Navy Day (Russia)

Admiral Alexander Shaurov during a Navy Day parade in Paldiski, 1988.

The original version of the Russian Navy was founded in 1696 for the Tsardom of Russia. In the Soviet Union, Navy Day was established by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the VKPB of June 22, 1939 in June 1939; in connection with the Battle of Gangut. The holiday was canceled on October 1, 1980 by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. By the Decree of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Navy Day was reestablished.[2]

Russia celebrates Navy Day with a 2-hour fleet review in St. Petersburg near the Neva River and the Port of Kronstadt, commonly known as the Main Naval Parade (Russian: Главный военно-морской парад). It was established by order of President Vladimir Putin on July 27, 2017 as the principal anniversary event in connection with Navy Day celebrations.[3] According to Putin, the idea was conceived while he was reading historical literature on his Ilyushin presidential plane, during which he came across an article about a naval parade in Kronstadt during the Imperial era, after which he called Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu to order him to organize a similar type of event.[4] The parade features ships and marine air force units from the Baltic, Black Sea, Northern and Pacific Fleets as well as the Caspian Flotilla. The naval parade starts at 11:00 AM, with the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy (currently Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov) being the ceremonial commander of the fleet review formation.[5] Holiday commemorative naval parades by ground units and fleet reviews are also held at naval bases all over the country, such as Sevastopol, Kaliningrad, Vladivostok, Severomorsk and Astrakhan.[6] In 2020, a Naval Parade was held in the Dagestani city of Kaspiysk.[7] Parades are also held by the Russian naval facility in Tartus in Syria. All commanders of the regional parades must report to the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy before commencing their own parades.

A separate ceremony on Senate Square in the presence of the President of Russia is also held, involving Russian military bands and honour guards. The ceremony also includes a flag raising ceremony and the presidential holiday address to the nation and the service personnel of the Navy, following which the National Anthem of Russia is played with the firing of a 21-gun salute.

In 2019, the holiday's national fleet review was for the first time in many years attended by naval combat ships from China, India, Vietnam and the Philippines as well as military bands from Thailand and Vietnam that performed with the Central Navy Band of Russia.[8][9] Foreign ships such as the Chinese missile destroyer Xi'an and the BRP Davao del Sur (LD-602) took part. In Sevastopol, the raising of the flag of the Russian Imperial Navy battleship Imperatritsa Mariya took place during the parade in the presence of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.[10] This was done to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Day of the Soviet Navy.[11]

The 2020 celebrations marked the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the bicentennial of the First Russian Antarctic Expedition. In honor of the former, the parade was closed out with the Alexey Barinov and D-178 landing boats with Katyusha rocket launchers and a T-34 tank aboard, along soldiers dressed in Red Army uniforms and a Soviet naval flag.[12] In the parade speech, President Putin announced that the navy would be armed with hypersonic nuclear strike weapons.[13] The Ukrainian government sent a letter to António Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations, in protest of the organization of a naval parade in Sevastopol, which is located in a region that Ukraine says is occupied. On the eve of this letter, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry sent a similar note of protest to their Russian counterparts.[14]

An official reception is held after the parade at the Admiralty building near the Admiralty Embankment. It usually involves the President of Russia, the Minister of Defence, the Navy Chief and all military leaders from the navy, the Ground Forces and the Aerospace Forces. All foreign military delegations and veterans of the Soviet/Russian naval services are in attendance as well. The highlight of the reception is the speech by the president directly to those in attendance.

In 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia and the postponement of the 2020 Moscow Victory Day Parade, the Immortal Regiment march, which was supposed to be held on 9 May, was also postponed[15] and was announced to be held on Navy Day in a videoconference with President Putin and Minister of Defence Sergey Shoygu.[16][17] These plans were later scrapped and the march was postponed until 2021.[18][19][20][21] That same year, ahead of Navy Day celebrations, an all-female navy crew was deployed to patrol the Black Sea for the first time.[22]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Russian Navy Day.

• 
  Russian naval honour guards.
• 
  A flag raising ceremony on Senate Square.
• 
  The Russian tri-colour during a flypast by Russian Naval Aviation.
• 
  A Glockenspiel holder from the Admiralty Navy Band of Russia.
• 
  A speech by President Vladimir Putin at the Main Naval Parade.
• 
  A joint exercise between the Russian and Ukrainian Navies.
• 
  A joint Russian-Ukrainian Navy Day ceremony in the presence of Presidents Viktor Yanukovych and Vladimir Putin at the Memorial to the Heroic Defence of Sevastopol.
• 
  Putin at the parade in Baltiysk, 2015.

• Public holidays in Russia
• Navy Day (Ukraine)
• Navy Day (Turkmenistan)

• Official Website of the Main Naval Parade