Russians mark Russia Day 20th time, many curious about its meaning.

MOSCOW, June 12 (By Itar-Tass World Service writer Lyudmila
Alexandrova) -- Saturday, June 12 in this country is Russia Day. The
attitude to this public holiday is still very calm. Few remember correctly
its name (because it has been changed thrice), and far from all understand
its meaning. But everybody is very glad to have an extra day off and a
longer than usual three-day weekend. Since this time the date is on a
Saturday, which is a non-working day anyway, under the Labor Code the next
Monday will be a day off, too.
Those who have dachas (countryside homes livable in summer time or
year round) will surely be enjoying themselves there - gardening,
picnicking and making fun, without bothering themselves with the
ideological background of new Russia's main day. Those urban dwellers who
will stay in Moscow and other cities, will have a great assortment of
official entertainments to choose from. True, there is always the risk of
wasting time in traffic jams, because virtually the entire center of
Moscow will be closed to motor vehicles.
On June 12 it is exactly 20 years since the day when the first
Congress of People's Deputies of the then Russian Soviet Federative
Socialists Republic RSFSR (the largest member of what was then the USSR)
voted for a declaration of state sovereignty. It did so at a time when all
other Soviet republics were hurrying to proclaim independence. As a matter
of fact, it is that event that Russia Day is expected to commemorate.
The holiday's history looks like this. In 1990, the first congress of
the RSFSR people's deputies adopted the Declaration of Russia's State
Sovereignty. Some legislators then hoped that this document will give
Russia major economic powers it lacked at the moment. Others interpreted
the new document as an important political step away from the dictating of
the USSR authorities, a breakthrough out of the web of conservatism
towards democracy. There were also those who refused to reconcile
themselves with Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms and hoped for the victory of
conservative traditionalists in Russia. The net effect was a majority of
people's deputies voted for the declaration on June 12, 1990.
Four years later, Russia's first president, Boris Yeltsin, issued a
decree to make June 12 a public holiday - Russia's State Sovereignty
Declaration Day. A little later it began to be called Independence Day.
However, this name kept the public at large puzzled - Who of what are we
independent from?
In 1998 Yeltsin suggested changing the name from Independence Day to
Russia Day. However, officially the new holiday was approved on February
1, 2002, when the new Labor Code took effect.
Russian people have proved very slow and not very eager to recognize
the new holiday, though. A survey held by the national public opinion
studies center VCIOM has shown that 23 percent of Russians still have no
idea what sort of holiday June 12 is. Its previous name, Russia
Independence Day, was more customary than the new one (36 percent against
29 percent).
As follows from the results of an opinion poll the daily Novyie
Izvestia conducted this week in the Internet, 55 percent see no sense in
celebrating Russia Day at all. And a tiny 13 percent of the polled said it
was the main state holiday uniting the nation. Experts say the poll's
findings reflect the real picture accurately enough.
"Society is generally skeptical about state holidays," a Levada Center
sociologist, Denis Volkov explains. "The people see no special ideology
in, say, Constitution Day or Russia Day. Let us be straight, the
authorities are not very eager to create it."
"Most Russians do not see June 12 as a holiday. Many believe it is
just an extra day off. And it is very likely that such public attitude is
bound to last," says the chairman of the Kursk regional office of the
Russian Association of Political Science, Vladimir Shapovalov.
The state established the holiday but took no care of its content,
ideology, concept and ceremonial aspects, the on-line weekly Nedelya
quotes him as saying.
"Indeed, at a time when it is not very clear what is to be celebrated,
but at least some part of society does know something about the history of
that holiday, it is absolutely unclear how to go about the business of
celebrating."
"There is nothing like the mighty propaganda of the Soviet era," says
the daily Noviye Izvestia. "The unserious attitude to the state holiday is
largely a result of the trend of the past few years. The people have been
systematically taught to stay away from politics. But once there is no
interest towards the state and politics, there can be no sincerity in
celebrating June 12."
Sociologists say the main holidays for Russians are May 9: the day of
victory over Nazi Germany in World War II and New Year's Eve.
And yet the number of Russians who believe that the declaration of
Russia's sovereignty has yielded positive results has grown over years,
the Levada Center pollster said on the eve of Russia Day. Since 2000 the
group of those who believe that independence has been good for the country
has grown from 28 percent to 59 percent, while the share of critics
dwindled from 57 percent to 19 percent.
According to the same Levada-Center poll the correct name of the
holiday - Russia Day - is known to 38 percent of the polled, while in
2006-2007 there were far fewer of such respondents: 21-23 percent. Also,
June 12 is referred to as Russia Independence Day by 44 percent of the
polled, against 47-53 percent in the previous years.

-0-str