What year did the transition take place? Old and new calendar style

Having gone to bed on January 31, 1918, the Russians woke up on February 14. On this day, the "Decree on the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic" came into force. Since that time, the country has moved from the Julian to the new Gregorian time reckoning.

Everyone lies calendars

Created in Rome in the 1st century BC, the Julian calendar (named after Julius Caesar) had an error - it was 11 minutes and 14 seconds longer than the astronomical year. Insignificant at first glance, the inaccuracy led to the fact that for every 128 years an extra day was accumulated. As a result, the calendar began to lag behind natural phenomena, and most importantly, from the astronomical spring equinox, which the Ecumenical Christian Council decided to celebrate on March 21. Interestingly, by the end of the 16th century (almost 1280 years later), the astronomical moment of the vernal equinox in the Julian calendar had already moved 10 days - from March 21 to March 11. Therefore, many scientists began to raise the issue of correcting the system of chronology. The calendar was reformed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. On his behalf, astronomers compiled a new calendar, in which 10 days were removed, and after October 4, 15 came.

But the new calendar is also not perfect: it is 26 seconds behind the astronomical one. According to the Gregorian, there are 365 days in a year (excluding leap years). And our planet covers this distance in 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes. It turns out that every year, in which there are exactly 365 days, we accumulate hours “not covered” by the calendar, which after four years form almost a day. To compensate for this and prevent the actual seasons of the year from shifting relative to the calendar, astronomers have proposed adding one day every fourth February. But, in order not to go over too much time, the scientist Luigi Lilio came up with the idea to consider leap years only those of them, the number of hundreds in which is divisible by four. So, if 1600 was a leap year (since 16 is divisible by 4 without a remainder), then the following century years (1700, 1800 and 1900) should be simple in the calendar, and 2000 should be a leap year. Thanks to the introduction of a new calendar, which was called the Gregorian after the name of the pope, March 21 returned to the vernal equinox. But, despite the fact that the "new style" of chronology is more accurate, its implementation was lengthy and difficult. First, it was accepted by the Catholic countries of Western Europe - Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Poland. Later than all, Turkey (in 1925) and Egypt (in 1928) came to the Gregorian calendar.

Incidents in the conversion of years To convert dates from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, a certain number of days must be added to the first, depending on the century. So, in the XIV century it is 8 days, in the XIV - 9 days, in the XVI - XVII - 10 days, in the XVIII - 11 days, in the XIX - 12 days, in the XX - XXI - 13 days. Ignorance of this rule several times led to amusing cases. So, everyone knows that the Battle of Kulikovo took place on September 8, 1380 according to the "old style". In the XIV century, the difference was +8 days, which means that according to the new style, this date falls on September 16th. And in 1980, all the central newspapers reported that the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kulikovo would take place on September 8th. It turns out that the event took place on August 31. And the correspondents of the magazine "Knowledge is Power" generally deducted 12 days, saying that the battle took place on August 27, 1380.

Adoption of the calendar in Russia

The Julian calendar, introduced by Peter I in 1700, existed in Russia for 218 years. “It is difficult to say why Peter I did not introduce the Gregorian calendar,” says Professor of Kazan University, Doctor of Historical Sciences Igor Ermolaev. “Probably, the contradictions between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, as well as the unwillingness of the emperor to come into conflict with the church, had an effect here.”

The fact that it was necessary to switch to the “new style” in Russia was understood only at the beginning of the 19th century. But the first attempts were not successful. The reform was first opposed by the Minister of Public Education Karl Lieven, and then by the Orthodox Church, which, by the way, still lives according to the "old style". At the end of the 19th century, the chemist Dmitry Mendeleev also advocated the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, but the Holy Synod declared that its introduction was untimely.

Not everyone noticed the transition Russia's transition to the Gregorian calendar occurred after the October Revolution of 1917. Already three weeks after the overthrow of the Provisional Government, the Bolsheviks began to prepare a calendar reform. On January 24, Vladimir Lenin signed a decree "On the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic."

“In order to establish in Russia the calculation of time, which is the same with almost all cultural peoples, the Council of People's Commissars decides to introduce a new calendar into civil use after the month of January of this year. Therefore, the first day after January 31 of this year is not February 1, but February 14, the second day is 15, etc.,” the decree says.

The reason for the transition was the fact that the Gregorian calendar is more astronomically accurate, and most of the Earth already lived on it. Lenin did not want Russia to fall behind other countries.

“The bulk of the population, among whom were illiterate people, did not notice the reform. Workers and former peasants did not listen to the radio, did not read newspapers, but learned about the holidays in the church, so the transition to the new chronology went smoothly, without riots,” says Igor Ermolaev.

Among the intelligentsia, the long-awaited reform was met with great satisfaction. However, people are so accustomed to living according to the “old style” that after the reform, for the first time, they were guided by two calendars at once. In this regard, two dates began to be indicated in the books: if the event was pre-revolutionary, then the main date is written in Julian, and Gregorian is indicated in brackets, and vice versa.

Another remnant of the Julian calendar is the fact that Russians continue to celebrate the New Year according to the "old style" on the night of January 13-14.

Why did the Russian Orthodox Church not adopt the Gregorian calendar?

