Our calendars: why does the Russian Church live according to the old style? What does the old and new calendar style mean?

Today, many citizens of our country have different attitudes towards the events of the coup. 1917 years. Some consider this a positive experience for the state, others negative. One thing they always agree on is that during that coup, a lot changed, changed forever.
One of these changes was introduced on January 24, 1918 by the Council of People's Commissars, which at that time was the revolutionary government of Russia. A decree was issued on the introduction of the Western calendar in Russia.

This decree, in their opinion, should have contributed to the establishment of closer ties with Western Europe. In the distant past 1582 year, throughout civilized Europe, the Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar, and this was condoned by famous astronomers of that time.
Since then, the Russian calendar has had slight differences from the Western one 13 days.

This initiative came from the Pope himself. However, the Russian Orthodox hierarchs were very cool towards their Catholic partners, so for Russia everything remained the same.
This is how the citizens lived different countries with different calendars for almost three hundred years.
For example, when in Western Europe celebrate the New Year, then in Russia it’s only 19 December.
Soviet Russia began to live and count days in a new way with 1 February 1918 of the year.

By decree of the SNK (abbreviation of the Council of People's Commissars), which was issued 24 January 1918 year, the day was prescribed 1 February 1918 count years as 14 February.

It should be noted that the arrival of spring in the central part of Russia became completely unnoticeable. Still, it is worth recognizing that it was not for nothing that our ancestors did not want to change their calendar. After all, 1 March, more reminiscent of mid-February. Surely many have noticed that it really starts to smell like spring only from mid-March or the first days of March according to the old style.

Needless to say, a new style Not everyone liked it

If you think that it was in Russia that they were so wild that they did not want to accept the civilized calendar, then you are very mistaken. Many countries did not want to accept the Catholic calendar.
For example, in Greece they began to count according to the new calendar in 1924 year, in Turkey 1926 , and in Egypt 1928 year.
A funny detail should be noted, despite the fact that the Egyptians, Greeks and Turks adopted the Gregorian calendar much later than the Russians, no one noticed that they were celebrating the Old and New Year.

Even in the bastion of Western democracy - England, even with great prejudices they accepted new calendar in 1752, Sweden followed suit a year later

What is the Julian calendar?

It is named after its creator Julius Caesar. In the Roman Empire, they switched to a new chronology 46 year BC. The year had 365 days and began exactly on January 1. The year that was divisible by 4 was called a leap year.
IN leap year one more day added 29 February.

How is the Gregorian calendar different from the Julian calendar?

The only difference between these calendars is that in the calendar of Julius Caesar, each 4th without exception, a year is a leap year, and Pope Gregory’s calendar only has those that can be divisible by 4, but not multiples of one hundred.
Although the difference is almost imperceptible, however, after a hundred years An Orthodox xmas will not celebrate 7 January, as usual, and 8th.

Since 46 BC, most countries in the world have used the Julian calendar. However, in 1582, by the decision of Pope Gregory XIII, it was replaced by Gregorian. That year, the next day after the fourth of October was not the fifth, but the fifteenth of October. Now the Gregorian calendar is officially adopted in all countries except Thailand and Ethiopia.

Reasons for adopting the Gregorian calendar

The main reason for introducing new system chronology became the movement of the day spring equinox, depending on which the date of celebration of Christian Easter was determined. Due to discrepancies between the Julian and tropical calendars (the tropical year is the period of time during which the sun completes one cycle of changing seasons), the day of the vernal equinox gradually shifted to earlier dates. At the time of the introduction of the Julian calendar, it fell on March 21, both according to the accepted calendar system and in fact. But by the 16th century, the difference between the tropical and Julian calendars was already about ten days. As a result, the vernal equinox no longer fell on March 21, but on March 11.

Scientists paid attention to the above problem long before the adoption of the Gregorian chronology system. Back in the 14th century, Nikephoros Grigora, a scientist from Byzantium, reported this to Emperor Andronicus II. According to Grigora, it was necessary to revise the calendar system that existed at that time, since otherwise the date of Easter would continue to shift to a later and later time. However, the emperor did not take any action to eliminate this problem, fearing protest from the church.

Subsequently, other scientists from Byzantium also spoke about the need to switch to a new calendar system. But the calendar continued to remain unchanged. And not only because of the rulers’ fear of causing indignation among the clergy, but also because the further the Christian Easter moved away, the less chance it had of coinciding with the Jewish Passover. This was unacceptable according to church canons.

