The meaning of Russia Day, the holiday celebrated last Friday, June 12, remains obscure and even foreign for the majority of Russians. Overall, the population has mixed feelings about the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was precipitated by the declaration of state sovereignty of the Russian Federation (commemorated by Russia Day) and the election of Boris Yeltsin as its first president 25 years ago (Kommersant, June 11). These sour reflections on that political breakthrough are shaped not only by the memories of the severe economic dislocation of the 1990s or ruminations on Yeltsin’s checkered performance. To a larger degree, …read more
Source: The Jamestown Foundation