United in rest: Russians to celebrate three-day weekend

03.11.2010, 17:07

Russia is getting back one of its holy shrines – a fresco icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker painted on the Kremlin’s Nikolskaya Tower about 500 years ago, and concealed from public eyes for the last 70 years.

04.11.2009, 09:05

Russia is celebrating the Day of National Unity. People all over the country are singing songs, dancing and flying big balloons in the air. Nationalists and anti-nationalists have staged marches in the capital.

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Published: 03 November, 2011, 20:31

Monument to Minin and Pozharsky at Red Square (RIA Novosti/Valeriy Shustov)

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TAGS: Russia, Holiday, Prime Time Russia, Anya Fedorova, Neil Harvey

Thursday has turned into Friday this week, as on November 4 Russians get a day off to celebrate National Day of Unity.

The public holiday was first marked in 2005, but it celebrates something much older: the liberation of the country from Polish and Lithuanian invaders in the 17th century.

During this difficult period, the Russian people united under the leadership of Dmitry Pozharsky and Kozma Minin. The two are now regarded as national heroes.

Celebrations will be held all around the country on November 4. A range of special events will be held at various Moscow parks, including Izmailovsky, Kolomenskoe, Sokolniki and Gorky.

There will also be plenty of political marches, both in Moscow and in the regions. On November 7, a large-scale march will go through the centre of Moscow. This marks the 70th anniversary of the first military parade in the city in 1941.

5,000 policemen will be on duty in the capital, while a number of roads in the centre will be closed.

If you join in the celebrations, it is a good idea to dress warm, as by the weekend temperatures are forecasted to drop to -7 degrees Celsius. Still, despite the freeze, forecasters do not predict any snow this week.

02.11, 23:03

As the New British Film Festival gets underway in Moscow, RT talked to British actor Luke Treadaway, who came to Moscow to present two movies at once.

Today: 21:26

As Siberian cranes have to fly over many danger zones every time they migrate, their numbers have taken quite a knock. Now the birds are receiving help from an unexpected quarter as an oil and gas producer aims to make up for any ecological damage.

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