By the 16th century, the problem had become so urgent that the need to solve it was no longer in doubt. As a result, Pope Gregory XIII assembled a commission, which was tasked with carrying out all the necessary research and creating a new calendar system. The results obtained were displayed in the bullet “Among the most important”. It was she who became the document with which the adoption of the new calendar system began.

The main disadvantage of the Julian calendar is its lack of accuracy in relation to the tropical calendar. In the Julian calendar, all years that are divisible by 100 without a remainder are considered leap years. As a result, the difference with the tropical calendar increases every year. Approximately every century and a half it increases by 1 day.

Gregorian calendar much more accurate. It has fewer leap years. In this chronology system, leap years are considered to be years that:

1. divisible by 400 without remainder;
2. divisible by 4 without a remainder, but not divisible by 100 without a remainder.

Thus, the years 1100 or 1700 in the Julian calendar are considered leap years because they are divisible by 4 without a remainder. In the Gregorian calendar, from those that have already passed since its adoption, 1600 and 2000 are considered leap years.

Immediately after the introduction of the new system, it was possible to eliminate the difference between the tropical and calendar years, which at that time was already 10 days. Otherwise, due to errors in calculations, an extra year would accumulate every 128 years. In the Gregorian calendar, an extra day occurs only every 10,000 years.

Not in all of them modern states the new chronology system was adopted immediately. The Catholic states were the first to switch to it. In these countries, the Gregorian calendar was officially adopted either in 1582 or shortly after the decree of Pope Gregory XIII.

In a number of states, the transition to a new calendar system was associated with popular unrest. The most serious of them took place in Riga. They lasted for five whole years - from 1584 to 1589.

There were also some funny situations. So, for example, in Holland and Belgium, due to the official adoption of the new calendar, after December 21, 1582, January 1, 1583 came. As a result, the inhabitants of these countries were left without Christmas in 1582.

Russia was one of the last to adopt the Gregorian calendar. The new system was officially introduced on the territory of the RSFSR on January 26, 1918 by decree of the Council of People's Commissars. In accordance with this document, immediately after January 31 of that year, February 14 came on the territory of the state.

Later than in Russia, the Gregorian calendar was introduced only in a few countries, including Greece, Turkey and China.

After the official adoption of the new chronology system, Pope Gregory XIII sent a proposal to Constantinople to switch to a new calendar. However, she was met with refusal. Its main reason was the inconsistency of the calendar with the canons of celebrating Easter. However, later most Orthodox churches switched to the Gregorian calendar.

Today, only four Orthodox churches use the Julian calendar: Russian, Serbian, Georgian and Jerusalem.

Rules for specifying dates

In accordance with the generally accepted rule, dates falling between 1582 and the moment the Gregorian calendar was adopted in the country are indicated in both the old and new styles. In this case, the new style is indicated in quotation marks. Earlier dates are indicated according to the proleptic calendar (i.e., a calendar used to indicate dates earlier than the date the calendar appeared). In countries where the Julian calendar was adopted, dates before 46 BC. e. indicated by proleptic Julian calendar, and where it was not - according to the proleptic Gregorian.

For all of us, the calendar is a familiar and even mundane thing. This ancient invention person records days, dates, months, seasons, frequency natural phenomena, which are based on the system of movement of celestial bodies: the Moon, the Sun, the stars. The earth rushes by solar orbit, leaving years and centuries behind.

Moon calendar

In one day, the Earth makes one complete revolution around its own axis. It passes around the Sun once per year. Solar or lasts three hundred sixty-five days five hours forty-eight minutes forty-six seconds. Therefore, there is no integer number of days. Hence the difficulty in drawing up an accurate calendar for the correct counting of time.

The ancient Romans and Greeks used a convenient and simple calendar. The rebirth of the Moon occurs at intervals of 30 days, or to be precise, at twenty-nine days, twelve hours and 44 minutes. That is why days and then months could be counted by changes in the Moon.

In the beginning, this calendar had ten months, which were named after the Roman gods. From the third century to ancient world an analogue was used based on the four-year lunar-solar cycle, which gave an error in the value of the solar year of one day.

In Egypt they used a solar calendar based on observations of the Sun and Sirius. The year according to it was three hundred sixty-five days. It consisted of twelve months of thirty days. After it expired, another five days were added. This was formulated as “in honor of the birth of the gods.”