The Russian Orthodox Church continues to use the Julian calendar in its worship, and therefore celebrates Christmas not on the night of December 25, but according to the "old style" on January 7 (13 days later). The higher clergy believe that there are no good reasons to abandon the Julian calendar, because it has been consecrated by centuries of use in the Church. In addition, when switching to the “new style” while maintaining the traditional Paschalia (the system for calculating the date of the Easter holiday), violations of the liturgical Charter are inevitable, because the date of Easter is calculated according to a special lunisolar calendar, inextricably linked with the Julian.

By the way, the dissimilarity between the dates of the Julian and Gregorian calendars increases every century. In the XX-XXI centuries this difference is 13 days, and from March 2100 it will reach 14 days. Therefore, if traditions continue, from 2101 Christmas and the Old New Year will be celebrated a day later - on January 8th.

The October Revolution of 1917 and the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks influenced all aspects of public life in the former Russian Empire. The foundations of Russian society were ruthlessly broken, banks were nationalized, landlords' lands were confiscated, the church was separated from the state. The problems of counting time were not left without attention. The calendar reform has been brewing for a long time, since the middle of the 19th century. In pre-revolutionary Russia, the Julian calendar was used in civil and church life, and in most Western countries, the Gregorian calendar. Domestic scientists P. M. Saladilov, N. V. Stepanov, D. I. Mendeleev repeatedly proposed various options for changing the chronology system. The objective of the reform was to eliminate the 12-day, and then the 13-day difference that arose due to the different way of calculating leap years. These proposals ran into a negative reaction from the Russian Orthodox Church and a number of senior officials who defended the opinion that the introduction of a new calendar would be a betrayal of the canons of Orthodoxy.

The Bolsheviks raised the issue of calendar reform in November 1917. In less than two months, the drafts were prepared, and on January 24, 1918, the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Lenin, signed a decree "On the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic"1. The document ordered to introduce the Gregorian calendar into civil use instead of the existing Julian one in order to establish the same chronology system with most world powers. For the equation of the daily account, after January 31, 1918, it was necessary to count not the 1st, but February 14th.

The change in the style of reckoning caused a negative reaction from the Church. At the Local Council, which took place in 1917-1918, the introduction of the Gregorian calendar became the subject of heated discussion2. It was decided to consider the issue of adopting a new calendar at a general meeting of two departments - on worship and the legal status of the Church in the state. It took place on January 29, 1918. The presiding Metropolitan Arseniy (A. G. Stadnitsky) demanded that the problem be resolved as soon as possible - by the next day. In his opinion, both departments should have developed a reasoned position on such a fundamental issue for the Church. The urgency was dictated by the introduction of a new style two days later, from February 1.

At the meeting, it was unanimously decided to keep the Julian style of chronology in church use. One of the delegates of the council, professor of theology of the Moscow Theological Academy S. S. Glagolev, was instructed to prepare a draft on the calendar issue, announced by him at the meeting of the council on January 303. It stated that:

1) the introduction of a new style in civil life should not prevent believers from adhering to the Julian calendar; 2) The Church must preserve the old style, because the introduction of a new calendar into church use would have entailed the elimination of the Feast of the Presentation in 1918; 3) the issue of changing the style should be the subject of discussion and be decided by the Ecumenical Council with the participation of all Christians; 4) the rules on the celebration of Easter cannot be applied to the Gregorian calendar, since in some years according to the new style it was celebrated earlier than the Jewish Passover; 5) it was emphasized that a new, corrected, calendar is necessary for the entire Christian world, but the significance of the Gregorian calendar in this capacity was denied.

Glagolev's position expressed the official point of view of the Orthodox Church. According to the decision of one of the first Ecumenical Councils in Nicaea, it was established that the Christian Easter should be celebrated later than the Jewish one. The ROC has steadfastly followed this rule for many years and has repeatedly accused the Catholic Church of violating it. However, due to the change in the political situation in the country, the Church was forced to soften its tough position. In 1918, the possibility of holding a calendar and closely related Easter reform was not denied. At the same time, the possibility of holding it was directly made dependent on the convening of the Ecumenical Council and, therefore, was postponed indefinitely. According to Glagolev, before that, secular authorities had no right to prevent the use of the Julian calendar by believers for internal calculations. This statement was directly related to the negative attitude of the leadership of the Orthodox Church to interference in its affairs by the Soviet government. After a brief discussion, the conclusion was approved by the Council4.

Soon, a special commission was formed for an in-depth study of the calendar issue5. It included delegates of the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church Bishop Pakhomiy of Chernigov (P. P. Kedrov), professors S. S. Glagolev, I. I. Sokolov, I. A. Karabinov, B. A. Turaev, P. N. Zhu-kovich . Glagolev and Sokolov agreed that the Gregorian calendar is harmful, and the Julian one meets scientific requirements. However, this did not mean that in Russia it was necessary to preserve the old style. In particular, Glagolev proposed to cancel the 31st
months, then in two years the old style would coincide with the new one. He also proposed another option for correcting the Gregorian calendar - through the abolition of one day of any 31st day and the elimination of one leap year every 128 years. At the same time, it was recognized that such a change could only be made by decision of an international conference. The researcher admitted that it would be more correct to move the old style by this method not by 13, but by 14 days. From his point of view, his astronomical calculations proved that this project was more accurate. Nevertheless, despite such radical proposals, the scientist believed that in the near future the Church should preserve the old style7.

