The New Year Address by the President of Russia (russian: Новогоднее обращение президента Российской Федерации) is a traditional speech given in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

by the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

to the citizens, and generally broadcast on Russian television.

History

In Russia, tuning in before midnight to watch the

's speech (russian: новогодние обращения) has become traditional. The president gives the New Year speech from the

Kremlin The Kremlin ( rus, Московский Кремль, r=Moskovskiy Kreml', p=ˈmɐˈskofskʲɪj krʲemlʲ, t=Moscow Kremlin) is a fortified complex in the center of Moscow founded by the Rurik dynasty, Rurik dynasty. It is the best known of th ...

, a few minutes before the

Kremlin Clock The Kremlin Clock (russian: Кремлёвские часы; ''Kremlyovskiye chasy'') or Kremlin Chimes (russian: Кремлёвские куранты; ''Kremlyovskiye kuranty''), also known colloquially in the West as Moscow Clock Tower, is a h ...

chimes at midnight followed by the performance of the

National Anthem of Russia The "State Anthem of the Russian Federation" is the national anthem of Russia. It uses the same melody as the "State Anthem of the Soviet Union", composed by Alexander Alexandrov, and new lyrics by Sergey Mikhalkov, who had collaborated with ...

. The speech sums up the main events of the year and discusses prospects for the coming one. The tradition is observed by most Russians, regardless of political views. The speech is broadcast in each of the 11

time zones Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

in the country. Because of that, the video of the speech is already available on the internet to audiences in western Russia during the afternoon of 31 December. The tradition dates back to 1941, when the Soviet government broadcast a speech about the state of the country during World War II.

Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Comm ...

gave a speech in 1990 saying the 1990s would be "a decade of the drawing of the United States and the Soviet Union closer together".

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...

generally avoided talk of politics during his new year speeches, preferring to talk about family values and the holiday spirit, though he did use his 1996 speech to promote economic reforms. Yeltsin famously resigned during his New Year speech on 31 December 1999. In 2013 two different speeches were broadcast: the first one was only broadcast in the Far East, while a new broadcast for the rest of the country mentioned the December 2013 Volgograd bombings. Vladimir Putin's address on December 31, 2020 was the longest of all time - it lasted 6 minutes (not including the chimes and the anthem). On December 31, 2021, this record was broken again - the circulation lasted 6 minutes and 22 seconds. On December 31, 2022, Vladimir Putin read out his New Year’s address against the backdrop of the Russian military, at the same time mentioning the “protection of our people in the new regions of the Russian Federation.” it lasted 9 minutes.

References

External links

* {{New Year Speeches by heads of state Annual events in Russia Articles containing video clips