History of the Day of National Unity revealed in the Presidential Library materials

To mark the Day of People’s Unity, celebrated on November 4, the Presidential Library published on its website rare books and historical documents related to the liberation of Russia from the invaders and overcoming the Troubles.

At the turn of the 16th – 17th centuries Russia had a difficult internal political situation. Dynastic crisis caused by the death of the last representative of the kin of Rurik; hunger, caused by a succession of lean years’ the peasant uprisings; the Polish-Swedish intervention - all of this had led to a civil war, which prejudiced the very existence of the Russian state. "The troubles ravaged the country completely, upset everybody’s routine, put the end to all the affairs," describes E. F. Volkova these difficult times in the historical sketch, "Kozma Minin and Prince D. Pozharsky."

When a significant part of the country was captured by the interventionists and the First militia collapsed, the center of patriotic forces moved to Nizhny Novgorod. It was there that in September 1611, Zemsky headman Kozma Minin appealed to his townsmen, urging them to raise funds and create a militia for national liberation. "After voluntary donations to the fighting men, Nizhny Novgorod residents established a special tax on military necessities. Taxes were very large, but they did not stop the valiant Nizhny Novgorod people," says the book of Platon Zhukovich, "The Time of Troubles and the accession of the Romanovs."

During the overcoming of Troubles, the strength of the Orthodox Church, its saints was of great importance. A feat of Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Hermogenes, who, having become a prisoner of the Poles, in 1612 was tortured by hunger in prison, went down in history. A feat of an ordinary peasant Ivan Susanin, who deliberately faced certain death, saving the life of the newly elected Tsar Mikhail Romanov, is also widely known. He carried the Poles deep into the impenetrable forest, where he was subjected to severe torture and killed.

October 22-26 (November 1-5), 1612 the long-awaited events important for the Russian people finally happened- the united militia led by Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky liberated Moscow from the Polish invaders. Only having joined forces, the militia managed to win the Kremlin and Kitay-gorod. "All Moscow rose as one man. The position of the Poles with the arrival of new Russian troops became desperate," says the book of E. F. Volkova, "Kozma Minin and Prince D. Pozharsky." October 22, militia stormed Kitay-gorod and then liberated the Kremlin. A rare book of S. P. Izvolsky, "Citizen Minin and Prince Pozharsky, liberators of Moscow and the Fatherland in 1612," published in 1867, says: "On October 22, when the sun was rising, the two Polish regiments came out of the Kremlin and surrendered to the Russians."

The event was celebrated by a solemn religious procession, which took place on October 25 (November 4), 1612. That's how it was, “The procession was headed by the clergy of the Trinity Lavra: Archimandrite Dionysios, cellarer Abraham and others, and following them in orderly rows, with flowing banners, with cries of joy of victory went the army, and this entire solemn procession entered the Kremlin through the Spassky Gate. On the faces of the winners of the Poles and liberators of the Russian kingdom there was unfeigned joy - they had performed their duty and kept the vow to liberate the kind fatherland.”  

This is a description of the event given in the book, "Citizen Minin and Prince Pozharsky, liberators of Moscow and the Fatherland in 1612." That is why the date of celebration of the National Unity Day was chosen the 4^th of November. This is a celebration of accord and reconciliation, the Day of People’s Unity, which made it possible to expulse foreign invaders from the capital of the Russian state.

In February 1613, Zemsky Sobor elected Mikhail Romanov to the throne. "Burnt by the storms of the Time of Troubles, the Russian people were ready to grasp this idea and believe that the election of the tsar, who was related to the previous dynasty, would save the Russian land from the new storm," says the book "The Time of Troubles and the accession of the Romanovs."  

The Presidential Library website also provides access to historical documents from the Time of Troubles. Among the materials there are acts of 1606, relating to the internal state of the state, the records on the elections to the throne, decrees, letters of grant. More detailed information about that historic period and the events of the time are available in the collection, "Overcoming of the Time of Troubles in Russia."