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The New Year’s address to the nation is a tradition that began in Russia during Soviet times. It dates back to the speech by Mikhail Kalinin, the chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union. he pronounced a speech on the radio on December 31, 1935, but it was broadcast only to polar explorers. The following message from Kalinin, December 31, 1941, was addressing to the entire Soviet people and was devoted to the events of the war.
Mikhail Kalinin
Public domain —
Kalinin carried on her tradition until her death in 1946, after which it was discontinued. In 1954 and 1957, New Year’s congratulations were pronounced by Marshal Kliment Voroshilov, then chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. After that, all the congratulations came from the Soviet administration in general.
The age of television
The pioneer of televised messages to the Soviet people was Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev. he has pronounced his first speech in 1970, but it was not the form we are now used to: Brezhnev’s speech was more like a detailed annual report than vows. In the late 1970s, due to Brezhnev’s disease, the messages were delivered by a famous news anchor, Igor Kirillov. Later, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Tchernenko would not take televised vows.
Brezhnev’s message of 12.31.1970
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In 1985, Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev changed gives it and delivered the speech itself. But the New Year’s speeches in 1986-1988 were quite extraordinary: Gorbachev exchanged places with Ronald Reagan, so that the Soviet leader addressed the American nation, and the President of the United States – the Soviets. An approach that symbolized the end of the Cold War.
Gorbachev and Reagan’s message of 12.31.1988
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Post-soviet russia
The following unusual address was given in 1991. On December 25 Mikhail Gorbachev resigned and the USSR was dissolved. Boris Yeltsin, until recently President of Soviet Russia, addressed the nation on December 30, so the New Year’s speech (which usually begins a few minutes before midnight) has not been spoken by the Head of State, but by the famous satirical writer Mikhail Zadornov. Zadornov missed the allotted time as he was speaking live, so viewers heard the Spasskaya Tower bells chime a minute after midnight.
Yeltsin’s speech on 12/30/1991
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The following year, Yeltsin was officially invested as President of Russia, and he continued to deliver a speech each year. He was speaking from his office in the Kremlin and, in 1994, at the end of his address, he raised a champagne flute. No secretary general or other stakeholder had ever done this before. In 1997, Yeltsin was even accompanied by his family. In 1999, something unexpected happened: Yeltsin’s speech has been diffused at noon and he not only congratulated the Russians but announced his resignation, admitting that it was a difficult decision. At the time of the usual message, before midnight on December 31, Yeltsin’s resignation speech was repeated and it was the speech of his successor, Vladimir Putin, which was broadcast.
Yeltsin’s and Putin’s messages in 1999
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Since then, the two Russian presidents, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, have never missed their New Year’s speeches.
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The creation process
In 2015, Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson for Vladimir Putin, joked saying that the president traditionally gave his speech at midnight sharp on New Years Eve. However, it is no secret that the speech is recorded in advance. Russia has eleven time zones, so there is no other way to go about it. Shooting takes place one evening in the second half of December: the exact date depends on the weather and the president’s schedule. And he no need to wait midnight: filming begins as soon as it gets dark (which in Moscow usually takes place around 3:30 p.m. at the end of December!).
An hour before, hawks trained eliminate all the crows that inhabit the Kremlin. The latter are numerous, and their noise is loud enough to interfere with the president’s speech, which is why action is being taken.
A kremlin hawk
Ilya Pitalev/Sputnik —
Preparations begin before the president arrives at the scene. The film crew places the material in the presence of the president’s spokesperson, who participate at a small repeat to check the settings. The president arrives when everything is ready. he usually needs several attempts to get the perfect grip. But he does not need to memorize the speech, because the text is displayed on a teleprompter, like the ones television journalists use in news programs. The whole shoot usually only takes about 20 minutes.
The message
In his New Year’s speech, the president often summarizes the past year, and talks about the progress the country has made during it. For example, in 2004, Vladimir Putin highlighted economic success and, in 2014, it remembered of the Sochi Olympics. In addition, the president sends greetings to the country and the people. Dmitry Medvedev always wished the Russians love and happiness; in 2009 he said he was sure that the country would overcome all the difficulties it faced. Vladimir Putin, in 2015, wished to Russia prosperity and well-being. After all of the president’s speeches, the bells of the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower are ringing. Among the population there is a tradition of making a wish during the chime. Then the national anthem of Russia sounds.
The speech of 12.31.2004
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3ZtBtDOWWI
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Places
Unlike their predecessors, Putin and Medvedev have always left their desks to film their New Year’s speeches. They have traditional places to do it. Putin usually talks about Ivanovskaya Square in the Kremlin. Here he can change background : one sees either the State Palace of the Kremlin and the Tower of the Trinity, as in 2001-2007, or the Senate of the Kremlin and the tower Saint-Sauveur as in more recent speeches.
The speech of 12.31.2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOq9NeXZP94
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The approximate location of Ivanovskaya Square in the Kremlin
Medvedev, during his presidency, used to make his speeches in 2008-2011 from the Patriarch’s Bridge. The entire Kremlin was visible in the background. In 2009, his message was recorded too early, and the Moskva River was not yet frozen. Its moving waters were clearly visible during the message. But in 2011, the recording was made after 9 p.m. on December 28. Access by car to the Red October factory buildings has been locked all day in the morning.
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The speech of 12.31.2009
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Dmitri Medvedev’s location
Sometimes Putin changes locations. In 2013, he even moved to another city: he went to Khabarovsk (Far East) to support the people who had suffered from the catastrophic floods in that region in the fall of this year. During the New Year celebrations, it re-recorded his message in a cultural center of the city. The reason was that two terrorist attacks that killed 34 people had taken place in Volgograd on December 29 and 30: his initial speech had been recorded before, but the president later decided to mention both the floods and the terrorist attacks in the speech. The whole country has seen the new version, except for parts of the Far East like the Kamchatka Territory (6,670 kilometers east of Moscow), due to the time difference.
The speech of 12.31.2013
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The cultural center of the city of Khabarovsk
Another change of location occurred in 2014. As the Spasskaya Tower was under reconstruction, it was covered with scaffolding, and decision was taken to record Putin’s message that year from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This option offered a view of the Kremlin with its surroundings such as Mokhovaya Street and the Kremlin Quay in the background of the President.
Message of 12.31.2014
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Vladimir Putin addressed the nation on December 31, 2014 from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
In 2018, the speech of Vladimir Putin was watched by 15.1% of viewers on the Première channel alone. This means that the President’s New Year’s speech has become the most popular New Year’s “show” to ever air on Russian television. And the tradition of watching the president’s speech on New Year’s Eve remains stronger than ever.
In this other post we tell you why the New Year is more popular in Russia than Christmas.
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