History of the Julian calendar

Further changes occurred in the forty-sixth year BC. e. Emperor Ancient Rome Julius Caesar, based on the Egyptian model, introduced the Julian calendar. In it, the solar year was taken as the size of the year, which was slightly larger than the astronomical one and amounted to three hundred sixty-five days and six hours. The first of January marked the beginning of the year. According to the Julian calendar, Christmas began to be celebrated on January 7th. This is how the transition to a new calendar took place.

In gratitude for the reform, the Senate of Rome renamed the month of Quintilis, when Caesar was born, to Julius (now July). A year later, the emperor was killed, and the Roman priests, either out of ignorance or deliberately, again began to confuse the calendar and began to declare every third year a leap year. As a result, from forty-four to nine BC. e. Instead of nine, twelve leap years were declared.

Emperor Octivian Augustus saved the situation. By his order, there were no leap years for the next sixteen years, and the rhythm of the calendar was restored. In his honor, the month Sextilis was renamed Augustus (August).

For the Orthodox Church, simultaneity was very important church holidays. The date of Easter was discussed at First and this issue became one of the main ones. The rules for the exact calculation of this celebration established at this Council cannot be changed under pain of anathema.

Gregorian calendar

Chapter Catholic Church Pope Gregory the Thirteenth approved and introduced a new calendar in 1582. It was called "Gregorian". It would seem that everyone was happy with the Julian calendar, according to which Europe lived for more than sixteen centuries. However, Gregory the Thirteenth considered that reform was necessary to determine more exact date celebration of Easter, and also for the day to return to the twenty-first of March.

In 1583, the Council of Eastern Patriarchs in Constantinople condemned the adoption of the Gregorian calendar as violating the liturgical cycle and calling into question the canons of the Ecumenical Councils. Indeed, in some years he breaks the basic rule of celebrating Easter. It happens that Catholic Bright Sunday falls earlier than Jewish Easter, and this is not allowed by the canons of the church.

Calculation of chronology in Rus'

In our country, starting from the tenth century, the New Year was celebrated on the first of March. Five centuries later, in 1492, in Russia the beginning of the year was moved, according to church traditions, to the first of September. This went on for more than two hundred years.

On the nineteenth of December, seven thousand two hundred and eight, Tsar Peter the Great issued a decree that the Julian calendar in Russia, adopted from Byzantium along with baptism, was still in force. The start date of the year has changed. It was officially approved in the country. The New Year according to the Julian calendar was to be celebrated on the first of January “from the Nativity of Christ.”

After the revolution on February fourteenth, one thousand nine hundred and eighteen, new rules were introduced in our country. The Gregorian calendar excluded three within each four hundred years. It was this that they began to adhere to.

How are the Julian and Gregorian calendars different? The difference between is in the calculation of leap years. Over time it increases. If in the sixteenth century it was ten days, then in the seventeenth it increased to eleven, in the eighteenth century it was already equal to twelve days, thirteen in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and by the twenty-second century this figure will reach fourteen days.

The Orthodox Church of Russia uses the Julian calendar, following the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils, and Catholics use the Gregorian calendar.

You can often hear the question of why the whole world celebrates Christmas on the twenty-fifth of December, and we celebrate the seventh of January. The answer is completely obvious. The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas according to the Julian calendar. This also applies to other major church holidays.

Today the Julian calendar in Russia is called the “old style”. Currently, its scope of application is very limited. It is used by some Orthodox Churches - Serbian, Georgian, Jerusalem and Russian. In addition, the Julian calendar is used in some Orthodox monasteries in Europe and the USA.

in Russia

In our country, the issue of calendar reform has been raised more than once. In 1830 it was staged Russian Academy Sci. Prince K.A. Lieven, who served as Minister of Education at the time, considered this proposal untimely. Only after the revolution the issue was brought to a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars Russian Federation. Already on January 24, Russia adopted the Gregorian calendar.

Features of the transition to the Gregorian calendar

For Orthodox Christians, the introduction of a new style by the authorities caused certain difficulties. The New Year turned out to be shifted to a time when any fun is not welcome. Moreover, January 1 is the day of remembrance of St. Boniface, the patron saint of everyone who wants to give up drunkenness, and our country celebrates this day with a glass in hand.

Gregorian and Julian calendar: differences and similarities

Both of them consist of three hundred sixty-five days in a normal year and three hundred sixty-six in a leap year, have 12 months, 4 of which are 30 days and 7 of 31 days, February is either 28 or 29. The difference lies only in the frequency of leap days years.

