Russia Dumps Communist Holiday

For more than 80 years, Russia had celebrated November 7 as the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution (the official Soviet name for the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917). However, after the fall of Communism in Russia, the holiday became controversial. In 1996, President Boris Yeltsin renamed the holiday as the Day of National Reconciliation and Accord. Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to dump the holiday altogether and replaced it with a national holiday on November 4 called the Day of People's Unity. This new holiday celebrates the Russian liberation from Polish occupation in 1612. November 4, 2005 was the first time this new holiday was celebrated.