October 1 - Day of the Ground Forces of Russia
Today, military personnel and civilian personnel of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation celebrate their professional holiday. Since 2006, it has been celebrated annually on October 1.
This date was chosen because on this day in 1550, the Russian Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible issued his verdict, a document that Russian rulers later began to call a decree. In it, he established in Rus' a “chosen thousand service people.” This is the first stories regular army of Russia – the Streltsy regiments. In addition, Tsar Ivan IV established the procedure for the formation of a "local army" and carried out a military reform that laid the foundation for the creation of a domestic regular army.
The next steps in the development of the Russian Ground Forces were made about a century and a half later by another Russian ruler, Peter I. It was he who, by his decree, introduced recruitment into the army. At the instigation of Peter the Great and during his reign, the ground armed formations of our country acquired the characteristics of regular troops.
Since the Ground Forces play a leading role in the modern Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and are the most numerous branch of the military, the country's President Vladimir Putin established a professional holiday for them in May 2006. Since 2015, the main place for the ceremonial events in honor of this holiday has been the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord on Preobrazhenskaya Square in Moscow, which received the status of the main temple of the Ground Forces of the Russian Federation.
At present, more than half a million personnel serve in the Russian Ground Forces. They are equipped with the most modern weapons and advanced military equipment. All this has been tested in practice during military operations in Syria and other local conflicts, and is now being successfully used in the special operation zone.
It is the soldiers of the Ground Forces units, acting "on the ground", who liberate the settlements of Donbass and Novorossiya during the SVO. It is to them that I would like to say a special huge thank you, to express deep respect for their combat work.
Happy holiday to you, active servicemen and veterans of the Ground Forces!
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