History of the Russian Navy

The Russian Navy has more than three centuries of history. There were great victories and heavy losses on his way. With the birth of the fleet, a tradition of celebrations on the occasion of victories and significant events arose.
In Russia, the holiday of the fleet was celebrated since the beginning of the XVIII century. The idea of the annual celebration belonged to Peter I. It was under him that military holidays began to be held, the so-called Victorian days.

In 1714, the young Russian fleet won the first major naval victory at Cape Gangut. This happened on the day of St. Panteleimon. Peter by his decree obliged annually on July 27 (old style) to celebrate this holiday with solemn services, naval parades, marches of troops, fireworks and salutes.
It was the first naval holiday, the first case of the triumphal entry into the city of ships of the Russian fleet after the victory won at sea. The victory at Gangut is significant not only because Russia strengthened its position in the Baltic Sea and transferred military operations to enemy territory, but also because it laid the foundations of many traditions in the Russian Navy.

Since 1715, the day of victory at Gangut was celebrated annually along with the anniversaries of the Battle of Poltava in 1709 - the main victory of the Russian army in the Northern War, the victory at Lesnaya in 1708 and the capture of the fortress of Oreshek in 1702 - the first victory in the Northern War. Subsequently, a naval victory at Grengam was added to them, also won on the day of St. Panteleimon on July 27, 1720.

Ending the Great Northern War (1700–1721) The Treaty of Nystadt was signed on August 30 (old style) in 1721. On this occasion in St. Petersburg, they walked the streets and rode on the water on barges and ropes. In Moscow, where the festival took place in December, the masquerade procession consisted of many ships of varying size and shape. Under the leadership of Peter himself, who commanded the flagship ship, a procession with music and cannon firing moved through the streets of the capital.

In 1723, a new tradition was introduced on the second anniversary of the Nystadt Peace. By Peter’s decision, the “grandfather of the Russian fleet” was brought to St. Petersburg, as the emperor himself called his boot. Botik was solemnly welcomed on May 30, 1723 on the Neva near the walls of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery by the Nevsky Fleet - a flotilla of private ships in St. Petersburg. By order of Peter I, participation in the ceremony of meeting the Botik was mandatory. Ship owners who did not attend the meeting were severely punished. The next day, the boat, accompanied by ships of the Nevsky Fleet, passed to the Peter and Paul Fortress, which saluted him with 31 shots. The boat responded with three shots.
The first meeting of the boat with the warships of the Baltic Fleet took place on August 11, 1723 on the eve of the second anniversary of the Nystadt Peace. In honor of this event, the ships lined up on the Kronstadt raid.

As you know, Peter I after this grand naval parade commanded: “Botik on the 30th of August for celebration to bring every year to the water and have at the Alexander Nevsky monastery.”
However, after the death of the emperor, this tradition was not observed. Only twice – during the time of Elizaveta Petrovna in 1744 and 1745 – the Botik was shown to the fleet, and the practice of sea parades became irregular and more often held as an element of joint celebration with the land forces.
The tenth anniversary of the victory at Gangut was the last one celebrated during the life of Peter I. After 1724, the tradition of the Gangut-Grengam naval holiday in its former form with gun salvos, coloring ships with flags gradually faded.
This Victorian day was celebrated only by worship.

The Petrovsky tradition was revived in the middle of the XIX century. In the Maritime Charter of 1853, an order appeared on the day of Gangut Victoria, along with church services, to produce salutes and color ships with flags. It was supposed to fire 21 shots from each ship. This ceremony was enshrined in the subsequent Maritime Statutes of 1885 and 1899. This order of celebration in the Russian Navy continued until 1917.

Under Catherine II in 1796, on the occasion of the dispatch of the squadron of Admiral G. A. Spiridov to the Mediterranean Sea for war with Turkey, a naval parade was also held.
During the reign of Alexander I, the highest review of the squadron of Admiral D.N. Senyavin was held, and also during the celebration of the centenary of the founding of St. Petersburg on the Neva on May 16, 1803, the "grandfather of the Russian fleet" was on the cabinet of the 110-gun ship "Gavriil", standing on the Neva against the Senate Square. Honorary guards of the Botik were four hundred-year-old sailors of the Petrine era. In 1828, a similar review of the squadron of the same Admiral D.N. Senyavin with the participation of the boot was conducted by Nicholas I.

The last time the boat was shown to the fleet in a naval parade in 1836. Emperor Nicholas I ordered to install it on the steamer Hercules. All the ships of the Baltic Fleet were built under the flag of 84-year-old Admiral Roman Kronstadt in three lines. And at the signal of the emperor, "Hercules" with a boot on deck passed, taking honors, between the lines of ships. Standing on the raid, foreign ships colored with flags when the Hercules approached also saluted him with flags.
During the reigns of Alexander III and Nicholas II, the number of high shows and sea parades decreased. Large celebrations involving the Navy were held in 1903 on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of St. Petersburg. The construction of ships was practiced in cases of visits to Russia by overseas high officials. But the constancy of such events or tradition was not necessary to speak.

In 1920, at the suggestion of the headquarters of the naval forces of the Baltic sea on the closest to May 18 weekend in Petrograd began to celebrate the day of the red fleet. It was on this day (May 7, old style) in 1703 that Russian soldiers won the first victory in the Baltic: in a boarding battle under the general command of Peter I, two Swedish warships were captured: the bot Gedan and the schnyava Astrild. To commemorate the first naval victory over the Swedes at the mouth of the Neva, May 18 (in the new style) is considered the day of the founding of the Baltic Fleet and is celebrated annually as one of the important naval holidays.

In the 1920s, parades of ships of the Baltic Fleet and water sports festivals were held on the Neva. The facades of the buildings were decorated with state and sea symbols, flags of coloring. The sailors held a solemn march to the sounds of the orchestra on Uritsky Square (Palace Square). Then a sports festival was held on the square, and the Red Fleet demonstrated strength and dexterity. The culmination of the sports festival were tug-of-war competitions. The leadership of the young Soviet Republic made the inspection of ships a regular event of the revolutionary holidays of May 1 and November 7. However, Red Fleet Day was celebrated only a few years in a row and gradually faded away.

Thus, we can assume that the Day of the Navy and the tradition of conducting naval parades arose during the reign of Peter I. However, in almost all modern sources, it is noted that for the first time in our country the Day of the Navy with the holding of naval parades on all fleets and flotillas began to be celebrated in 1939.
In the Soviet Union, the Day of the Navy was established by the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) of July 22, 1939. In order to mobilize the broad masses of the working people around the issues of building the Workers' and Peasants' Navy of the USSR and the tasks facing it, to establish the Day of the Navy of the USSR.
Interestingly, in 1939, the Navy Day was celebrated on July 24, which coincided with the birthday of the People's Commissar of the Navy Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov. There is a version that it was a kind of gift of the leader to the young People’s Commissar and an advance for the future.
Subsequently, Navy Day began to be celebrated on the last Sunday of July, since this day, according to weather observations, is the warmest on all fleets of our country.