The members of the commission adopted a resolution, which noted the impossibility of an independent decision by the ROC on the issue of introducing the Gregorian calendar. Patriarch Tikhon was asked to draw up a special letter addressed to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in order to clarify the points of view on the calendar problem of all autocephalous Orthodox churches.

In connection with the outbreak of the Civil War, meetings of the commission were no longer held. Her activities were limited to compiling and attempting to publish a church calendar for 19198.

In subsequent years, the ROC continued to adhere to the old style. One of the reasons for this was the negative attitude of the clergy towards the Soviet regime. Noteworthy is the statement made by one of the delegates of the Local Council M. A. Semyonov: “I would think that one should not pay any attention to the decrees of the Bolsheviks and not react to them in any way. I know a lot of people do that."

In the first months of Soviet power, the church did not consider it possible to recognize its legitimacy. This state of affairs could not suit the leadership of the Bolshevik Party. After the final victory in the Civil War, it begins a policy of terror against individual clergy and the Church as a whole. For its final subordination to the OGPU, a renovationist movement was organized and a special anti-religious commission was created. Not the last role in this process was played by the fact of recognition of the Gregorian calendar. In the wake of persecution, Patriarch Tikhon was forced to sign documents in which it was prescribed to count the day following October 1, 1923, as October 1410. At the same time, it was pointed out that the introduction of a new calendar does not affect the dogmas and sacred canons of the Orthodox Church and is in strict accordance with the data of astronomical science. It was especially emphasized that the decree was not the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, but only a correction of the old paschal11. This decision was made under pressure from the OGPU. However, the dissatisfaction of many believers and ministers of the Church prompted the Patriarch to cancel his decision on November 8, citing the fact that “the convenient time for the transition to the new style has already passed”12.

The reaction of the authorities was immediate: the office of the patriarch was sealed, copies of the message were confiscated, and the texts of the previous decree were posted on the streets of Moscow without permission. Tikhon made an official statement to the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, in which he acknowledged that the reform "is possible in a natural and painless form." The patriarch spoke out against the interference of the civil authorities in its implementation, “because outside interference does not bring closer, but retracts, does not facilitate, but complicates its implementation”13. The main reasons for the reluctance and opposition to the introduction of a new style were formulated. As Tikhon argued, the Russian people were distinguished by conservatism in relation to change. The smallest change brings confusion. The church year is closely connected with the life of the people and the economic year of the peasant, since the beginning of field work is determined by the holidays. The calendar reform was compromised by the Renovation movement because they refused to observe many church canons."

The Soviet government, despite all efforts, failed to force the Church to change the chronology. The result was duality, which created additional problems in the definition of church holidays.

This situation continued until the end of the 1920s. Having established himself in power, Stalin proclaimed a course towards the industrialization of the USSR. According to the country's leadership, the new calendar had to correspond to the production cycle.

Another important requirement was his "disposal" of the religious basis. In particular, it was supposed to change the era of the chronology, replacing it with a more "progressive" one. In April 1929, this issue began to be discussed in the press15. Initially, it was only about the reform of the recreation system of Soviet workers. It was proposed to cancel all existing holidays and switch to a six-day week. The revolutionary holidays were planned to be moved to the next day of rest, using also the evenings of working days. It was especially emphasized that the six-day week did not break the calendar system, as it left the same months and dates of the year unchanged, with the exception of the “discarded extra day”. The introduction of the modified calendar was planned from January 1, 193016.

This proposal started a broad discussion of the reform of the calendar. Soviet functionaries published propaganda articles calling for its speedy implementation. In particular, L. M. Sabsovich, an employee of the State Planning Committee of the USSR, considered changing the calendar one of the conditions for the speedy transition to a continuous production year17. He was supported by an employee of the People's Commissariat of Labor B.V. Babin-Koren, who considered the main advantage of the new chronology system to be "maximum rigidity"18. In his opinion, this was expressed in a solid combination of working days and days off.

The editors of the Izvestiya newspaper brought up the issue of changing the calendar for discussion by readers. It evoked a lively response from them. Most of the proposals boiled down to the introduction in the USSR of a five-day or six-day continuous week with one day off19.

A. Pevtsov proposed his own project. His calendar consisted of decades with two days off. The year was divided into ten days (decades) and hundred days (tektads) and consisted of 36 decades and one additional half-decade (5 or 6 days). Pevtsov spoke in favor of the abolition of months and motivated this with the following argument: since the number 36 was divisible by 2, 3.4, b, 9,12,18, it is possible, if necessary, to divide the year into halves, thirds, quarters, etc. This could be necessary in everyday life, when compiling reports, counting the seasons. The names of the days of the week changed: the first day of the decade - Freedom Day; the second is Labor Day; the third is Party Day; fourth - Defense Day; fifth - Victory Day; the sixth is the Day of Enlightenment; the seventh is the Day of the Union; eighth - Trade Union Day; ninth - Youth Day; the tenth is the Day of Remembrance. The first and sixth days were days of rest.