According to the Julian calendar, a leap year occurs every three years. In this case, it turns out that the calendar year is 11 minutes longer than the astronomical year. In other words, after 128 years there is an extra day. The Gregorian calendar also recognizes that the fourth year is a leap year. The exceptions are those years that are multiples of 100, as well as those that can be divided by 400. Based on this, extra days appear only after 3200 years.

What awaits us in the future

Unlike the Gregorian calendar, the Julian calendar is simpler for chronology, but it is ahead of the astronomical year. The basis of the first became the second. According to the Orthodox Church, the Gregorian calendar violates the order of many biblical events.

Due to the fact that the Julian and Gregorian calendars increase the difference in dates over time, orthodox churches who use the first of them will celebrate Christmas from 2101 not on January 7, as is now the case, but on the eighth of January, and from nine thousand nine hundred and one the celebration will take place on the eighth of March. In the liturgical calendar, the date will still correspond to the twenty-fifth of December.

In countries that used the Julian calendar by the early twentieth century, such as Greece, the dates of all historical events, which occurred after the fifteenth of October, one thousand five hundred and eighty-two, are nominally celebrated on the same dates when they happened.

Consequences of calendar reforms

Currently, the Gregorian calendar is quite accurate. According to many experts, it does not need changes, but the issue of its reform has been discussed for several decades. This is not about introducing a new calendar or any new methods for accounting for leap years. It's about about rearranging the days of the year so that the beginning of each year falls on one day, for example on Sunday.

Today, calendar months range from 28 to 31 days, the length of a quarter ranges from ninety to ninety-two days, with the first half of the year being 3-4 days shorter than the second. This complicates the work of financial and planning authorities.

What new calendar projects exist?

Various projects have been proposed over the past one hundred and sixty years. In 1923, a calendar reform committee was created at the League of Nations. After the end of the Second World War this question was transferred to the Economic and Social Committee of the United Nations.

Despite the fact that there are quite a lot of them, preference is given to two options - the 13-month calendar of the French philosopher Auguste Comte and the proposal of the French astronomer G. Armelin.

In the first option, the month always begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday. One day in the year has no name at all and is inserted at the end of the last thirteenth month. In a leap year, such a day appears in the sixth month. According to experts, this calendar has many significant shortcomings, so more attention is paid to the project of Gustave Armelin, according to which the year consists of twelve months and four quarters of ninety-one days.

The first month of the quarter has thirty-one days, the next two - thirty. The first day of each year and quarter begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday. IN in a normal year one additional day is added after the thirtieth of December, and in a leap year - after the 30th of June. This project was approved by France, India, Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and some other countries. For a long time General Assembly delayed approval of the project, and Lately this work at the UN ceased.

Will Russia return to the “old style”

It is quite difficult for foreigners to explain what the concept of “Old New Year” means and why we celebrate Christmas later than Europeans. Today there are people who want to make the transition to the Julian calendar in Russia. Moreover, the initiative comes from well-deserved and respected people. In their opinion, 70% of Russian Orthodox Russians have the right to live according to the calendar used by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Different ways of calculating the calendar. A new style of time calculation was introduced by the Council of People's Commissars - the government Soviet Russia January 24, 1918 "The Decree on the Introduction to Russian Republic Western European calendar".

The decree was intended to promote “the establishment in Russia of the same cultural peoples calculation of time". Indeed, since 1582, when throughout Europe the Julian calendar, in accordance with the recommendations of astronomers, was replaced by the Gregorian, the Russian calendar turned out to differ from the calendars of civilized states by 13 days.

The fact is that the new European calendar was born through the efforts of the Pope, but the Russian Orthodox clergy had no authority or decree from the Catholic Pope, and they rejected the innovation. So they lived for more than 300 years: in Europe New Year, in Russia is still December 19th.

The decree of the Council of People's Commissars (abbreviation of the Council of People's Commissars) dated January 24, 1918, ordered February 1, 1918 to be considered February 14th (in parentheses, we note that, according to many years of observations, the Russian orthodox calendar, that is " old style", is more consistent with the climate of the European part of the Russian Federation. For example, on March 1, when according to the old style it is still deep February, there is no smell of spring, and relative warming begins in mid-March or its first days according to the old style).

Not everyone liked the new style

However, not only Russia resisted the establishment of the Catholic count of days; in Greece, the “New Style” was legalized in 1924, Turkey - 1926, Egypt - 1928. At the same time, it is not heard that the Greeks or Egyptians celebrated, as in Russia, two holidays: New Year and Old New Year, that is, New Year according to the old style.

