Since 2005 Russia has celebrated a new holiday - the so-called Day of National Unity, commemorating the anniversary of the Russian people’s victory over the Polish invaders back in 1612.

Almost four centuries back in early November the Russian levy en masse headed by merchant Minin and Prince Pozharsky kicked the invaders away from Moscow and put an end to the so-called Time of Troubles.

In fact the new holiday was introduced to replace the public holiday of the October Social Revolution, later renamed into the Day of Accord and Reconciliation on November 7. According to the majority of observers, the main reason for this shift of the day off was the intention to erase totally any associations with the anniversary of the October Social Revolution (7 November 1917).