February 23 – Day of the Soviet Army and Navy, Defender of the Fatherland Day
In 1917, after the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, the Provisional Government was to be created by the Duma, which announced that the decision on the structure of the country had been made by the All-Russian Constituent Assembly and proclaimed "the right of nations to determine themselves." This led to the formation of national organizations in the territories of the Russian Empire, striving for separation, state independence - Poland, Finland, Bashkiria, Turkestan, Tatarstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Karelia.
Order № 1 was issued for the army on control by soldiers' committees over the execution of commanders' orders. To implement the orders of the Provisional Government, the institute of military commissars was created in the army. Instead of the long-awaited Peace, an incomprehensible war with Germany and its allies was declared, which was waged "to a victorious end."
The Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries (more than 1 million people) who came to power in the Provisional Government and were obliged to represent the interests of the peasants deceived them - they did not transfer the land to the landowners.
The summer offensive of 1917 on the Western Front failed. The army was demoralized, completely disciplined from the morning. After the failure of the summer offensive, German troops took Riga and approached Petrograd.
The All-Russian Constituent Assembly did not convene.
Trust in the Provisional Government and its leaders who had joined its party was finally lost.
On November 7, 1917, power in Petrograd, and then in the country, passed to the victorious majority at the Second Congress of Soviets, the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist Revolutionaries, who proclaimed Peace to the People, Land to the Peasants and formed the first Soviet Government headed by V. I. Lenin - the "Council of People's Commissars".
German troops crossed the front line on February 18:
- in Ukraine on February 18 they occupied Lutsk, on the 20th – Rivne, on February 21 they entered Minsk and Novograd-Volynsky, on the 22nd – Korosten, on February 24 they captured Zhitomir, on the 26th – Berdichev. March 11 – Kyiv;
- in the Baltics, on February 18, they occupied Dvinsk, on the 28th – Pskov, on March 4 – Narva and moved towards Petrograd.
V. I. Lenin proclaimed: "The Socialist Fatherland is in danger." To fight the Germans, the first detachments of the Red Army began to form and, at the end of February 1918, were sent to meet the enemy.
The resistance of the Red Army units and the decision of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) made it possible to conclude the Brest Peace Treaty with the Germans on March 3, 2018 and protect the country from complete collapse and ruin.
In connection with these events, the following were announced and celebrated:
Red Gift Day (the first anniversary of the formation of the Red Army) — in 1919.
Red Army Day — since 1922.
Soviet Army Day — since 1946.
Soviet Army and Navy Day — from 1949 to 1992.
Defender of the Fatherland Day — since 1995.
