Defender of the Fatherland Day

Defender of the Fatherland Day
Wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow, 23 February 2008.
Date	23 February
Next time	23 February 2018 (2018-02-23)
Frequency	annual

Defender of the Fatherland Day (Russian: День защитника Отечества (Den' zashchitnika Otechestva)) is a holiday observed in Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. It is celebrated on 23 February, except in Kazakhstan, where it is celebrated on 7 May.

First celebrated in 1919 the holiday marks the date in 1918 during the Russian Civil War when the first mass draft into the Red Army occurred in Petrograd and Moscow (on 17 February). In January 1919 it was decided to combine the celebration that day with the anniversary of the publication of the decree on the establishment of the Red Army (of 18 February 1918). In 1919 17 February fell on a Monday, so it was decided to move the holiday to the nearest Sunday – 23 February. Since then it stayed that day. It was originally known as "Red Army Day" (Russian: День Красной Армии). In 1923 it was officially named the Day of the Red Army and the Navy.

In 1949, it was renamed "Soviet Army and Navy Day" (Russian: День Советской Армии и Военно-Морского флота (Dyen' Sovyetskoy Armii i Voyenno-Morskogo flota)). Following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the holiday was given its current name in 2002 by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who decreed it a state holiday (in Russia).

Officially, as the name suggests, the holiday celebrates people who are serving or were serving the Russian Armed Forces (both men and women, both military and civilian personnel), but unofficially, nationally it has also more recently come to include the celebration of men as a whole, and to act as a counterpart of International Women's Day on March 8.