It is interesting that the introduction of the Gregorian calendar was accepted without enthusiasm in those European countries, where the leading religion was Protestantism. So in England they switched to a new account of time only in 1752, in Sweden - a year later, in 1753.

Julian calendar

It was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. Started on January 1st. The year had 365 days. A year number divisible by 4 was considered a leap year. One day was added to it - February 29. The difference between the calendar of Julius Caesar and the calendar of Pope Gregory is that the first has a leap year every fourth year without exception, while the second has leap years only those years that are divisible by four, but not divisible by a hundred. As a result, the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars is gradually increasing and, for example, in 2101, Orthodox Christmas will be celebrated not on January 7, but on January 8.

Since by this time the difference between the old and new styles was 13 days, the decree ordered that after January 31, 1918, not February 1, but February 14. The same decree prescribed, until July 1, 1918, after the date of each day according to the new style, to write in brackets the number according to the old style: February 14 (1), February 15 (2), etc.

From the history of chronology in Russia.

The ancient Slavs, like many other peoples, initially based their calendar on the period of change lunar phases. But already by the time of the adoption of Christianity, i.e. by the end of the 10th century. n. e., Ancient Rus' I used the lunisolar calendar.

Calendar of the ancient Slavs. It was not possible to definitively establish what the calendar of the ancient Slavs was. It is only known that initially time was counted by seasons. Probably, the 12-month period was also used at the same time moon calendar. In later times, the Slavs switched to a lunisolar calendar, in which an additional 13th month was inserted seven times every 19 years.

The most ancient monuments of Russian writing show that the months had purely Slavic names, the origin of which was closely related to natural phenomena. Moreover, the same months, depending on the climate of the places in which different tribes lived, received different names. So, January was called where the section (the time of deforestation), where the prosinets (after the winter clouds the blue sky appeared), where the jelly (since it became icy, cold), etc.; February—cut, snowy or severe (severe frosts); March - berezozol (there are several interpretations here: the birch begins to bloom; they took sap from birches; they burned the birch for coal), dry (the poorest in precipitation in the ancient Kievan Rus, in some places the earth was already dry, the sap (a reminder of birch sap); April - pollen (flowering of gardens), birch (beginning of birch flowering), duben, kviten, etc.; May - grass (grass turns green), summer, pollen; June - Cherven (cherries turn red), Izok (grasshoppers chirp - “Izoki”), Mlechen; July - lipets (linden blossoms), cherven (in the north, where phenological phenomena are delayed), serpen (from the word “sickle”, indicating the time of harvest); August - sickle, stubble, roar (from the verb “to roar” - the roar of deer, or from the word “glow” - cold dawns, and possibly from “pasori” - auroras); September - veresen (heather blossoms); ruen (from the Slavic root word meaning tree, giving yellow paint); October - leaf fall, “pazdernik” or “kastrychnik” (pazdernik - hemp buds, the name for the south of Russia); November - gruden (from the word “heap” - frozen rut on the road), leaf fall (in the south of Russia); December - jelly, chest, prosinets.

The year began on March 1, and around this time agricultural work began.

Many ancient names of months later moved into the series Slavic languages and largely held in some modern languages, in particular in Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish.

At the end of the 10th century. Ancient Rus' adopted Christianity. At the same time, the chronology used by the Romans came to us - the Julian calendar (based on the solar year), with Roman names for the months and a seven-day week. It counted years from the “creation of the world,” which allegedly occurred 5508 years before our chronology. This date - one of the many variants of eras from the “creation of the world” - was adopted in the 7th century. in Greece and for a long time used by the Orthodox Church.

For many centuries, the beginning of the year was considered March 1, but in 1492, in accordance with church tradition, the beginning of the year was officially moved to September 1 and was celebrated this way for more than two hundred years. However, a few months after Muscovites celebrated their next New Year on September 1, 7208, they had to repeat the celebration. This happened because on December 19, 7208, a personal decree of Peter I on the reform of the calendar in Russia was signed and promulgated, according to which a new beginning of the year was introduced - from January 1 and new era- Christian chronology (from the “Nativity of Christ”).

Peter's decree was called: "On the writing henceforth of Genvar from the 1st day of 1700 in all papers of the year from the Nativity of Christ, and not from the creation of the world." Therefore, the decree prescribed that the day after December 31, 7208 from the “creation of the world” should be considered January 1, 1700 from the “Nativity of Christ.” In order for the reform to be adopted without complications, the decree ended with a prudent clause: “And if anyone wants to write both those years, from the creation of the world and from the Nativity of Christ, freely in a row.”

