Soviet 5 Day Week

[Chesterton]

This is a bit of odd history:

"Between 1929 and 1931 [the] USSR changed from the 7 day week to a 5 day week. There were 72 weeks and an additional 5 national holidays inserted within 3 of them totaling a year of 365 days.

"In 1931 after the Soviet Union's 5 day week they changed to a 6 day week. Every 6th day (6th, 12th, 18th, 24th and 30th) of the Gregorian Calendar was a state rest day.

"The calendar was abandoned 26 June 1940 and the 7 day week reintroduced the day after."

Source: Wiki
​

Anyone know how this affected worship? As you can see on the calendar below, the official "rest day" fell on a different day of the week each week. Was the Church able to worship on Sundays? And was this done by the State in part to "mess with" the Church?

 

[rusmeister]

This doesn't sound true to me. It would have a huge impact on society and I'm sure that I would have heard of it. It is true, however, that the concept of the 'day off' (выходной ден&#1100 became more flexible - but only in terms of when a particular business or institution was open or not, not a society-wide thing.

 

[Chesterton]

This doesn't sound true to me.

I don't know - the French revolutionaries made up their own calendar from scratch; I think it worked out about as well as this did, which as you say, was not well at all.

 

[E.C.]

I don't know - the French revolutionaries made up their own calendar from scratch; I think it worked out about as well as this did, which as you say, was not well at all.

The French had ten days a week and Robespierre declared himself to be a "supreme being". That was until somebody eventually shot him in the throat. That blessing aside, the ten day week only lasted about twelve years from what I can recall.

I do recall reading in one of the Fr. Arseny books that the businesses either were not or may not have been permitted to have their day off on Sunday.

 

[Fish and Bread]

It is really interesting how atheistic regimes have historically moved to eliminate a seven day week. I was about to bring up the French revolutionaries when I saw the original post, but I scrolled down and saw that someone beat me to the punch.

I wonder if there is some sort of significance to that. My best off the cuff guess would be that it was in part to make it hard for Christians to track Sundays and feast days, but I'd think that there would be more to it than that. Changing the calendar so radically is a big destabilizing influence, it really didn't work out for either of the regimes that tried it. So my thought is that maybe there was a little bit more to their reasoning for attempting it. Anyone have any insights or guesses?

 

[Emmanuel-A]

It is really interesting how atheistic regimes have historically moved to eliminate a seven day week. I was about to bring up the French revolutionaries when I saw the original post, but I scrolled down and saw that someone beat me to the punch.

I wonder if there is some sort of significance to that. My best off the cuff guess would be that it was in part to make it hard for Christians to track Sundays and feast days, but I'd think that there would be more to it than that. Changing the calendar so radically is a big destabilizing influence, it really didn't work out for either of the regimes that tried it. So my thought is that maybe there was a little bit more to their reasoning for attempting it. Anyone have any insights or guesses?

There was nothing subtle in the aim of those "new calendars", be it the french revolutionary one or the sovietic one. It was clearly to destroy the 7 days week and eliminate sundays, as a mean among others to eradicate christianity.
(with 10 days periods for the french calendar or 5 or 6 days for the sovietic one).

 

[Chesterton]

So my thought is that maybe there was a little bit more to their reasoning for attempting it.

It was clearly to destroy the 7 days week and eliminate sundays, as a mean among others to eradicate christianity.

In a larger sense (to wax philosophical here), if you take the seven day week as being establised by God in Genesis, it could be seen as an even deeper atheistic attempt to upset the entire Divine order of things. I don't know, maybe that's giving them too much credit; maybe atheists are just fools as the Bible says. Actually, I'm sure it's both.

The French had ten days a week and Robespierre declared himself to be a "supreme being". That was until somebody eventually shot him in the throat. That blessing aside...

All things considered, I think the French Revolution might be the most bizarre episode in human history.