Similar projects were sent to the editors of other newspapers. However, proposals to replace the names of months and days of the week with serial numbers did not meet with support everywhere. In particular, the editors of the Commercial and Industrial Newspaper declared them unacceptable and inappropriate21.

A special project was submitted to the USSR Academy of Sciences by the son of the great chemist ID Mendeleev22. He proposed dividing the year into 12 months of 30 days each. The week consisted of b days. Its introduction was determined by the ability to determine the fractional part of the year by the same number of weeks in a month; when calculating the month in 5 weeks, each of its number fell on the same days of the week. Each month had the same number of working days. An important advantage of the new calendar system, from the point of view of the author, was the presence of intervals equal in number of months between dates that had the same number of days and weeks: from February 5 to May 5 and from July 5 to October 5 there were 3 months, 15 weeks, 90 days. Five or six additional days were non-working days. They were assigned the designations of the events that were celebrated that day. After February, the Day of the Overthrow of the Autocracy was inserted, after April - May Day, after June - Constitution Day of the USSR, after August - Youth Day, after October - October Revolution Day. In a leap year, an extra day was inserted after December and was called Lenin's Memorial Day. The names of the months and days remained unchanged. One day a week was abolished. Its name should have been clarified later.

In the autumn of 1929, the issue of calendar reform was discussed at the highest level. One of the tasks of the government commission for the introduction of continuous production in the USSR was "the approval and publication of a new timesheet-calendar, necessary for five days and uninterrupted work"23. In one of the reports of the People's Commissariat of Labor of the USSR, it was emphasized that "changes in the working conditions of enterprises, the everyday habits of workers and employees require an appropriate adaptation of the calendar"24. It was specifically stipulated that the complexity of the issue lay in the need to compare it with the astronomical year and Western countries. Therefore, the adoption of a new calendar system needed careful study. On October 21, 1929, the Government Commission under the Council of Labor and Defense (STO), chaired by V.V. Kuibyshev, instructed the People's Commissariat of Labor of the USSR to work out the issue of reforming the calendar in relation to the continuous production week25.

On December 28, a subcommittee on the reform of the calendar was formed, headed by the People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR A.S. Bubnov. Its work should have been completed no later than January 20, 193026. The commission held two meetings. The first was attended by astronomers S. N. Blazhko, N. I. Idelson, directors of the Moscow Planetarium K. N. Shistovsky and the Pulkovo Observatory A. A. Ivanov and others. Three drafts of the new calendar were studied.

The first of these involved the establishment of a rigid calendar scale and determined the civil duration of the year as 360 days, with each month including 30 days. The remaining five days were revolutionary holidays and were excluded from the numbering, but remained in their original places.
The second option determined the length of the year as 365 days. The days of revolutionary holidays were included in the general numbering of the days of the year. The project violated the principle of a fixed scale, but kept the duration of the working part of each month at 30 days. However, the physical duration of several months (April, November) was extended to 32 days.

The third option suggested replacing the existing seven-day week with a five-day one, leaving all calendar dates in their original places. He allowed the establishment of only a sliding scale for the distribution of days of rest by the number of months.

The meeting participants acknowledged the admissibility of the changes proposed in the drafts. However, wishes were expressed related to the establishment of the same duration of the civil and tropical years and “possibly greater preservation of the unity of the calendar dates of the new and Gregorian calendars”27. As a result, the majority voted for the first version of the calendar, while proposing to establish in it new names of the days of the week that corresponded to the revolutionary calendar.

Representatives of the Supreme Council of National Economy M. Ya. Lapirov-Skoblo, the State Planning Commission of the USSR - G. I. Smirnov, the Astronomical Institute - N. I. Idelson, the director of the Pulkovo Observatory A. A. Ivanov and others were invited to the second meeting. The meeting, in addition to the projects mentioned above, took into consideration two new options - the calendar of the French Revolution and the draft State Planning Committee of the RSFSR, developed by decision of the government commission under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR of October 15, 192928. The main provisions of the last calendar were as follows. The length of the year is 365 days in a simple year and 366 in a leap year, which is added every four years. The chronology was established from the day of the October Revolution. The beginning of the social and economic year coincided and began on November 1. Their duration was 360 working days and 5 or 6 holidays. Each year was divided into 4 quarters of 90 days each, a quarter - into 3 equal months of 30 working days, a month - into 3 decades of 10 days or 6 weeks of 5 days each. The names of the months remained the same, but the names of the days changed. The first is Commune Day, the second is Marx's Day, the third is Engels' Day, the fourth is Lenin's Day, the fifth is Stalin's Day. Another innovation was leaving the days of the week without a name, using only serial numbers.

The majority of the members of the commission spoke in favor of the first option proposed earlier. At the same time, wishes were expressed for the introduction of amendments to it, arising from the draft of the State Planning Committee of the RSFSR. It was decided to combine both options in such a way as to eliminate the need to transfer the celebration of revolutionary days to new dates29.

