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Soviet calendar
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== History == === Gregorian calendar === [[File:Sovnarkom-Gregorian-Calendar-Decree-izo39.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|left|1918 decree adopting the "Western European calendar" (click on image for translation)]] The Gregorian calendar was implemented in Russia on {{nowrap|14 February 1918}} by dropping the [[Julian calendar|Julian]] dates of {{nowrap|1–13 February 1918}} pursuant to a [[Sovnarkom]] decree signed {{nowrap|24 January 1918}} (Julian) by [[Vladimir Lenin]]. The decree required that the Julian date was to be written in parentheses after the Gregorian date until {{nowrap|1 July 1918.<ref name=Grigorenko>[http://grigam.narod.ru/kalend/kalen19.htm История календаря в России и в СССР (Calendar history in Russia and the USSR)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091017163723/http://grigam.narod.ru/kalend/kalen19.htm |date=17 October 2009 }}, chapter 19 in История календаря и хронология by Селешников (History of the calendar and chronology by Seleschnikov) {{in lang|ru}}. [http://www.niv.ru/library/006/001.htm ДЕКРЕТ "О ВВЕДЕНИИ ЗАПАДНО-ЕВРОПЕЙСКОГО КАЛЕНДАРЯ" (Decree "On the introduction of the Western European calendar")] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070121144021/http://www.niv.ru/library/006/001.htm |date=21 January 2007 }} contains the full text of the decree {{in lang|ru}}.</ref>}} All surviving examples of physical calendars from {{nowrap|1929–40}} show the irregular month lengths of the Gregorian calendar (such as those displayed here). Most calendars displayed all the days of a Gregorian year as a grid with seven rows or columns for the traditional seven-day week with Sunday (Воскресенье; "Resurrection") first. [[File:Soviet calendar 1931 pocket.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1| Soviet pocket calendar, 1931 <br/> Numbered five-day work week, excluding five national holidays]] The 1931 pocket calendar displayed here is a rare example that excluded the five [[#National holidays|national holidays]], enabling the remaining 360 days of the Gregorian year to be displayed as a grid with five rows labeled {{nowrap|I–V}} for each day of the five-day week.<ref name=Malyavin>[http://mkkkk.narod.ru/Fr313.htm ИЗ ИСТОРИИ ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННОГО КАРМАННОГО КАЛЕНДАРЯ by Дмитрий Малявин] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221116003246/http://mkkkk.narod.ru/Fr313.htm |date=16 November 2022 }} ("Calendar stories from reforms in the USSR" by Dmitry Malyavin) {{in lang|ru}} Does not mention colors, only numbers.</ref> Even it had the full Gregorian calendar on the other side. ===Work weeks=== {{Multiple image | align = right | direction = horizontal | image1 = Revolution kalendar.jpg| | width1 = 120 | caption1 = Soviet calendar <br/> 12 December 1937 <br/> "Sixth day of the six-day week" (just below "12") <br/> ————————— <br/> "Election day for the Supreme Soviet of the USSR" | image2 = Sixday.jpg | width2 = 120 | caption2 = Soviet calendar <br/> 22 October 1935 <br/> "Fourth day of the six-day week" (just below "ОКТЯБРЬ") }} During the second half of May 1929, [[Yuri Larin]] ([[:ru:Юрий Ларин|Юрий Ларин]], 1882–1932) proposed a continuous production week (''nepreryvnaya rabochaya nedelya'' = ''nepreryvka'') to the Fifth [[Congress of Soviets]] of the Union, but so little attention was paid to his suggestion that the president of the Congress did not even mention it in his final speech. By the beginning of {{nowrap|June 1929}}, Larin had won the approval of [[Joseph Stalin]], prompting all newspapers to praise the idea. The change was advantageous to the anti-religious movement, as Sundays and religious holidays became working days.<ref name="Siegelbaum1992">{{cite book|last= Siegelbaum|first=Lewis H.|title=Soviet State and Society Between Revolutions, 1918-1929|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kog_NaF7J1YC&pg=PA213|year=1992|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-36987-9|page=213}}</ref> On {{nowrap|8 June 1929}} the Supreme Economic Council of the [[RSFSR]] directed its efficiency experts to submit within two weeks a plan to introduce continuous production. Before any plan was available, during the first half of {{nowrap|June 1929}}, 15% of industry had converted to continuous production according to Larin, probably an overestimate. On {{nowrap|26 August 1929}} the [[Council of People's Commissars]] (CPC) of the [[Soviet Union]] (Sovnarkom) declared "it is essential that the systematically prepared transition of undertakings and institutions to continuous production should begin during the economic year {{nowrap|1929–1930}}".<ref name=Schwarz31/><ref name=Cross>Gary Cross, ''Worktime and industrialization'' (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988) 202–205.