought in the war and in recent conflicts.

The military's official holiday, which has national significance, was established in 1993. On February 8, 1993, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation passed a resolution titled On the Establishment of a Significant Day in the Russian Federation - Defenders of the Homeland Day, which states: In recognition of the historical tradition of honoring military service, and in light of the important socio-political importance of the existing practice of celebrating February 23 as a day for all defenders of the homeland.

In the USSR, February 23 was celebrated annually, but it was not officially recognized as a holiday. Soviet historians linked the celebration of this day to the events of 1918 when the Red Army and Red Navy were established.

The details of the history of this holiday can be found in the On this Day section of the Presidential Library website. On January 15, 1918 (January 28 in the Gregorian calendar), V.I. Lenin issued a decree establishing the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. Two days later, on January 29, 1918 (February 11 in the Gregorian calendar), the Workers' Red Navy was also established.

On February 22, 1918, the decree-proclamation of the Council of People's Commissars, "The Socialist Fatherland in Danger!", was published. On February 23, mass rallies were held in Petrograd and Moscow, calling workers to stand up for their country. This day marked the start of the mass entry of volunteers into the Red Army, leading to the formation of its units and detachments, which stopped the German advance near Pskov and Narva.

In 1920, the newspaper Pravda published an article celebrating the birthday of the Red Army. In 1921, a parade of Moscow's military troops took place on Red Square. In 1923, the Revolutionary Military Council issued an order honoring the Red Army Day and Navy Day for the first time. Since then, this holiday has been celebrated with congratulatory orders.

After the Great Patriotic War, on February 23, festive artillery salutes, solemn meetings and meetings with veterans of the armed forces were held in Moscow and the capitals of the union republics, as well as in the hero cities and the heroic fortress of Brest. Flowers were also laid at the graves of the fallen soldiers.

On March 13, 1995, the President of the Russian Federation signed the Federal Law "On Days of Military Glory (Victory Days)" in Russia, which played a significant role in the country's history and earned Russian troops honor and respect from their contemporaries and grateful memory from their descendants. February 23 was added to this list as the Day of Victory of the Red Army over German Kaiser troops in 1918, also known as Defenders of the Fatherland Day. The current version of Federal Law No. 32, "On Days of Military Glory and Important Dates in Russia," celebrates Defender of the Fatherland Day on February 23.

Despite the Soviet origins of the holiday, this day is also a time to remember the many victories of Russian arms in different years and centuries, and the famous commanders who have brought glory to Russia. The Presidential Library houses collections dedicated to St. Prince Alexander Nevsky (1221-1263), Generalissimo A.V. Suvorov (1730-1800), General M. D. Skobelev (1843-1882), as well as the Patriotic War of 1812, the Crimean War (1853-1856), and the First World War (1914-1918), and the history of the Russian army.

The rich history of glorious Russian military victories is presented in the Presidential Library's electronic collection Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. The collection includes decrees, military regulations, and research on the creation of the Red Army and its participation in military actions, among other materials.

The collection of digitized archival documents, film, and photographic materials titled World War II in Archival Documents is available on the Presidential Library's portal. To date, the volume of the Collection is over 15 thousand materials: maps, diagrams, periodicals, photographs, newsreels for the period from January 1933 to February 1945.

In accordance with the List of instructions for the implementation of the Address of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation dated January 15, 2020, the organizers of the Collection of Digitized Archival Documents, Film and Photo Materials World War II in Archival Documents are the Federal Archival Agency (Rosarkhiv), the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation and the Presidential Library.

The Collection is carried out by Rosarkhiv and federal state archives with the participation of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, the state archives of Belarus and others.

Archival documents of the Collection World War II in Archival Documents are available from anywhere in the world thanks to the Presidential Library’s portal.