On January 26, 1930, at a meeting of the government commission at the service station for the transfer of enterprises and institutions to a continuous production week, Bubnov's report on the work done was heard. As a result, a resolution appeared on the approval of the first version of the draft calendar with some additions. The new civil Soviet calendar was established with a constant coincidence of the numbers of the months on the same day. The duration of the year was 360 ordinary days and 5 or 6 holidays, which had the names of the first and second days of the Proletarian Revolution, the first and second days of the International and Lenin's memorial day. The indicated days were indicated by the number of the previous day of the month with the addition of the letter A or B. The year was divided into 12 months of 30 working days each with the addition of the corresponding letter days. Each month was divided into 6 weeks of 5 days each. The names of the months and days were preserved, only Saturday and Sunday were abolished. The beginning of the civil year was considered the first day of the proletarian revolution.

The new calendar was planned to be introduced no later than February 25, 1930. For a final discussion and agreement on the main provisions of the project within a decade, the State Planning Commission was instructed to convene an interdepartmental meeting. After that, the final draft was to be submitted for approval by the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR30.

The conference at the State Planning Committee of the USSR spoke in favor of a new chronology. However, in her opinion, the beginning of the year and the names of the months should have been left unchanged. As a result, by decision of the government commission of the service station, a unified production time sheet-calendar was introduced in the country31. Its main difference from the existing chronology system was the inclusion of 360 working days and 5 non-working days. The so-called revolutionary days (January 22, May 1 and 2, November 7 and 8) were not included in the calendar. The employees of each enterprise or institution were distributed by the administration into five groups of the same size. For its each member, the day off was set on a certain day of each five-day period: for workers of the first group - on the first day, of the second group - on the second, and so on. Meetings of public, trade union and administrative organizations were to be held on the first, third and fifth days of the five-day period; periodic meetings - throughout the year and on certain days. It was specifically stipulated that the decree was valid "until the reform of the calendar." Thus, a single production calendar was also introduced for a certain period. This meant that innovations were the first step towards a general calendar reform. After a few months, this project was planned to be introduced as a new civil calendar.

In the next few years, civil and industrial calendars were used in parallel. Nevertheless, the reform of the calendar in the USSR in the late 1920s and early 1930s was never implemented. The combination of industrial and civil calendars created great confusion in the definition of working days and days off. The situation was further complicated by the simultaneous application by various organizations and institutions, dependent on each other, of a fixed and sliding scale of days off. At the same time, a rigid scale was established for executives. This circumstance created additional difficulties in the work of enterprises, institutions and educational institutions, since the days off of superiors and subordinates often did not coincide. There were cases of coincidence of hours of classes with teachers in various higher educational institutions.

Despite attempts to resolve the situation by establishing a sliding scale of days off in all enterprises, institutions and educational institutions, the situation did not change for the better. In the material submitted by the People's Commissariat of Labor of the RSFSR to the government commission on the introduction of continuous production in the USSR dated August 23, 1930, it was noted that “the experience of using the sliding scale showed that with the existing general civil Gregorian (as in the text. - E. N.) this scale difficult for the population to digest, complicates scheduling, etc.”32

Gradually, under the influence of economic and social factors, the idea of ​​introducing continuous production was recognized as impossible and unpromising. This led to the gradual abandonment of its implementation. In turn, the idea of ​​reforming the calendar withered away. As a result, on June 26, 1940, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a resolution “On the transition to an eight-hour working day, to a seven-day working week and on the prohibition of unauthorized departure of workers and employees from enterprises and institutions”33. It returned to the USSR the usual combination of working days and days off and put an end to attempts to change the calendar. Pyatidnevka still remained in the mass consciousness thanks to the film by Grigory Aleksandrov "Volga-Volga": it is quite difficult for a modern viewer to figure out what it is.

During the first years of the existence of Soviet power, the calendar issue played a significant role in the socio-political life of the country. The failure of the idea of ​​creating a revolutionary calendar was due to several factors. These included the discrepancy between the Soviet calendar system and the chronology of foreign countries. This caused confusion in international relations. This fact was recognized in Soviet literature. One of the ideologists of the new economic system, the writer I.L. Kremlev-Sven, considered one of the most serious obstacles to the introduction of a new calendar "the possibility of conflict with foreign countries"34. Another reason was the rejection of the new calendar by the majority of the population of the USSR. This caused confusion in the definition of working days, days off, vacation periods, gave rise to absenteeism and, in the aggregate, reduced the economic well-being of the country. Due to these circumstances, the Soviet government refused to change the chronology system, leaving the Gregorian calendar in civil use.

