RUSSIA-POLITICS-HISTORY-HOLIDAY

Activists of the pro-Kremlin youth movement "Nashi" (Our People) carry their flags as they rally in front of the VVts All Russian Exhibition Centre, formerly known as VDNKh, in Moscow, on November 04, 2011, marking the National Unity Day. The new holiday was created in 2005 to replace the traditional November 7 celebration of the 1917 Bolshevik rise to power. The Kremlin has tried to give it historical significance by tying it to the 1612 expulsion of Polish and Cossack troops who briefly seized Moscow at a time of political disarray. AFP PHOTO / KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV