Transition to a five-day working week in the USSR. Weekends in the USSR
The new Soviet government set as its goal nothing less than the construction of a new world. And for this, it was necessary to subject all spheres of public life to changes.
One of the innovations was the transition to the Gregorian calendar. The USSR thus finally drew closer in chronology to Europe. Previously, the Russian Orthodox Church prevented this from being done. Now religion was no longer the dominant factor in social change. And the young government enthusiastically begins sometimes amazing experiments with the calculation of time, the designation of the days of the week and months. But not all revolutionary changes were accepted by society.
During the formation of Soviet power, the calendar was a significant tool for the formation of social memory, the mobilization of the broad masses of the population. The distribution of holidays and working days in it regulated the way of life of the entire population. The mass Soviet culture is reflected in the calendars of the 1930s.
On October 1, 1929, a reformed calendar appeared in the USSR. The new order of counting the date was called revolutionary. And the changes were connected with the fact that at the end of August 1929 the so-called "continuity" was introduced in the USSR. The Bolsheviks wanted to start continuous production. This applies to both enterprises and government agencies. The process was first introduced partially, and since the spring of 1930 everywhere.
The Soviet revolutionary calendar, in addition to the industrial benefits that the Bolsheviks hoped to extract, was also an ideological tool. His task was to destroy the Christian religious weekly cycle with Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Ideas about weeks and days of the week changed. The days lost their traditional names. They were numbered - the first day of the five-day period, the second day of the five-day period, etc. People worked for four days, and rested on the fifth. And so the whole new annual cycle, consisting of 72 five-day periods. And so that the days off for employees of enterprises and institutions did not intersect, they were divided into groups and differed in colors. The working days of the five groups were marked on the calendar in yellow, pink, green, red and purple. The calendar for 1930 looked very colorful.
Fifth day - day off
"Continuity" was designed to strengthen the productive power of the country, to reduce the time of new construction and reconstruction of old industries. At the same time, the interests of the proletariat were taken into account in relation to the number of working days and the number of working hours. There was no talk of life outside of production.
Weekends, thus, it turned out more - one in a five-day period. Weekends were no longer Sundays, but red, pink, purple, and fifths in general. It is hard to imagine how the workers coped with this innovation. After all, days off did not coincide with members of the same family. And such a way of working life offered to the Soviet people was hardly popular. The new timesheet-calendar complicated everyday life, personal and social life. Two calendars hung in the houses - the old one and the new one, essentially a working time sheet.
The remaining five non-working days were not included in any months or weeks. These national holidays are Lenin's Day on January 22, Labor Days - in fact the main days of rest in the Soviet Union - May 1 and 2, Industrial Days - November 7 and 8. In the timesheet calendar for 1931, therefore, May began on the 3rd.
It is worth noting that this was not the only unusual project of the Soviet government in the field of timekeeping that did not materialize. During the time of the revolutionary calendar, the chronology itself was indicated in a new way - from the "creation" of the socialist revolution. And this continued until 1991. Next to the usual Gregorian year was the year of November 7, 1917. Even the corresponding abbreviation "s.r." was introduced.
At the end of 1931, the five-day week was replaced by a six-day week with fixed days of rest, which fell on the 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th and 30th of each month. Now it was necessary to work for five days, and on the sixth to rest.
The months retained their old names, despite the fact that the Union of Militant Atheists received very extraordinary proposals for their renaming. The only month that retained its name according to their system was to remain May. The rest of the months would have received the names of, for example, Engels, Stalin, the Comintern.
In addition, according to the decrees of the Soviet government, the clock hands were moved one hour ahead, compared with astronomical standard time. And even the sun in the Land of the Soviets was at its zenith at its appointed hour. The totalitarian regime sought to control even time. He writes about this in his book Time and Politics. Introduction to Chronopolitics" Russian politician and political scientist Alexander Yuryevich Sungurov.
Return to traditional calendar
We got used to the five-day period with great difficulty. Gradually, the revolutionary calendar was supplanted by the traditional one. The seven-day week is back, but the work week still starts on Sunday. The return to the traditional seven-day work week happened only in 1940. February and the months with 31 days continued to bring confusion to all calendars. And soon the great experiments of the Soviet government eventually ended altogether, probably without affecting labor productivity. And on June 26, 1940, the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "On the transition to an eight-hour working day, a seven-day working week" was signed. Thus, the Soviet revolutionary calendar lasted 11 years.
The request to amend the labor market committee of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) on the 60-hour working week came not from employers, but from work collectives, businessman Mikhail Prokhorov, who heads the committee, said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
In most cases, human labor is measured by working time. Labor legislation most often uses such units of measurement as the working day (shift) and the working week.
A further reduction in working hours was provided for by the Law of the RSFSR of April 19, 1991 "On increasing social guarantees for workers." In accordance with this law, the length of working time of employees cannot exceed 40 hours per week.
The duration of daily work is 8 hours, 8 hours 12 minutes or 8 hours 15 minutes, and in jobs with harmful working conditions - 7 hours, 7 hours 12 minutes or 7 hours 15 minutes.
In April 2010, Russian businessman Mikhail Prokhorov proposed changing labor laws and introducing a 60-hour work week instead of a 40-hour one. In November 2010, the Bureau of the Board of the RSPP approved amendments to the Labor Code, which met with fierce resistance from the trade unions. However, later the document was to be sent for consideration by the Russian tripartite commission with the participation of employers, trade unions and the government.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
March 6, 1967 Svetlana Alliluyeva, the youngest daughter of Joseph Stalin, asked for political asylum at the American embassy during a trip to India.