Notes
1. Decrees of the Soviet power. T. 1. M. 1957. No. 272. P. 404-405.
2. Sacred Cathedral of the Orthodox Russian Church. Acts. Book. VI. Issue. 2. M. 1918. P. 132-133.
3. GARF. F. R-3431. D. 74. L. 86v.
4. Ibid. L. 39, 60v.
5. Ibid. D. 283. L. 354-355.
6. Ibid. L. 431.
7. Ibid. L. 432.
8. Ibid. L. 463v., 663.
9. Ibid. L. 86 about; Holy Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church. Acts. Book. VI. Issue. 2. From 188.
10. Decree of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon and the Small Council of Bishops on the transition to a new (Gregorian) style in liturgical practice dated September 24 (7.10) / / Acts of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon and later documents on the succession of the highest church authority 1917-1943. Part 1. M. 1994. P. 299.
11. Message from His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon to the Orthodox People
on the reform of the calendar in the Russian Orthodox Church of 18.09 (1.10). 1923//Investigation case of Patriarch Tikhon. M. 2000. No. 186. P. 361.
12. Order ("resolution") of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon on the abolition of the "new" (Gregorian) calendar style in liturgical practice dated October 26 (November 8), 1923 / / Investigative file ... No. 187. C 362-363.
13. Statement of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon to the Central Executive Committee on the attitude of the Orthodox Russian Church to the calendar reform (transition to the Gregorian "new" style) dated
17 (30) 09. 1924//Acts... 4.1. S. 337.
14. Ibid. S. 337.
15. Dubner P. M. Soviet calendar / / Ogonyok. 1929. No. 40; Viktorov Yu. An initiative is needed // Izvestia of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets. 1929. No. 98. S. 5; Kaigorodov
A. It is necessary to reform the week//Ibid. S. 5; Kremlev IL Continuous production and socialist construction. M.; L. 1929. S. 108-115.
16. Baranchikov P. Not holidays, but days of rest//News of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets. 1929. No. 86. P. 3.
17. Sabsovich L. M. Resolutely switch to a continuous production year//Commercial and industrial newspaper. 1929. No. 173. P. 3.
18. Babin-Koren BV Standardization of the calendar grid//Commercial and industrial newspaper. 1929. No. 223. P. 3.
19. Motives for the five-day week (review of readers' letters)//News of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets. 1929. No. 199. P. 3; Friday//Ibid.; 0 six days//Ibid. No. 203. P. 3.
20. Singers A. For a decade with two days of rest//News of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets. 1929. No. 199. P. 3.
21. P. D. The first steps of the continuity. For the reform of the calendar//Commercial and industrial newspaper. 1929.
No. 249. P. 5.
22. Six-day project at the Academy of Sciences//News of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets. 1929. No. 203. P. 3.
23. GARF. F. R-7059. On. 1. D. 7. L. 15.
24. Ibid. D. 2. L. 4.
25. Ibid. D. 4. L. 22, 25.
26. Ibid. L. 24v., 52v.
27. Ibid. L. 41.
28. Ibid. D. 6. L. 12.
29. Ibid. D. 4. L. 41.
30. Ibid. L. 28 about.
31. Resolution of the government commission under the Council of Labor and Defense. "On the transfer of enterprises and institutions to a continuous production week" / / Labor. 1930. No. 74. P. 4.
32. GARF. F. R-7059. On. 1. D. 2. L. 444, 505.
33. Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 26, 1940
“On the transition to an eight-hour working day, to a seven-day working week and on the prohibition of unauthorized departure of workers and employees from enterprises and institutions” / / Vedomosti of the Supreme Council of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 1940. No. 20. P. 1.
34. Kremlev-Sven I. L. Two conversations about a continuous week. M. 1930. S. 27.

Citizens of the Soviet country, having gone to bed on January 31, 1918, woke up on February 14. The "Decree on the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic" came into force. Bolshevik Russia switched to the so-called new, or civil, style of timekeeping, which coincided with the church Gregorian calendar used in Europe. These changes did not affect our Church: she continued to celebrate her holidays according to the old, Julian calendar.

The calendar split between Western and Eastern Christians (believers began to celebrate the main holidays at different times) occurred in the 16th century, when Pope Gregory XIII undertook another reform that replaced the Julian style with the Gregorian one. The purpose of the reform was to correct the growing difference between the astronomical year and the calendar year.

Obsessed with the idea of ​​world revolution and internationalism, the Bolsheviks, of course, did not care about the Pope and his calendar. As stated in the decree, the transition to the Western, Gregorian style was made "in order to establish in Russia the same time calculation with almost all cultural peoples" .... At one of the first meetings of the young Soviet government in early 1918, two draft reforms of time were considered "The first proposed a gradual transition to the Gregorian calendar, each year dropping 24 hours. This would take 13 years. The second provided for doing it in one fell swoop. It was he who liked the leader of the world proletariat Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who surpassed the current ideologist of multiculturalism Angela Merkel in globalist projects.

Competently

Religious historian Alexei Yudin on how Christian churches celebrate Christmas:

First, let's make it clear right away: to say that someone celebrates on December 25, and someone on January 7 is incorrect. Everyone celebrates Christmas on the 25th, but according to different calendars. In the next hundred years, from my point of view, no unification of the celebration of Christmas is to be expected.

The old Julian calendar, adopted under Julius Caesar, lagged behind astronomical time. The reform of Pope Gregory XIII, which from the very beginning was called papist, was perceived extremely negatively in Europe, especially in Protestant countries, where the reformation had already firmly established itself. The Protestants were opposed primarily because "it was conceived in Rome." And this city in the XVI century was no longer the center of Christian Europe.

Red Army soldiers take out church property from the Simonov Monastery on a subbotnik (1925). A photo: wikipedia.org

The reform of the calendar, if desired, can, of course, be called a split, bearing in mind that the Christian world has already split not only along the East-West principle, but also within the West.

Therefore, the Gregorian calendar was perceived as Roman, papist, and therefore unsuitable. Gradually, however, the Protestant countries accepted it, but the process of transition took centuries. This is how things were in the West. The East paid no attention to the reform of Pope Gregory XIII.