 

[zebu]

I asked someone from my (very Russian) parish about this, and she had never heard of it. Doesn't mean it didn't happen, since she isn't much older than me, but it does probably mean it's not something that was very widespread or stuck on the collective conscience of modern Russians. If it as widespread and real, it could be that no one remembers it because there was A LOT of other stuff going on in the Soviet Union between 1929 and 1940! This was the period of the most intense persecution of the Church, when millions of faithful were killed, almost all of the bishops were murdered, and all but a very few churches were shut down. Thus, even if you did have Sunday off, there is probably basically no chance you could have made it to liturgy anyways!! It was also a time of great economic upheaval due to the collectivization of the various industries, and there were massive food shortages in which millions died. Furthermore, in 1929, you were just coming out of a violent civil war, and then obviously by 1940, World War II had started. Thus, I guess maybe this calendar did exist but people don't really remember it because of the other things going on at the time...

Also, notice on the calendar that in addition to having very few Sundays being rest-days, none of the Twelve Great Feasts are rest days. The Soviets did do things to marginalise church attendance amongst more marginal believers throughout the existence of the Soviet Union, like premiering widely-advertised movies on Pascha so the more marginal believers would not go to church services. Little things like that.

 

[seashale76]

This is a bit of odd history:

"Between 1929 and 1931 [the] USSR changed from the 7 day week to a 5 day week. There were 72 weeks and an additional 5 national holidays inserted within 3 of them totaling a year of 365 days.

"In 1931 after the Soviet Union's 5 day week they changed to a 6 day week. Every 6th day (6th, 12th, 18th, 24th and 30th) of the Gregorian Calendar was a state rest day.

"The calendar was abandoned 26 June 1940 and the 7 day week reintroduced the day after."

Source: Wiki
​

Anyone know how this affected worship? As you can see on the calendar below, the official "rest day" fell on a different day of the week each week. Was the Church able to worship on Sundays? And was this done by the State in part to "mess with" the Church?

There was a massive propaganda campaign to go with this, I believe. If people are working, they can't go to church. If people don't go to church, then churches are useless and should be re-appropriated and/or taken apart for other things. That year (1929) was the same year that many churches were closed. I've seen one propaganda poster regarding working during Pascha being a good thing.

 

[nikolayalexandroff]

This doesn't sound true to me. It would have a huge impact on society and I'm sure that I would have heard of it. It is true, however, that the concept of the 'day off' (выходной ден&#1100 became more flexible - but only in terms of when a particular business or institution was open or not, not a society-wide thing.

This "orwellian" experiment took place in reality, and affected worship seriously, because there were no more Sundays in the USSR officially. In Russian Sunday calls "Voskresenie" - the day of Resurrection. Many believers were imprisoned because they have refused to work on Sundays, or they were late for the work, because they visited church on Sunday morning. You haven't heard about it because the Communist authorities regarded this experiment as a mistake, and they preferred not to mention about their mistakes. Soviet past was permanently corrected according to the momentary turns of the party line. But this calendar was mentioned in the tale "Starik Hottabych", or in the old soviet movie "Volga-Volga".

 

[rusmeister]

I read "Hottabych", although I don't remember the reference. I bought Volga-Volga, but never found time to watch it.

I know that Soviet leaders didn't admit mistakes. It's just that starting with Khruschev they seemed to have fewer and fewer problems admitting the mistakes of previous leaders - and after perestroika and the collapse, pretty much everything was brought to light.

In my case, having lived here for the better part of twenty years, specifically studied everything Russian in depth and to not have heard of this is amazing - kind of like a student of American history never having heard of, say, the Pony Express (although granted, no one had any interest in burying the story of the PE).

I guess it's true. I'll ask around, though.
Live and learn...

 

[Joshua G.]

I've read about this in several places. I can see why you would find it shocking you'd never run across this and were I in your position I would react the same (skeptical). however, I guess I never found the actual concept that shocking. I mean, someone already mentioned how the French tried to change the Calendar (we read about this in French II every year) to defy Christianity so it didn't seem surprising that something this godless (and crazy) would come out of communists early in the revolution.

