The Day of National Unity

This weekend Russian people celebrated the Day of National Unity. This day was established for memory of events in 1612 when the Home Guard headed by Kuzma Minin and Dmitriy Pozharskiy liberated Moscow from Polish interveners. At the 4 of November the Nizhniy Novgorod Zemstvo Home Guard stormed Kitay-gorod and expelled invaders with the help of miraculous icon of Our Lady of Kazan. That victory served as a great impuls for revival of Russian state. And the icon became a subject of special veneration. People believed that they won a victory because of the icon, so the prince Pozharskiy built the Kazan cathedral at the edge of Red Square by his own money. The king Alexey Mihaylovich established the 4 of November as an Our Lady gratitude day  for her help of the liberation from Polish interveners.

The Kazan cathedral in Moscow

This holiday is also associated with the end of time of Troubles. It is a period from the death of Ivan Grozny in 1584 to the accession to the throne by the first of Romanov in 1613. It was a period of dynastic crisis. The united Russian state divided in numerous areas, a lot of pretenders tryed to come to the throne, there were an ubiquitous robbery, plunder, stealing, bribery in that time. "Seven boyars" by the head of Fedor Mstislavsky wanted to see  the catholic prince Vladislav at the Russian throne therefore they let in the Kremlin a Polish army. But a patriarch Germogen called people to protect an orthodoxy and to expel a Polish interveners. That was done at the 4 of November. And now this day is a Day of National Unity.