Soviet Army and Navy Day

a holiday celebrated in the USSR each year on February 23.

V. I. Lenin signed the Soviet of People’s Commissars decree on the organization of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army (RKKA) on Jan. 15 (28), 1918, and the decree on the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Navy (RKKF) on Jan. 29 (Feb. 11). On Feb. 22, 1918, in a situation where the troops of German imperialism were advancing on Soviet Russia, the decree-appeal of the Soviet of People’s Commissars dated February 21 and entitled “The Socialist Homeland in Danger!” was published. On Feb. 23, 1918, mass meetings were held in Petrograd, Moscow, and other cities in the country at which the toiling people of the country were called on to rise to the defense of the socialist homeland. This day was marked by massive enlistment of volunteers in the Red Army and was the beginning of the extensive formation of its various detachments and units. In commemoration of the way the Soviet people rose en masse to the defense of the socialist homeland and the heroic way the Red Army detachments resisted the German aggressors, February 23 is celebrated each year as the Day of the Soviet Army (until 1946, the Red Army) and Navy. On Soviet Army and Navy Day the Ministry of Defense of the USSR issues a traditional order devoted to the anniversary of the Soviet Armed Forces, and an artillery salute is given in Moscow, in the capitals of the Union republics, in hero-cities, and in the hero-fortress of Brest.