June 12

Russia Day is the national holiday of the Russian Federation, celebrated on June 12. It has been celebrated every year since 1992. The First Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic on June 12, 1990.

Vyacheslav Ivanovich Polunin (born 12 June 1950) is a Russian performance artist and clown. He is the creator of the stage spectacles, “Asisyai-revue”, “Slava's Snowshow” and “Diabolo”. In 1968, Polunin started the semi-professional pantomime theater, Litsedeyi. In 1981, his first very successful television performance took place on the New Year's Eve program “Goluboy Ogonyok”. It was a part of his now famous “Asisyai-revue”. In 1985, during the Moscow World Festival of Youth and Students he organized a master class of pantomime attended by many Western mimes. By 1988, Polunin's theater Licedei had created five highly successful shows: “Dreamers”, “Eccentrics on the attic”, “From the life of insects”, “Asisyai-revue” and “Catastrophe”. In 1989, Polunin organized The Caravan of Peace, in which mimes from different parts of the world were on the road for half a year giving street performances in many European cities. Later, he started the Academy of Fools, the center devoted to the "resurrection of the carnival culture in Russia". The project was started with Polunin's own money, but when the money was spent, the project was frozen. In 1994, Polunin declared that he would make a few commercially successful shows in the West and then return to continue the work of the Academy with the money earned. Among the shows he organized were the highly successful “Slava's Snowshow” and “Diabolo” devoted to "comical meditation on life, death, and the beauty of the universe".

Anna Ivanovna Bogaliy-Titovets (born June 12, 1979) is a retired Russian biathlete. She is 167 cm tall and weighs 58 kg. She has had eleven podium finishes, three in first place, four in second, and has come third four times. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Bogaliy-Titovets won gold on the 4×6 km Relay. At the World Championships, she won three gold medals in relays, including a recent title in mixed relay in Holmenkollen.