If you find out this is just some popular folktale (like the absurd notion that the US almost became a German speaking country if it weren't for one vote.... based off of a much less interesting true story) that was made popular because people prefer neat trivia to truth, let us know.

Joshua

 

[Fish and Bread]

One thing of note: It is a little bit odd that a calendar intended for Russian workers in the old Soviet Union, complete with blank lines for name, number, and shift, is shown here in English. That might point to it being a forgery. Of course, it could just as easily be a reproduction in English intended for use by English speaking historians or students.

 

[nikolayalexandroff]

I read "Hottabych", although I don't remember the reference. I bought Volga-Volga, but never found time to watch it.

I know that Soviet leaders didn't admit mistakes. It's just that starting with Khruschev they seemed to have fewer and fewer problems admitting the mistakes of previous leaders - and after perestroika and the collapse, pretty much everything was brought to light.

In my case, having lived here for the better part of twenty years, specifically studied everything Russian in depth and to not have heard of this is amazing - kind of like a student of American history never having heard of, say, the Pony Express (although granted, no one had any interest in burying the story of the PE).

I guess it's true. I'll ask around, though.
Live and learn...

In some editions it was corrected. But if you'll find an old edition of "H." (before Khrushchov era), you'll see. This web-publication is based on the "canonical" edition::: Ëàçàðü Ëàãèí :: Ñòàðèê Õîòòàáû÷ :: ×òåíèå (ñòð.1) :: Áèáëèîòåêà OCR Àëüäåáàðàí

 

[coastalwanderer]

One thing of note: It is a little bit odd that a calendar intended for Russian workers in the old Soviet Union, complete with blank lines for name, number, and shift, is shown here in English. That might point to it being a forgery. Of course, it could just as easily be a reproduction in English intended for use by English speaking historians or students.

That was my first thought as well.

While this sounds like something more or less believable (not least given the French precursor), I also find it odd that I don't recall coming across any reference to this before; either when I was a student living in (post-Soviet) Ukraine, in which capacity I did quite a bit of research into what one might euphemistically term church-state relations in the period immediately after the Bolshevik revolution - although my research did concentrate on the period up to 1927, when the Sergian declaration was signed); or in my readings of (absolutely unreadable!) Stalinist Socialist Realist literature of the 1930s, where other characteristic things (Soviet Patriots demonstrating how progressive they are by naming their son "Traktor" or "Vladlen" or all manner of acronym-derived names, that sort of thing), invariably creep in.

I'd love to know the truth of the matter

 

[nikolayalexandroff]

One thing of note: It is a little bit odd that a calendar intended for Russian workers in the old Soviet Union, complete with blank lines for name, number, and shift, is shown here in English. That might point to it being a forgery. Of course, it could just as easily be a reproduction in English intended for use by English speaking historians or students.

That was my first thought as well.

While this sounds like something more or less believable (not least given the French precursor), I also find it odd that I don't recall coming across any reference to this before; either when I was a student living in (post-Soviet) Ukraine, in which capacity I did quite a bit of research into what one might euphemistically term church-state relations in the period immediately after the Bolshevik revolution - although my research did concentrate on the period up to 1927, when the Sergian declaration was signed); or in my readings of (absolutely unreadable!) Stalinist Socialist Realist literature of the 1930s, where other characteristic things (Soviet Patriots demonstrating how progressive they are by naming their son "Traktor" or "Vladlen" or all manner of acronym-derived names, that sort of thing), invariably creep in.

I'd love to know the truth of the matter

I believe you can find more evidence in the British Library. Soviet newspapers, calendars and so on.
Inscription:
1935
October 22
Te fourth day of the "shestidnievka" (six-day)
Tuesday.
This calendar existed at the same time, as traditional, and although it affected much everyday life, the use of traditional names of days never ceased. And this project was soon forgotten, like many projects of the first two post-revolution decades.