The Soviet Republic switched to a new style, but this, unfortunately, was due to the revolutionary events in Russia, the Bolsheviks, of course, did not think about any Pope Gregory XIII, they simply considered the new style to be the most adequate to their worldview. And the Russian Orthodox Church has an additional trauma.

In 1923, at the initiative of the Patriarch of Constantinople, a meeting of Orthodox churches was held, at which a decision was made to correct the Julian calendar.

Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, of course, were unable to travel abroad. But Patriarch Tikhon nevertheless issued a decree on the transition to the "New Julian" calendar. However, this caused protests among believers, and the decision was quickly canceled.

You can see that there were several stages of searching for a match on a calendar basis. But this did not lead to the final result. So far, this issue has not been included in a serious church discussion at all.

Is the Church afraid of another schism? Undoubtedly, some ultra-conservative groups within the Church will say: "The sacred time has been betrayed." Any Church is a very conservative institution, especially when it comes to everyday life and liturgical practices. And they rest against the calendar. And the church-administrative resource in such matters is ineffective.

Every Christmas, the theme of switching to the Gregorian calendar pops up. But this is politics, profitable media presentation, PR, whatever you want. The Church itself does not participate in this and is reluctant to comment on these issues.

Why does the Russian Orthodox Church use the Julian calendar?

Father Vladimir (Vigilyansky), rector of the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University:

Orthodox churches can be roughly divided into three categories: those that serve all church holidays according to the new (Gregorian) calendar, those that serve only according to the old (Julian) calendar, and those that mix styles: for example, in Greece, Easter is celebrated according to old calendar, and all other holidays - in a new way. Our churches (Russian, Georgian, Jerusalem, Serbian and Athos monasteries) never changed the church calendar and did not mix it with the Gregorian, so that there would be no confusion in the holidays. We have a single calendar system, which is tied to Easter. If we switch to celebrating, say, Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar, then two weeks are “eaten up” (remember how February 14 came after January 31 in 1918), each day of which carries a special semantic significance for an Orthodox person.

The church lives according to its own order, and in it many significant things may not coincide with secular priorities. For example, in church life there is a clear system of progression of time, which is tied to the Gospel. Every day, excerpts from this book are read, in which there is a logic associated with the gospel story and the earthly life of Jesus Christ. All this lays down a certain spiritual rhythm in the life of an Orthodox person. And those who use this calendar do not want and will not violate it.

A believer has a very ascetic life. The world can change, we see how before our very eyes fellow citizens have a lot of opportunities, for example, for recreation during the secular New Year holidays. But the Church, as one of our rock singers sang, "will not bend under the changing world." We will not make our church life dependent on the ski resort.

The Bolsheviks introduced a new calendar "in order to calculate the same time with almost all cultural peoples." A photo: Publishing project of Vladimir Lisin "Days of 1917 100 years ago"

The old and new style of the calendar in our time has a difference of 13 days. Such a difference occurred in 1582, when civilized Europeans, at the insistence of the Pope, changed the Julian calendar to the Gregorian.

In general, the whole history with calendars and chronology stretches into hoary antiquity. Peasants who were engaged in agriculture were very dependent on the time of year. So they were the first and began to try to systematize and streamline time.

The great Mayan civilization achieved great values ​​in the accuracy of calendar calculations. They accurately determined the days of the summer and winter solstices and could calculate the time for several millennia in advance. But we did not accept their achievements, but adopted the Roman (Julian) calendar.

When Rome was the center of civilization and enlightenment, during the reign of Julius Caesar, when the state was at its peak, the Roman Senate decided to replace the old Greek calendar, which had only ten months, with the Julian one, which Caesar, on the advice of Egyptian astrologers, adopted for the most convenient option. The fact is that the priests were engaged in chronology in Rome.

The beginning of the year was considered the month of March, named after Mars (the Greek god of fertility). And once every four years, an additional month of Mercedoni was added. Firstly, no one knew when the end of mercedony would come, and secondly, the payment of taxes and the return of debts was too delayed due to the extra month.

There is information that the priests received solid gifts and rewards for postponing the end of the year. It is precisely because of the instability of the replenishment of the state budget (treasury) that fundamental changes have taken place.

When was the Julian calendar introduced in Russia?

This event happened in 1918. This year there were simply no dates: 1, 2, 3, etc. before February 13th. It was January 31st, and the next day was February 14th.

This was done for rapprochement with Europe. The party leadership hoped for world communism and tried to merge as closely as possible with the West.

What is today's date according to the old style

With each century, the gap between the Gregorian and Julian calendars grows, if the number of the previous century is not divisible by 4 with the whole result.

For example, from 1700 to 1800 to determine the date of the event according to the new style, 11 days should be added, from 1800 to 1900 - 12 days, and from 1900 to 2100 - 13. After 2100, the gap will increase by one more day and will be 14 days.

Difference between Julian and Gregorian calendars

There is no particular difference in these time measurement systems, but Orthodox Christians have completely abandoned the use of the Gregorian calendar to determine the dates of holidays.

In 1923, the Soviet government put strong pressure on His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, but was never able to get the Church to agree to the use of the Gregorian calendar (new style).

