On 28 October, Ukraine celebrates the Day of Liberation of Ukraine from Nazi Invaders, Grandparents’ Day, and the International School Libraries Day and World Judo Day.
Day of Liberation of Ukraine from Nazi Invaders
The Day of Liberation of Ukraine from Nazi Invaders, which is celebrated annually on 28 October, is a significant date in Ukrainian history. This day symbolises the end of one of the most difficult stages of the Second World War on Ukrainian soil, when the troops of Nazi Germany were driven out of the modern territory of Ukraine in 1944. This was the result of successful military operations conducted by the Red Army together with the forces of the Ukrainian underground and civilians who sought to liberate their land from the occupiers.
The idea of celebrating the Day of Liberation of Ukraine from Nazi invaders was proposed in 2009 by the then Minister of Economy of Ukraine (later Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine) Serhiy Leonidovych Tihipko. At the time, he stated that this event was extremely important and should ‘become not only the Day of Liberation, but also the Day of Unity of Ukraine’. On the basis of this initiative, the third President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, signed Decree No. 836/2009 ‘On the Day of Liberation of Ukraine from Nazi Invaders’, which provided for the annual celebration of this holiday on 28 October.
The decree stated that the holiday was introduced to celebrate the nationwide liberation of Ukraine, as well as to honour the heroic deeds and sacrifice of the Ukrainian people in World War II. It is worth noting that for the first time, a state document used the term ‘World War II’ instead of the Soviet ‘Great Patriotic War’. In addition, the document did not mention other peoples of the Soviet Union, which was also a new approach to commemorating the events of the war.
Interesting facts
During the war, the USSR Armed Forces conducted 15 major offensives on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR, including 11 strategic and 4 frontline operations. Almost 3 million Red Army soldiers of different nationalities died in these battles. More than 2 million Ukrainians were deported to Germany for forced labour. During the occupation, Ukraine lost almost a fifth of its population – up to 10 million people.
As a result of the hostilities on the territory of Ukraine, more than 700 cities and 28,000 villages were partially or completely destroyed, and about 10 million people were left homeless. The Day of Liberation of Ukraine is not only a day of remembrance of the feat of the Ukrainian people, but also a reminder of the enormous losses suffered by Ukraine during the war and a call for unity and peace.
Operations to liberate Ukraine began in December 1942, when the first part of the territory was liberated from the Nazis – the village of Pivnivka in the Luhansk region. During 1943-1944, the Red Army gradually liberated Ukrainian lands in a series of strategic offensives.
One of the key moments was the liberation of Kyiv on 6 November 1943 during the Kyiv Offensive. This gave a significant impetus to the liberation of the entire territory of Ukraine.
A great contribution to the fight against the Nazis was made by Ukrainian partisans and underground organisations that were active in the occupied territory. Their struggle significantly weakened the occupiers’ positions and contributed to the success of offensive operations.
The liberation of Ukraine was not only of military importance, but also became a symbol of the resilience and courage of the Ukrainian people, who were able to withstand the trials of war and restore their statehood and territorial integrity.
In every major city of Ukraine, there are monuments dedicated to the soldiers who liberated Ukraine, as well as memorial complexes that preserve the memory of those tragic and heroic times. However, they are now increasingly being demolished…
Grandparents’ Day
which is celebrated in Ukraine on 28 October, is a great opportunity to express love and gratitude to your oldest relatives. This holiday has become a symbol of care, support and respect for the wisdom of life that our grandparents pass on. They are the ones who always support, protect, share their experience and pass on family traditions to the next generations.
Here are some interesting ideas on how to celebrate this day:
Spend this day with the whole family, visiting your grandparents with gifts, flowers or just a pleasant surprise. Live communication and attention is the best gift you can give.
Prepare something special for your family. It can be their favourite dish or a treat made together. This way, you will not only make them happy, but also spend time doing something together.
This day can be dedicated to looking through family albums and telling stories about the history of the family. Grandparents always have fascinating stories from the past that make family ties even stronger.
If you can’t visit your grandparents, send them a card or a small letter with warm words. They will be very pleased to feel the attention, even from a distance.
International School Library Day
is celebrated every year on the fourth Monday of October as a way to highlight the importance of school libraries in the learning and development of students. Established by the International Association of School Libraries (IASL), the holiday promotes reading, information literacy and a love of learning among students around the world.
Interesting facts
Each year, IASL chooses a new theme to celebrate the day, which encourages creativity and support for libraries as centres of knowledge and information.
Research shows that access to libraries and regular reading from a young age improves academic performance, critical thinking and vocabulary.
