The Soviet Union was splitting apart and on 12 June 1990 the first Congress of Deputies adopted a declaration that the Russian Federation became was an independent sovereign republic. And now every year Russia celebrates this holiday just as Americans celebrate on the 4th of July.
In 1994 the first democratically elected Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, issued a decree marking 12 June as the annual day to celebrate the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Russia. It is typically a 3-day non-working holiday and this year the celebration takes place from this past Sunday the 10th to today, 12 June. The government declared Saturday 9 June to be a normal working day so that Monday the 11th could be a part of the three day “weekend.”
For those interested in reading more about the holiday here are some fun links:
– https://russianreport.wordpress.com/2011/06/13/day-of-russia-12-june/
– http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/russia/russia-day
– http://www.calend.ru/holidays/0/0/54/
– http://dobrohot.gidbelgorod.ru/blog/view/11836
Russians at first didn’t take to the new holiday but each year the interest in the meaning of the holiday has continued to grow.
The Mendeleyev Journal - Live From Moscow 
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