Celebrating the first civil New Year in Moscow. The day after the announcement of Peter I’s decree on calendar reform on Red Square in Moscow, i.e. December 20, 7208, a new decree of the tsar was announced - “On the celebration of the New Year.” Considering that January 1, 1700 is not only the beginning of a new year, but also the beginning of a new century (Here a significant mistake was made in the decree: 1700 is last year XVII century, and not the first year of the XVIII century. The new century began on January 1, 1701. An error that is sometimes repeated today, the decree ordered that this event be celebrated with especially solemnity. It gave detailed instructions on how to organize a holiday in Moscow. On New Year's Eve, Peter I himself lit the first rocket on Red Square, giving the signal for the opening of the holiday. The streets were illuminated. The ringing of bells and cannon fire began, and the sounds of trumpets and timpani were heard. The Tsar congratulated the population of the capital on the New Year, and the festivities continued all night. Multi-colored rockets took off from the courtyards into the dark winter sky, and “along the large streets, where there is space,” lights burned—bonfires and tar barrels attached to poles.

The houses of the residents of the wooden capital were decorated with needles “from trees and branches of pine, spruce and juniper.” For a whole week the houses were decorated, and as night fell the lights were lit. Shooting “from small cannons and from muskets or other small weapons,” as well as launching “missiles,” were entrusted to people “who do not count gold.” And “poor people” were asked to “put at least a tree or branch on each of their gates or over their temple.” Since that time, our country has established the custom of celebrating New Year's Day on January 1 every year.

After 1918, there were still calendar reforms in the USSR. In the period from 1929 to 1940, calendar reforms were carried out in our country three times, caused by production needs. Thus, on August 26, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution “On the transition to continuous production in enterprises and institutions of the USSR,” in which it was recognized that it was necessary to begin systematic and consecutive translation enterprises and institutions for continuous production. In the fall of 1929, a gradual transition to “continuity” began, which ended in the spring of 1930 after the publication of a resolution of a special government commission under the Council of Labor and Defense. This decree introduced a unified production timesheet and calendar. IN calendar year 360 days were provided, i.e. 72 five-day periods. It was decided to consider the remaining 5 days as holidays. Unlike the ancient Egyptian calendar, they were not located all together at the end of the year, but were timed to coincide with the Soviet memorable days and revolutionary holidays: January 22, May 1 and 2, and November 7 and 8.

The workers of each enterprise and institution were divided into 5 groups, and each group was given a day of rest on every five-day week for the whole year. This meant that after four working days there was a day of rest. After the introduction of the “uninterrupted” period, there was no longer a need for a seven-day week, since weekends could fall not only on different days of the month, but also on different days of the week.

However, this calendar did not last long. Already on November 21, 1931, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution “On the intermittent production week in institutions,” which allowed the People's Commissariats and other institutions to switch to a six-day intermittent production week. For them, permanent days off were established on the following dates of the month: 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30. At the end of February, the day off fell on the last day of the month or was postponed to March 1. In those months that contained 31 days, the last day of the month was considered the same month and was paid specially. The decree on the transition to an intermittent six-day week came into force on December 1, 1931.

Both the five-day and six-day periods completely disrupted the traditional seven-day week with a general day off on Sunday. The six-day week was used for about nine years. Only on June 26, 1940, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree “On the transition to an eight-hour working day, to a seven-day working week and on the prohibition of the unauthorized departure of workers and employees from enterprises and institutions." In development of this decree, on June 27, 1940, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution in which it established that "in addition to Sundays, non-working days are also:

January 22, May 1 and 2, November 7 and 8, December 5. The same decree abolished the existing rural areas six special days of rest and non-working days on March 12 (Day of the Overthrow of the Autocracy) and March 18 (Paris Commune Day).

On March 7, 1967, the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions adopted a resolution “On the transfer of workers and employees of enterprises, institutions and organizations to a five-day work week with two days off,” but this reform did not in any way affect the structure of the modern calendar."

But the most interesting thing is that passions do not subside. The next revolution is happening in our new time. Sergey Baburin, Victor Alksnis, Irina Savelyeva and Alexander Fomenko contributed to the State Duma a bill on the transition of Russia from January 1, 2008 to the Julian calendar. IN explanatory note deputies noted that “there is no world calendar” and proposed to establish transition period from December 31, 2007, when for 13 days chronology will be carried out simultaneously according to two calendars at once. Only four deputies took part in the voting. Three are against, one is for. There were no abstentions. The rest of the elected representatives ignored the vote.