Defender of the Fatherland Day

• 1. Introduction

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  Defender of the Fatherland Day falls on the 23rd of February in Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. It honors each country's armed forces and traces back to the founding of the Red Army. Kazakhstan breaks from that calendar, holding its own version of the day on the 7th of May instead. Ukraine cut ties with the holiday completely, abolishing it in 1992. After the Revolution of Dignity, it replaced the holiday with a different occasion, Defender of Ukraine Day, held on the 1st of October.

  A holiday built around one army's founding somehow splintered across six countries, gained new names along the way, and got flatly rejected in a seventh. What did the actual founding moment look like? How did a military anniversary come to mean such different things depending on which border you're standing behind?

• 2. Founding A Red Army

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  During the Russian Civil War, Petrograd and Moscow carried out the first mass draft into the Red Army on the 17th of February 1918. The holiday was first celebrated in 1919. That January, officials decided to combine the draft's anniversary with the anniversary of the decree establishing the Red Army. That decree had been issued on the 18th of February 1918. Because the 17th of February fell on a Monday that year, organizers moved the celebration to the following Sunday. That date, the 23rd of February, has held ever since.

  The holiday was first known as Red Army Day. In 1923, it was officially renamed Day of the Red Army and the Navy, and in 1949 it became Soviet Army and Navy Day.

  After the Soviet Union fell in 1991, the holiday went without its present name for over a decade. In 2002, Russian president Vladimir Putin gave it the title Defender of the Fatherland Day and declared it a state holiday in Russia. The renamed 2002 holiday kept its February date, though Moscow's own way of marking it would carry a very different, unofficial meaning.

• 3. Wreaths And Fireworks

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  Officially, the honorees are anyone who has served in the Russian or Soviet armed forces, men and women, military and civilian personnel alike. Unofficially, though, the day has also become a nationwide celebration of men in general. It serves as a counterpart to International Women's Day on the 8th of March.

  Women mark the occasion by giving small gifts to the men in their lives, including husbands, boyfriends, fiances, fathers, sons and brothers. In offices, women extend the same gesture to male coworkers, which is part of why the day is often called Men's Day in everyday conversation.

  In Moscow, a long-standing tradition is the laying of wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The Russian president, leaders of both chambers of parliament and senior military officers all attend. So do officials from other branches of government, heads of political parties and Russian Orthodox Church representatives, gathering at the Alexander Garden. After a moment of silence, the national anthem plays, and an honour guard unit marches past in a solemn procession.

  That evening, the country's leadership attends a dedicated concert at the State Kremlin Palace. Fireworks light up the sky over Moscow and other Russian cities the same night. Moscow's version of the day, though, is only one of several the surrounding region marks in its own way.

• 4. Across The Region

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  In Belarus, the 23rd of February 1918 marks the date the armed forces of modern Belarus were formed. The country calls its version of the day Дзень абаронцы Айчыны. President Alexander Lukashenko made it an official holiday on the 25th of March 2004. Each year, the Belarusian president lays a wreath at the monument on Victory Square in Minsk. Soldiers from Belarus and Russia also hold joint festive events there.

  Kazakhstan marks its Defender of the Fatherland Day on the 7th of May, the date the Kazakh Armed Forces were established in 1992. The holiday only became a national holiday in October 2012, and it often falls close to the 9th of May Victory Day celebrations.

  In Kyrgyzstan, the day is a non-working holiday, first introduced by the government on the 20th of January 2003. Bishkek marks it with a military parade from the Bishkek Garrison. Soldiers of the Kyrgyz Army have a separate professional holiday of their own, the Day of the Armed Forces of Kyrgyzstan, held on the 29th of May.

  Tajikistan calls its version Tajik National Army Day, honoring the Tajik National Army specifically. Other branches, including the Tajik Air Force, have also taken part in its celebrations.

  Turkmenistan breaks from the February date entirely. It marks Defender of the Fatherland Day on the 27th of January, the anniversary of its armed forces' founding. The holiday was previously called Army Day until President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow renamed it in 2009. The Ministry of Defense organizes festive concerts and activities inside military units. The country adopted its current military doctrine on the eve of the holiday in 2016.

  Not every former Soviet republic kept the holiday at all.

• 5. Ukraine's Own Path

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  In 1999, Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma recognized the 23rd of February as Defenders of the Fatherland Day, but granted it no official status.

  Even without official recognition, many Ukrainian women in the early 2000s still gave extra attention on that day to male relatives, friends, husbands and boyfriends. Those serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine received particular attention.

  On the 24th of August 2014, Petro Poroshenko said Ukraine 'should not celebrate the holidays of the military-historical calendar of Russia, but will honor the defenders of our homeland, not someone else's.' A decree on the 14th of October 2014 formally created Defender of Ukraine Day, giving it official holiday status for the first time.

  Ukraine also marks a separate Armed Forces Day for its entire military each year on the 6th of December. That occasion includes special programs, nationwide gun salutes and fireworks displays.

  Not every place marking the 23rd of February, though, sits comfortably inside internationally recognized borders.

• 6. Beyond Recognized Borders

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  Tiraspol hosts the main celebrations for Defender of the Fatherland Day in Transnistria, an unrecognized state where the day is a public holiday. The president of the republic and the heads of its defence and law enforcement agencies attend. A decree by President Igor Smirnov on the 13th of June 2001 placed the day on the list of professional, non-working holidays.

  In the partially recognized Republic of South Ossetia, the 23rd of February is also an official holiday. Leaders there honor veterans who served in the Soviet Army. They also honor those who served in the Armed Forces of South Ossetia and died in the 1991-1992 South Ossetia War or the Russo-Georgian War.

  The holiday also coincides with festive events marking the founding of South Ossetia's own Ministry of Defense.