On this day, many school libraries organise a variety of activities, including book fairs, reading competitions, meetings with writers and literary quests, to help increase interest in reading.
Today, school libraries offer digital resources, e-books, and access to online databases, which helps students to obtain information beyond traditional books.
School librarians not only take care of the collections, but also teach children how to find and critically evaluate information. They contribute to the development of skills necessary for successful learning and life in the modern information society.
World Judo Day
This day is dedicated to this popular martial art that originated in Japan. The date was chosen in honour of the birthday of the founder of judo, martial arts master Jigoro Kano, who in 1882 developed the principles of judo as a combination of physical and spiritual discipline. This holiday is celebrated by judokas all over the world, honouring the values fostered by this martial art – respect, humility, patience and self-discipline.
Interesting facts
Each year, the International Judo Federation determines the theme of the day, which reflects the key principles of judo. For example, past themes have included ‘Humility’, ‘Honour’ and ‘Unity’.
Judo became an Olympic sport in 1964 at the Tokyo Olympics. It was the first Japanese combat sport to be included in the Olympic programme, which contributed to its global spread.
Jigoro Kano formulated the main principles of judo: ‘maximum efficiency’ and “mutual benefit and well-being”. This martial art teaches not only physical technique, but also spiritual development, respect for the opponent and continuous self-improvement.
Judo is actively promoted among children in many countries as a means of raising a healthy, confident and disciplined personality. Thanks to this, the classes are not only sporting but also pedagogical.
One of the core values of judo is respect for the opponent and the coach. Before and after a fight, athletes always bow to each other, showing respect and gratitude.
Historical events on this day
1492 – Christopher Columbus discovered Cuba, one of the largest islands in the Caribbean, during his first voyage to the New World. He initially thought he had arrived in Asia, and even named the island Isla Juana in honour of a Spanish prince. This discovery was the beginning of the colonisation of the Caribbean and America by Europeans, which changed the history of the region forever.
1636 – Harvard University, the first higher education institution in North America, was founded in what was then a college in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1639, it was named after John Harvard, an English clergyman who emigrated to America and left the college a large library and half of his personal fortune upon his death. In the 19th century, the college was reorganised into a university, and today Harvard is one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world. In 2010, it was ranked second in the QS international university ranking, losing the top position to Cambridge.
1886 – the Statue of Liberty was unveiled in New York. The monument was unveiled in the presence of US President Grover Cleveland. The statue, entitled ‘Liberty Lighting the World’, was presented by France to the United States in honour of Franco-American friendship and cooperation during the War of Independence. The sculptor Frederic Bartholdi created the 45-metre-high statue, and the steel structure was designed by Gustave Eiffel. The Statue of Liberty has become a symbol of democracy and in 1924 was granted the status of a national monument.
This sculpture is one of the most famous in the United States and the world, often referred to as the ‘symbol of New York and the United States’, ‘symbol of freedom and democracy’ or simply ‘Lady Liberty’. The unveiling ceremony was attended exclusively by men, with the exception of the chief architect’s wife and the president’s daughter.
The idea of creating such a monument was proposed by the writer and public figure Edouard René Lefebvre de Laboulaye, who shared it with Bartholdi in 1865. After a while, the architect decided to bring the idea to life. At first, Bartholdi intended to erect his Statue of Liberty at the entrance to the Suez Canal. However, the ruler of Egypt at the time, Ismail Pasha, showed no interest in this idea.
Initially, the copper statue was red-brown in colour, but over the course of several decades, its surface changed colour to green-blue. The height of the monument from the base to the tip of the torch is 93 metres and it weighs 225 tonnes. According to one version, the copper for Lady Liberty was purchased from the Russian industrialists Demidov and mined in the mines of Nizhny Tagil. Initially, it was planned that the statue would be used as a lighthouse to light the way for sailors, but even with the use of electric lighting, this idea could not be realised.
Inside the statue is a museum dedicated to its history. Interestingly, the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty marked the beginning of the streamer parade tradition – that day, office workers threw telegraph ribbons out of windows for the first time as a symbol of the festive occasion.
The island where the statue stands has a rich history – it has been owned by the British, French and Americans. Today, the island belongs to the US federal government and is managed by the National Park Service.
1913 – Tram service was launched in Vinnytsia. This city became one of the first in Ukraine to have an electric tram, which was a modern form of transport at the time. Since then, trams have remained one of the most popular forms of public transport in the city.
1920 – the Entente countries signed the Bessarabian Protocol with the Kingdom of Romania, which officially recognised the transfer of Bessarabia to Romanian jurisdiction. This document consolidated the change of borders in Eastern Europe after the end of the First World War.
