June 03, 2020

Celebrating Russia's Graduates


Celebrating Russia's Graduates
This event involves quite a bit of fanfare. Image by Spbkinoforum via Wikimedia Commons

Every summer a unique celebration takes place in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the White Nights period – Alye Parusa ("Scarlet Sails"). This holiday takes place every year on the Saturday closest to the shortest night of the year. It is usually conducted sometime between June 18 and 25, although it never takes place on June 22 (the solemn anniversary of the Nazi invasion). This year, Alye Parusa will likely take place on June 20. The date is usually announced in March, but this year the date has not yet been confirmed. Regardless, the holiday always takes place after classes and exams have ended.

The history of this holiday traces back to the 1960s, when graduates themselves took the initiative for ensuring that the holiday took place. The first Alye Parusa occurred on June 27, 1968, from 11 pm - 2 am. Over 25,000 graduates participated, with viewers watching from the Palace Embankment, as well as bridges and Strelka Vasilievsky Island. The holiday was officially approved the following year.

The idea to call the event “Scarlet Sails” is attributed to the popularity of a 1960s film based on a fairy tale of the same name by Alexander Grin. The story was written in the 1920s and is about the dream that each of us can create a miracle for a loved one.

Unfortunately, after a decade, the tradition stopped, and it was only resumed again in 2005. It’s only possible to attend the show if you have a ticket, but anyone can watch from the banks of the Neva.

The event kicks off with a star-studded concert, which is then followed by a fantastic fireworks show. The evening culminates with a red-sailed ship processing along the Neva. An estimated one million people flock to St. Petersburg to celebrate Alye Parusa.

For those who want a front-row seat to the event, it’s advisable to get into place a few hours before it starts, not later than 5 pm. It’s also important to keep in mind that after 10 pm the crowd will be so dense that it would be practically impossible to leave. Moreover, cell services are likely to be disrupted, so you should plan on a meeting place with your group in advance. How these issues will be reflected in the time of COVID is not clear.

You Might Also Like

Alexander Grin
  • July 01, 2010

Alexander Grin

Alexander Grin (1880-1932) had a short life filled with misfortune. His literary output has never been thought to be "classic" but it is entertaining and has enjoyed a recent resurgence of popularity.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955