Victory Day in Russia is celebrated on May 9 and the country’s second most popular public holiday after New Year’s Day.

The holiday marks the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in the Second World War in 1945. Unlike Europe where it is celebrated on May 8, Victory Day in Russia is celebrated on May 9 as Germany’s surrender was signed late in the evening on May 8, 1945 when it was already May 9 in Russia.

Victory Day in Russia commemorates millions of people who lost their lives in the Second World War, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War, and honors the bravery of Russian soldiers and Russian people on the whole whose heroism saved the country from Nazi invaders.