Presidential Library dedicated to National Unity Day

November 4, 2025, is National Unity Day in Russia. This public holiday was established 20 years ago, in 2005, after the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted amendments to the Federal Law "On Days of Military Glory (Victory Days) of Russia."

The holiday is dedicated to the historical events of 1612. More details about this period can be found in the collection Overcoming the Time of Troubles in Russia on the Presidential Library's portal.  Another collection is dedicated to the participants of the Second People's Militia – Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, under whose leadership Moscow was liberated from Polish invaders in 1612.

Kuzma Minin, the head of the Nizhny Novgorod zemstvo, played a big part in getting this popular movement going.  He persuaded the people of Nizhny Novgorod to organize a new militia to "help the Muscovite state" and to start collecting money to liberate the capital from its enemies. Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, who was recovering from a serious injury at his family estate in Yurino near Nizhny Novgorod at the time, was chosen as the commander of the militia. The prince was in the service of Tsar Vasily Shuisky and was wounded during a battle with the Poles as part of the First People's Militia, which failed to liberate Moscow.

Soldiers led by Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky set out from Nizhny Novgorod at the end of February 1612. After a four-month delay in Yaroslavl, the militia formed the "Council of All Lands," which included members of the Nizhny Novgorod city council, members of noble princely families, and representatives of other cities. The council acted as a temporary government. After a series of bloody battles in early September 1612, most of Moscow and the surrounding areas were liberated, and in early November, Kitay-gorod was taken by storm. This marked the complete victory of the Second Militia, which drove the Polish-Lithuanian invaders out of Moscow.

On October 22–26 (November 1–5), 1612, the Polish garrison of the Kremlin surrendered. It was decided to celebrate this momentous event with a religious procession, which took place on October 25 (November 4), 1612.

Electronic copies of monographs and documents on the Presidential Library portal describe events in Russia on the eve of the Time of Troubles – "that hour of misfortune, shame, and glory." Also presented are accounts by foreigners of events in Russia in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Separate materials have been collected on the history of the siege of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra (1608–1610).

The 1892 publication The Trinity Sergius Lavra in the Troubled Times of the Muscovite State in the Early 17th Century describes the siege of the monastery by "Polish people and Russian traitors," which lasted more than fifteen months. The defenders of the monastery fought the enemy with the name of Sergius on their lips. People died not only in battle, but also from terrible diseases. One of the "great disasters" was scurvy, which claimed fifty or even a hundred lives a day, and the defenders of the monastery began to lose heart. What to do? Die of scurvy or surrender the monastery to the enemy? But the survivors, strengthened by their faith, endured and overcame everything.

The collection includes publications about leaders of the people's militia and national heroes: Patriarch Hermogenes, Ivan Susanin, and events that unfolded in specific cities: Arkhangelsk, Smolensk, Veliky Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, Pskov, Yaroslavl, and others.

In January 1613, the Zemsky Sobor opened in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin to elect a new tsar. It was one of the most crowded and, according to historians, the first all-class council, which even included free peasants. From among the many candidates for the Russian throne, 16-year-old Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov (cousin of the last tsar of the Rurik dynasty, Fyodor Ioannovich (1557–1598)), a representative of the family that would subsequently rule Russia (or, more precisely, the Russian state) for over 300 years. These events are the subject of the section of the collection entitled Romanovs: The Coronation of a New Dynasty.

November 4 is a holiday of harmony and reconciliation, a day of national unity, thanks to which it became possible to expel foreign invaders from the capital of the Russian state. The members of the people's militia showed great heroism in the battles for Moscow, and their leaders showed great leadership skills, bravery, and the ability to make mutual concessions for the sake of saving the Fatherland.