How to Easily Convert Dates from Julian to Gregorian Calendar

To do this, you need to know the date of the event. If the date is earlier than 1700, then 10 days must be added, if from 1700 to 1800 - 11, from 1800 to 1900 - 12, and from 1900 to 2100 - 13 days. But it is worth noting that in Russia, in connection with the transition to a new style of chronology, there were no numbers from 02/01/1918 to 02/13/1918 at all.

They changed the old style of the calendar to a new one after the revolution. The decree on the introduction of a new calendar system was proposed at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars and approved personally by V. Lenin.

Examples of translation to a new calculus style

For example, let's deal with the birthday of Taras Shevchenko. Everyone knows that he was born on February 25, 1814, according to the old style. This year was not a leap year and had 28 days in February. We add 12 days to this date and get March 9 according to the new style (Gregorian).

Errors with date translations to the new style

When translating the events of bygone days into a new style, a colossal number of errors are made. People did not think about the growing difference between the Gregorian and Julian calendars.

Now such errors can be seen in very authoritative sources - Wikipedia is no exception. But now you know how you can easily and quickly calculate the date of an event, knowing only its date according to the old style.

As in other Christian countries, from the end of the 10th century, the Julian calendar was used in Russia, based on observations of the apparent movement of the Sun across the sky. It was introduced in ancient Rome by Gaius Julius Caesar in 46 BC. e.

The calendar was developed by the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigen based on the calendar of ancient Egypt. When Russia adopted Christianity in the 10th century, the Julian calendar came along with it. However, the average length of a year in the Julian calendar is 365 days and 6 hours (that is, there are 365 days in a year, and an extra day is added every fourth year). While the duration of the astronomical solar year is 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 46 seconds. That is, the Julian year was longer than the astronomical one by 11 minutes 14 seconds and, therefore, lagged behind the real change of years.

By 1582, the difference between the Julian calendar and the real change of years was already 10 days.

This led to a reform of the calendar, which was carried out in 1582 by a special commission created by Pope Gregory XIII. The difference was eliminated when, after October 4, 1582, it was ordered to count not 5, but immediately October 15. After the name of the pope, the new, reformed calendar became known as the Gregorian.

In this calendar, unlike the Julian, the final year of the century, if it is not divisible by 400, is not a leap year. Thus, the Gregorian calendar has 3 leap years less every four hundred years than the Julian. The Gregorian calendar retained the names of the months of the Julian calendar, the extra day in a leap year is February 29, and the beginning of the year is January 1.

The transition of the countries of the world to the Gregorian calendar was a long one. First, the reform took place in Catholic countries (Spain, the Italian states, the Commonwealth, a little later in France, etc.), then in Protestant ones (in Prussia in 1610, in all German states by 1700, in Denmark in 1700, in Great Britain in 1752, in Sweden in 1753). And only in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Gregorian calendar was adopted in some Asian (in Japan in 1873, China in 1911, Turkey in 1925) and Orthodox (in Bulgaria in 1916, in Serbia in 1919, in Greece in 1924 year) states.

In the RSFSR, the transition to the Gregorian calendar was carried out according to the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR "On the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic" dated February 6, 1918 (January 26, old style).

The calendar problem in Russia has been discussed more than once. In 1899, the Commission on the reform of the calendar in Russia worked at the Astronomical Society, which included the historian Vasily Bolotov. The Commission proposed to modernize the Julian calendar.

“Taking into account: 1) that in 1830 the Imperial petition for the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Russia was rejected by Emperor Nicholas I and 2) that the Orthodox states and the entire Orthodox population of East and West rejected the attempts of representatives of Catholicism to introduce the Gregorian calendar in Russia, the Commission unanimously decided reject all proposals for the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Russia and, not embarrassed by the choice of reform, stop at one that would combine the idea of ​​truth and possible accuracy, both scientific and historical, in relation to the Christian chronology in Russia, ”the resolution of the Commission read on the reform of the calendar in Russia in 1900.

Such a long use of the Julian calendar in Russia was due to the position that treated the Gregorian calendar negatively.

After the church was separated from the state in the RSFSR, the binding of the civil calendar to the church lost its relevance.

The difference in calendars created inconvenience in relations with Europe, which was the reason for the adoption of the decree "in order to establish in Russia the same time calculation with almost all cultural peoples."

The question of reform was raised in the autumn of 1917. One of the projects under consideration proposed a gradual transition from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian, dropping each year by day. But, since the difference between the calendars by that time was 13 days, the transition would take 13 years. Therefore, Lenin supported the option of a one-time transition to a new style. The church refused to switch to the new style.

“The first day after January 31 of this year is not considered February 1, but February 14, the second day is considered the 15th, etc.,” the first paragraph of the decree read. The remaining paragraphs indicated how new deadlines for the fulfillment of any obligations should be calculated and on what dates citizens would be able to receive their salaries.

The date change has created confusion over the celebration of Christmas. Before the transition to the Gregorian calendar in Russia, Christmas was celebrated on December 25, but now it has moved to January 7. As a result of these changes, in 1918 there was no Christmas in Russia at all. In 1917, the last Christmas was celebrated, which fell on December 25th. And the next time the Orthodox holiday was celebrated on January 7, 1919.