Why is the Airborne Day celebrated on August 2?

Question: "What is the date of the Airborne Forces?" Recently, many people are interested. Because it is then that strong guys in vests and blue berets arrange extensive festivities with bathing in the fountains. Sometimes in this or that region there are skirmishes and fights, during which the brave daring finds a way out. Perhaps, therefore, ordinary people try not to visit public places on the day of the Airborne Forces, and law enforcement bodies and the press are very happy, if in general everything does without accidents.

The airborne forces were created as a unit capable of attacking the enemy from the air, landing in the rear, and conducting active combat actions of high mobility. The first detachment was created in 1931 and numbered about 160 people. However, the first landing of paratroopers occurred in the summer of 1930, and therefore it was on August 2 that it was determined as the day of the airborne forces. After this operation, the military strategists saw great prospects for such military units and began to comprehensively develop amphibious forces and increase their numbers.

Paratroopers are considered highly skilled fighters. They can travel long distances in full computation, professionally jump with parachutes, shoot accurately, and know the techniques of hand-to-hand combat. In addition to hand weapons, fighters are equipped with communication equipment, anti-aircraft guns, combat vehicles with which they are also able to handle. Among the unconditional records of our paratroopers, we can note the landing inside the combat vehicles of the landing force and the landing on the North Pole in full combat equipment.

On the day of the Airborne Forces, it is now possible to recall those fighters who performed the feat during the Great Patriotic War and in our time. So, the 6th company of the landing regiment No.104 in the total of 22 people stopped the breakthrough from the Argun gorge by more than two and a half thousand fighters Khattab and Basayev. 21 people from this company were awarded the title of Hero of Russia posthumously. With the help of airborne divisions, many interethnic conflicts were stopped in 1988-1992 in Armenia and Azerbaijan, Transnistria, Georgia, South and North Ossetia.

Day of the Airborne Forces in Moscow is usually celebrated on Poklonnaya Hill, in the All-Russian Exhibition Center, Gorky, in St. Petersburg - on the Palace Square and on the Krestovsky Island. In Kiev paratroopers gather next to the monument to the Internationalist Wars or near the Great Patriotic War Museum. In fraternal countries, the day of the paratrooper (the Republic of Belarus) and the Day of Airborne Forces (Ukraine) are celebrated on this day.

It is interesting that the day of the Airborne Forces in Russia coincides with the day of the prophet Elijah, who is considered to be the heavenly defender of the landing forces. Some paratroopers participate in liturgies and the procession of the cross, performed in honor of this saint. However, the greater part is more willing to take part in folk festivals, demonstration performances, exhibitions of souvenir-patriotic goods, concerts. Since the holidays are likely to cause conflicts, on this day in all cities of Russia additional measures are being taken to restore order in the form of reinforced orders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.