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Independence Day

Anton Krutikov
12 min readJun 12, 2023
Moscow, 12 June, 2023. Photo by the author

Every year on 12 June, the Russian Federation celebrates “Russia Day”, perhaps the most unpopular holiday in the country. It has been celebrated annually since 1992. The day commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) on 12 June 1990. The RSFSR officially proclaimed its “sovereignty,” allowing Russian leader Boris Yeltsin to later retain power at the cost of destroying the system of Soviet ideocracy.

It was the beginning of a new era in Soviet and Russian history, which predetermined the inevitability of the future collapse of the USSR. Many Russians refused to celebrate this holiday when it was introduced in 1992. For them it was the day when their leaders agreed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. For many ordinary Russians this day is just an extra day off and an opportunity to have a glass of cold beer or a barbecue party.

In this article, I will discuss the profound historical background to June 12 and what is really at the heart of the system of the modern Russian Federation.

“We are united”. Moscow, 12 June, 2023. Photo by the author

“Russian party”

The Russian Federation is a relatively young political phenomenon. Its current…

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Anton Krutikov
Anton Krutikov

Written by Anton Krutikov

Top writer in history and politics. Historian and political analyst based in London, UK.

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