1938 – Nazi Germany deported about 17,000 Polish Jews to the Polish border. The Polish government refused to accept them, which led to the fact that people remained in the neutral territory between the two countries, finding themselves in refugee conditions. This event was one of the precursors to the tragic oppression of Jews during the Holocaust.
1943 – according to unconfirmed reports, the so-called Philadelphia Experiment or Project Rainbow took place in the United States. This story, shrouded in secrecy, tells of an experiment by the US Navy, during which the destroyer Eldridge was teleported several tens of kilometres from the harbour in Philadelphia. The purpose of the experiment was allegedly to develop a technology for cloaking warships to make them invisible to radar and protect them from magnetic mines.
According to the legend, four powerful electromagnetic generators were installed on board the Eldridge, which were supposed to create a special field around the ship that would distort radar signals. However, something went wrong – the destroyer found itself in a green fog that began to envelop the ship, and, accompanied by a loud sound, the ship disappeared not only from radar but also from sight. Only a trace remained on the water, as if the ship had been invisible. After a while, when the generators were switched off, the Eldridge reappeared, and the crew was in a state of shock – the sailors were shaking and feeling sick. There are even allegations that while the USS Eldridge was away from Philadelphia, it briefly appeared in another location several hundred kilometres away from the harbour, then disappeared and then reappeared in Philadelphia.
There was never any official confirmation of the experiment from the US Navy. The story of the events became known thanks to Carlos Allende, who in 1955 sent a letter to the mystic writer Morris Jessup, who was fascinated by ufology. Allende described the course of the experiment and its consequences in a letter written in a rather unusual manner – with many spelling mistakes, capital letters inside sentences and coloured pencils. Allende claimed that in 1943 he served on the Andrew Fureset, a ship that docked in the same port as the Eldridge, and he personally witnessed the events described.
Other participants also supported the story. For example, sailor Alfred Bilek later claimed that during the experiment he travelled into the future, ending up in the year 2749. The story of the Philadelphia Experiment gained popularity, with newspaper articles and later even a film based on it fuelling interest in the topic.
In 1996, the US Office of Naval Research was forced to issue an official refutation. And in 1999, a meeting of the destroyer’s crew took place, attended by the ship’s captain, and none of the sailors confirmed the conspiracy theory and could not explain where it came from.
Despite numerous refutations, the Philadelphia Experiment continues to excite the imagination of conspiracy theorists who believe that the US government is still hiding the truth. As for the fate of the Eldridge itself, in 1951 the ship was sold to Greece, where it was renamed the Leon, and in the 1990s it was written off for scrap. Even here, the conspiracy theorists have found mysteries – official documents show that the Eldridge left the slipways on 25 July 1943 with a displacement of 1,520 tonnes. However, according to the data passed to the Greeks, the ship was launched a month earlier, on 25 June, and its displacement was already 1900 tonnes.
1989 – The Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR adopted the Law on Language in the Ukrainian SSR, which granted Ukrainian the status of the state language. This decision was an important step in the process of reviving Ukrainian national identity and language policy.
According to Article 2 of the Language Law, Ukrainian was established as the state language in the Ukrainian SSR: ‘According to the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR, the state language of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic is the Ukrainian language. The Ukrainian SSR ensures the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of public life. Republican and local state, party, public bodies, enterprises, institutions and organisations shall create the necessary conditions for all citizens to learn the Ukrainian language and master it thoroughly.’
At the same time, the law enshrined the official use of Russian in Ukraine as the language of interethnic communication within the USSR. In this regard, officials were required to be proficient in both Ukrainian and Russian, and documents of higher authorities were to be published in both languages. In addition, the study of both Ukrainian and Russian was compulsory in all secondary schools.
The law also ensured the development and use of other languages of nationalities living on the territory of Ukraine: ‘…the state shall create the necessary conditions for the development and use of the languages of other nationalities living in Ukraine’.
At the time, the press called this law the first significant achievement of the forces of national democracy, which confirmed the achievements of the democratic aspirations of the Ukrainian intelligentsia. It was an important step in strengthening the Ukrainian language as the basis of national identity and the development of democratic processes.
1993 – The Senate of Australia officially recognised the Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932-1933 as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people. This decision supported the international recognition of the tragedy that claimed millions of Ukrainian lives due to the famine organised by the Soviet authorities.
2007 – The British newspaper The Daily Telegraph included Ukrainian artist Ivan Marchuk in its list of ‘100 living geniuses’. This international recognition brought Marchuk, who became known for his unique style and technique, worldwide fame.
