Russians celebrated the holiday on November 4 under traditional slogans of support for the Northern Military District

National Unity Day, again celebrated on November 4 under the conditions of a special military operation (SVO), was held mainly under the usual slogans: its main theme, like a year ago, was support for SVO participants and members of their families. Current events surrounding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the related unrest in Dagestan had virtually no impact on the agenda of the celebrations, although they made adjustments to the holiday plans of the authorities of a number of North Caucasus regions.

For the third week now, the main news for Russians remains the Palestinian-Israeli conflict: in the latest poll by the Public Opinion Foundation, 31% of respondents named it the main event of the week, and 27% remembered the SVO. The Palestinian issue also entered the domestic Russian agenda in the form of anti-Jewish riots in Dagestan. Nevertheless, these changes had almost no effect on the plans for celebrating National Unity Day, and the central theme for the authorities and party members remained the Northern Military District.

Thus, “United Russia” organized more than a hundred events on November 4, the emphasis of which was on helping Northern Military District soldiers and members of their families, the party’s press service told Kommersant. For example, at the United Russia public support headquarters, as part of the “Russia is a United Family” campaign, souvenir sets were collected for needy families of military personnel and volunteers, a sports festival “Cup of Courage and Valor” was held in Ivanovo in memory of the participants of the Northern Military District, and in almost all regions volunteers collected humanitarian aid to be sent to the front.

For the party “A Just Russia – For Truth,” as its leader Sergei Mironov told Kommersant, the current holiday has acquired particular relevance, since “we are opposed by the entire collective West, which dreams of dismembering us and erasing Russia from the past and present.” . During their actions in different cities, the Socialist Revolutionaries also focused on the theme of the Northern Military District: they collected humanitarian aid and special equipment for fighters, visited military personnel in hospitals, and held themed car rallies.

The extreme importance of the SVO was also emphasized by LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky at a party rally in Moscow on November 4, saying that “our future depends” on the result of the special operation. At the same time, he called for “everything possible and impossible to do so that Russia again becomes a country with a large population, families where many children are born.” Only State Duma deputy Yaroslav Nilov remembered the new threats: according to him, Russia’s enemies are “trying to sow confusion using the interethnic and interreligious factor,” but they will not be able to “shake, quarrel and humiliate” the Russians.

The New People party did not have a centralized plan of events, and locally the holiday was celebrated “as they saw fit,” State Duma deputy Oleg Leonov told Kommersant. The party did not change anything in connection with the latest events: although the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the attempted pogrom against Jews in Dagestan are indeed being discussed, they did not significantly influence people’s moods, the deputy is sure.

Finally, the communists, who still do not agree with the abolition of the November 7 holiday, have a special position regarding National Unity Day. As Vladimir Kashin, deputy chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, explained to Kommersant, fellow party members do not ignore November 4, but put a purely religious meaning into it: “This is an Orthodox holiday, the day of the Kazan Mother of God, the patroness of our Russia for many centuries. We celebrate, but each in our own way.” According to Mr. Kashin, in connection with recent events, including in Dagestan, the topic of national unity has acquired particular relevance, and “we must clearly explain that only together we are strong.” Nevertheless, the main November holiday for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation remains November 7, when party members hold rallies and lay wreaths at the mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin.

In the regions, the most tense situation on the eve of November 4 was in Dagestan, where this year National Unity Day was celebrated without rallies and political actions. On the evening of November 3, the head of the region, Sergei Melikov, in his Telegram channel, reported on calls to “go out to protests, create riots, break the law” again on social networks and asked fellow countrymen “not to become obedient dolls in the hands of those who are responsible for the death of our guys in the zone special operations and children in Palestine.” The local Ministry of Internal Affairs denied information about the police switching to an enhanced duty regime from November 5, but some signs of strengthening were still observed on that day. For example, in Makhachkala, police and National Guard vehicles appeared, including paddy wagons, which stood on the roadsides and in parking lots along the main streets adjacent to the central square. However, on the evening of November 5, Mr. Melikov reported that “the Dagestanis did not fall for various types of appeals and spent the day off surrounded by family and friends, going about their daily affairs.”

As for the Palestinian topic, it was addressed primarily in mosques, where they prayed “for the Palestinians and for all Muslims.” In addition, the football match between Dynamo Makhachkala and Neftekhimik from Nizhnekamsk on November 5 began with a minute of silence “in memory of the innocent victims who died in Palestine.” Commenting on this action, Sergei Melikov said that it is precisely in such peaceful ways that we need to show “unity and solidarity with our brothers” in Palestine.

Among other regions, the Israeli theme directly influenced the celebration agenda only in Ingushetia. Its head, Mahmud-Ali Kalimatov, decided “in connection with the events in Palestine” to cancel all previously planned festive cultural events and limit himself to a ceremonial meeting. However, there were no big celebrations in the neighboring republics either: for example, in Karachay-Cherkessia, the presentation of presidential gratitude and state awards to residents was timed to coincide with the holiday, and in Kabardino-Balkaria, in fact, there was unofficial mourning due to the death of conductor Yuri Temirkanov, whose funeral A large delegation with the head of the republic, Kazbek Kokov, went to St. Petersburg.

In two more regions with significant Muslim populations, Bashkiria and Tatarstan, the Palestinian topic was not raised at all, and the main idea of ​​the holiday was their unity with Russia. Although Kazan was not without “unauthorized” activity: on November 6, members of the Tatar youth union “Azatlyk” distributed 5 thousand Tatar flags and leaflets with the text of Art. 8 of the Constitution of Tatarstan, which states that the Tatar and Russian languages ​​are equal in rights in the republic. “The action did not require approval, but towards the end, police officers approached the activists and demanded to show permission,” Azatlyk leader Nail Nabiullin told Kommersant. According to him, they did not detain anyone, but they checked the documents and wrote down the addresses.

At the same time, the echo of Middle Eastern events reached the Far East, where, before the holiday, the head of the Jewish Autonomous Region, Rostislav Goldstein, came up with a new initiative: “Refugees from both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict can take advantage of all support measures for participants in the voluntary resettlement program in the Far East, in including the Far Eastern Mortgage and Far Eastern Hectare programs, business support measures.” This idea was supported by the chief rabbi of the region Efraim Kolpak, the head of the Muslim organization “Mahalla Ahli Tariqat” Davlat Saidov and Archbishop of Birobidzhan and Kuldur Efrem.

In most other regions, no deviations from the traditional agenda were observed. The theme of the SVO was manifested not only in the speeches of governors and mayors, but also in various activities. For example, master classes on weaving camouflage nets were organized in Krasnodar and Stavropol, in the Crimean Khersones they showed how to make soap and trench candles for front-line soldiers, and an exhibition of captured weapons was opened in Nizhny Novgorod. In addition, mobile points for recruiting contract soldiers operated in many cities, and the finale of the Nizhny Novgorod celebrations was the sending to the Northern Military District of a detachment of volunteers who had been trained at the new Stal center.

Finally, in Moscow, the main event on November 4 was the opening at VDNKh of an unprecedented scale exhibition and forum “Russia”, which, according to the organizers, was visited by more than 190 thousand people on the first day. In addition to the expositions of all 89 regions of the Russian Federation, ministries and state corporations, many concerts, educational events and presentations are planned within the framework of the forum, which will last until the spring of 2024.

Afanasy Sborov, corset “Kommersant”