#3 - RW 261
St. Petersburg Times
June 13, 2003
VOX POPULI

Thursday was a day off for most people in Russia but, it appears, very few people know exactly why this was the case. Although the official name for the holiday is the "Day of the Declaration of Russian State Sovereignty," a poll by the Russian Center for Public Opinion Research found that the majority of" Russians - 65 percent - refer to the holiday simply as "Independence Day." Only six percent of those asked in the same poll were able to identify the holiday by its proper name. Staff writer Irina Titova talked to people on the street to try to get an idea of what the June 12 holiday means to them.

Nikita Blagovo, 72, pensioner:

On June 12 we celebrate Russia's Independence Day. I think that it's good that we observe this date. I believe that, in around 50 years, it will have become a significant and popular holiday, even though, from what I know, people don't really take it very seriously as a holiday now.

We have to remember this day because it's an important part of our history, so I have a lot of respect for this day. I think of this holiday as the day on which we became independent from a part of our past that helped to give Russia a bad reputation. I think that, now, our policies are more independent and less ideological.

Vladimir Lyutov, 33, publisher:

It's the day of independence of something from something.

To be a little more serious and straightforward, after a drinking party in Belovezhskaya Puscha [a governmental residence in Belarus where the agreement founding the CIS as an organization was signed in December 1991], Boris Yeltsin decided that he wanted to be cooler than Mikhail Gorbachev.

In the process of signing this declaration of independence, Yeltsin was able to undercut Gorbachev.

Alexander Nikulin, 35, Special Police Forces officer:

It's Independence Day. Since I'm against the communists, this holiday has certain significance for me.

But, lately, it seems that many of the numerous holidays we have here are losing their sense. Personally, I only really care seriously about two of them - New Years and Victory Day.

Olga, 26, engineer:

I know that it's Russia's Independence Day, but I don't really know what this is supposed to mean.

It seems that the day means something to the state for the simple reason that they think it's important enough to give people the day off but, for me, it doesn't hold any real significance.

Tamara Melishnikova, 74, cafeteria worker:

I have already forgotten what this holiday is supposed to be about. Over the 75 years of my life I've seen so many official holidays come and go that I can't keep track of them all any more. It's too bad, really.

Viktor Polushin, 25, engineer:

God only knows what this holiday is about.

I think that it has something to do with the former Soviet republics gaining their independence?

It doesn't have any real meaning for me. It's just a day off.

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