On February 23, Russia is marking the "Defender of the Fatherland Day" - a holiday honoring the military, which is also considered a "male" holiday, since the country still has general conscription.

The holiday was originally called "The Soviet Army and Navy Day" but after 1991, as the Soviet Union ceased to exist, the holiday was renamed. According to federal law it is now the "Day of Military Glory of Russia" (adopted by the Russian parliament in 1995), which sheds some light on its history.

The holiday was officially marked for the first time in 1922 when Leon Trotsky organized a military parade on Red Square to mark the fourth anniversary of the Red Army. Trotsky wanted to acknowledge the publishing of Vladimir Lenin's decree entitled "The Socialist fatherland is in danger!" which called for the urgent mobilization of Bolshevik militia as German forces quickly approached Petrograd (the name given to St. Petersburg during the First World War). In reality, Lenin signed decrees organizing the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and the Workers' and Peasants' Red Navy on January 28 and February 11 respectively, but February 23 fell on Sunday in 1922 and most likely Trotsky adjusted the reason to fit the more convenient weekend day.

As Trotsky fell from grace with Soviet authorities, his role in the foundation of the Red Army was rarely mentioned. Officially it was left that on February 23 Lenin published his decree and Bolshevik forces repelled a German attack on Petrograd.

However, many modern historians point out that it was Bolshevik's policy at the Brest-Litovsk peace talks that made the quick German advance possible. On February 10, 1918 the Russian delegation announced that the country was unilaterally pulling out of war, and on the next day the Bolshevik government ordered the demobilization of the military forces. Apparently, the Soviets leaders expected that Germany would soon be absorbed by own socialist revolution and pose no danger, but it didn't work out that way. On February 23 Germany forwarded to Russia its conditions for a peace treaty and on February 24 Lenin officially agreed to sign them on German terms. Still, Bolshevik forces did manage to stop the German advance and liberate Narva and Pskov, which can be considered the first major victories of the newborn socialist state.

Soviet Russia briefly had another holiday connected with its military forces. It was the Red Present Day - the Russia-wide collection of funds for the military forces that was ordered on January 9, 1919, but which later merged with the February 23 date.

Red Army Day became very popular in the thirties, but became even more important during the Great Patriotic War. As the nation was fighting Nazi Germany, authorities wanted to remind the military of its previous victory over German aggression. In 1946 the name of the holiday was change into Soviet Army and Navy Day, as it remained until 1995.

By Kirill Bessonov