On December 26th, 1991 the Soviet Union was officially dissolved and the Russian Federation was established. This was followed by the proclamation of June 12th as an official holiday by the Supreme Soviet of Russia in 1992 and was called Russian Independence Day. In 2002, it was renamed Russia Day because there was some confusion by Russian citizens over the name and whom Russia had gained independence.
Although this day is an official Russian holiday, many Russian citizens are still somewhat ambivalent towards the holiday. In a recent poll, only about 1 in 5 Russian citizens consider this day to have significant symbolic meaning and most view this day as simply an excuse to have a day off from work and to have a little bit of fun.
Since this day essentially is a remembrance of when the Soviet Union fell, many Russians view this day with some animosity. However, that doesn’t mean Russian Day isn’t without its traditions or celebrations. For instance, there are many track and field events that are held right outside the Kremlin on this day.
- By area, Russia is the largest country in the world. It has a total area of over 17,075,400 square kilometers.
- Russia covers more than 1/9th of the Earth’s land area.
- Russia is 1.8-times larger than the U.S.
- In Russia, it’s considered to be bad luck to give an even amount of flowers to women.
- The Russian Olympic team arrived 12-days late to London for the games because they were still using the Julian calendar.
- The deepest subway in the world is the Metro of St. Petersburg. It’s 100-meters deep.
- Russia has 25% of its territory in Europe and 75% of its territory in Asia. However, only 20% of its population lives in the Asian part of the country.