</ref> The lengths of continuous production weeks were not yet specified, and the conversion was only to ''begin during the year''. Nevertheless, many sources state that the effective date of five-day weeks was {{nowrap|1 October 1929,<ref name=Parry/><ref name=Holford/><ref name=Parise/><ref name=Richards/><ref name=Zerubavel/><ref name=Atholl>The Duchess of Atholl (Katherine Atholl), ''The conscription of a people'' (1931) 84–86, 107.</ref>}} which was the beginning of the economic year. But many other lengths of continuous work weeks were used, all of which were gradually introduced. === Implementation of continuous production weeks === Specific lengths for continuous production weeks were first mentioned when rules for the five-day continuous work week were issued on {{nowrap|24 September 1929}}. On {{nowrap|23 October 1929}} building construction and seasonal trades were put on a continuous six-day week, while factories that regularly halted production every month for maintenance were put on six- or seven-day continuous production weeks. In {{nowrap|December 1929}}, it was reported that about 50 different versions of the continuous work week were in use, the longest being a 'week' of 37 days (30 continuous days of work followed by seven days of rest). By the end of 1929, orders were issued that the continuous week was to be extended to 43% of industrial workers by {{nowrap|1 April 1930}} and to 67% by {{nowrap|1 October 1930}}. Actual conversion was more rapid, 63% by {{nowrap|1 April 1930}}. In {{nowrap|June 1930}} it was decreed that the conversion of all industries was to be completed during the economic year {{nowrap|1930–31}}, except for the textile industry. But on {{nowrap|1 October 1930}} peak usage was reached, with 72.9% of industrial workers on continuous schedules. Thereafter, usage decreased. All of these official figures were somewhat inflated because some factories said they adopted the continuous week without actually doing so. The continuous week was applied to retail and government workers as well, but no usage figures were ever published.<ref name=Schwarz31/><ref name=Davies/><ref name=Schwarz51>Solomon M. Schwarz, ''Labor in the Soviet Union'' (New York: Praegar, 1951) 258–277.</ref> The continuous week began as a five-day cycle, with each day color-coded and marked with a symbol. The population would be carved up into as many groups, each with its own rest day. These circles indicated when you worked and when you rested.<ref>{{cite web |last1=FROST |first1=NATASHA |title=For 11 Years, the Soviet Union Had No Weekends |url=https://www.history.com/news/soviet-union-stalin-weekend-labor-policy |website=History.com |access-date=16 June 2020 |date=25 May 2018}}</ref> === Implementation of six-day weeks === As early as May 1930, while usage of the continuous week was still advancing, some factories reverted to an interrupted week. On {{nowrap|30 April 1931}}, one of the largest factories in the Soviet Union was put on an interrupted six-day week ([[:ru:Шестидневка|Шестидневка]] = ''shestidnevka''). On {{nowrap|23 June 1931}}, Stalin condemned the continuous work week as then practiced, supporting the temporary use of the interrupted six-day week (one common rest day for all workers) until the problems with the continuous work week could be resolved. During {{nowrap|August 1931}}, most factories were put on an interrupted six-day week as the result of an interview with the People's Commissar for Labor, who severely restricted the use of the continuous week. The official conversion to non-continuous schedules was decreed by the Sovnarkom of the [[USSR]] somewhat later, on {{nowrap|23 November 1931}}.<ref name=Zerubavel/><ref name=Schwarz51/><ref name=Friedman>Elisha M. Friedman, ''Russia in transition: a business man's appraisal'' (New York: Viking Press, 1932) 260–262.</ref> Institutions serving cultural and social needs and those enterprises engaged in continuous production such as ore [[smelting]] were exempted.<ref>''Handbook of the Soviet Union'' (New York: American-Russian Chamber of Commerce, 1936) 524, 526.</ref> It is often stated that the effective date of the interrupted six-day work week was {{nowrap|1 December 1931,<ref name=Echlin/><ref name=Ketchum/><ref name=Holford/><ref name=Richards/><ref name=Zerubavel/><ref name=Friedman/>}} but that is only the first whole month after the 'official conversion'. The massive summer 1931 conversion made this date after-the-fact and some industries continued to use continuous weeks. The last figures available indicate that on {{nowrap|1 July 1935}} 74.2% of all industrial workers were on non-continuous schedules (almost all six-day weeks) while 25.8% were still on continuous schedules. Due to a decree dated {{nowrap|26 June 1940}}, the traditional interrupted seven-day week with Sunday as the common day of rest was reintroduced on {{nowrap|27 June 1940}}.<ref name=Grigorenko/><ref name=Malyavin/><ref name=Schwarz51/><ref>[http://www.cyberussr.com/rus/uk-trud-e.html On the transfer to the seven-day work week, 26 June 1940] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221116003237/http://www.cyberussr.com/rus/uk-trud-e.html |date=16 November 2022 }} (item 2)</ref> {{-}}
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