March 7, 1967 The USSR introduced a five-day work week. Saturday and Sunday became days off.
March 8, 1910 The French Baroness Elise de Laroche flew, becoming the first female pilot. In June 1919, de Laroche set two women's world records - for altitude and distance. A monument to the pilot was erected at Le Bourget Airport.
March 10, 1919 The III All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets, held in Kharkov, adopted the Constitution of Ukraine and approved the first coat of arms of the republic. The Constitution of independent Ukraine was adopted on June 28, 1996.
March 10, 1940 Writer Mikhail Bulgakov died in Moscow at the age of 49. Real fame came to him after his death, when in 1966 the novel The Master and Margarita was published in the Moscow magazine.
March 11, 1931 In the Soviet Union, a physical education program "Ready for Labor and Defense of the USSR" was introduced. For the passing of sports standards, people were awarded special TRP badges, which the People's Commissar of Defense Kliment Voroshilov called the physical culture order.
March 11, 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, he took this position after the death of Konstantin Chernenko. Gorbachev became the seventh and last leader of the Soviet state.
On March 7, 1912, everyone learned about the conquest of the south pole of the earth by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen
When Norwegian Roald Amundsen (on the picture) learned that the North Pole was conquered by Frederick Cook, he decided to go to the opposite pole of the Earth. At the same time, a British Navy expedition led by Robert Scott was preparing to conquer the South Pole. Amundsen notified Scott and the Geographical Society of his intention from the Fram: “I have the honor to inform you that the Fram is on its way to Antarctica. Amundsen. Thus, two states gathered to conquer the South Pole of the Earth almost simultaneously: Great Britain and Norway.
In the "polar race" Amundsen chose skis, sleds and dogsleds as means of transportation. Dogs, of which there were more than a hundred, not only pulled the load, but also served as food for the expedition. On the way to the Pole, Amundsen organized a system of food warehouses. For orientation in the endless snow-white space, his team built pyramids of snow about two meters high, next to which they buried food.
Scott's expedition moved on motor sledges, dogs and Manchurian ponies bought in Siberia, which endured the cold well. But the conditions of the Arctic climate were too harsh: the horses got bogged down in the snow, and the snowmobiles often broke down. Roald Amundsen and his three companions were the first to reach the South Pole. It was December 14, 1911. Having reached the Pole on January 18, 1912, Scott and two of his comrades found traces of sledges, dogs and a tent in which Amundsen left Scott a sign with the date of his conquest of the South Pole. The Norwegian victory undermined the morale of the British. On their way back, the three explorers were forced to stop due to a heavy snowstorm just 15 kilometers from the camp. They all froze in the tent. The stiff bodies of daredevils were found on November 12, 1912.
But the world learned about the conquest of the South Pole of the Earth only on March 7, 1912, when Amundsen, together with the team, moored in Hobart (Tasmania). And eight months later, a message appeared about the death of the English expedition. Roald Amundsen lived to be 56 years old. He died in the Arctic while rescuing designer and explorer Umberto Nobile. In honor of the two discoverers of the South Pole in Antarctica, a sea, a mountain and an American scientific station are named.
Not so long ago it became known that a Ukrainian, groom Anton Omelchenko from the village of Batky, Poltava region, participated in Scott's expedition. Omelchenko looked after the Manchurian ponies. They went to the pole without horses, so the 28-year-old Ukrainian remained in the camp. Anton participated in two wars: the First World War and the Civil War. Omelchenko died in 1932 from a lightning strike. Scientists from the Antarctic Center in 2000 found Viktor Omelchenko's grandson in the Poltava region, showed him documents brought from the British Antarctic Center, photographs and even a film of Scott's expedition, where his grandfather dances the hopak. Victor Omelchenko also became a polar explorer. I have already visited the Ukrainian station "Akademik Vernadsky" in Antarctica three times.
Which of the readers heard from their ancestors (and did not read in a book) that until 1940 there was a working six-day period with fixed days of rest, falling on different days of the seven-day week? There are not many who. But in 1940 everyone knew this. This article is about what everyone forgot: about the regulation of working hours in the USSR ...
Under the damned tsarism
The tsarist regulation of working time applied, with some exceptions, only to industrial workers (and then so-called qualified workers, that is, with the exception of the smallest enterprises) and miners.
The working day was limited to 11.5 hours, a standard seven-day work week was assumed with one day of rest on Sunday, while a 10-hour working day was provided before Sundays and holidays (the so-called eve days).
There were 13 holidays falling on any day of the week, in addition, 4 more holidays always fell on weekdays. There was no paid vacation. Thus, the average non-leap year had 52.14 Sundays, 4 holidays that always fall on weekdays, and another 11.14 holidays that did not fall on Sunday, for a total of 297.7 working days in a year.
Of these, 52.14 were Saturdays, and another 7.42 were created by mobile holidays that did not stick to Sunday. In total, 59.6 working days were short and 238.1 long, which gives us 3334 standard working hours per year.
In fact, in industry no one agreed to work so much, and the manufacturers understood that people would work more efficiently if they were given more time to rest.
On average, at the beginning of the First World War, factories worked 275–279 days a year, 10–10.5 hours each (different studies gave different results), which gives us approximately 2750 — 2930 hours per year.
Provisional government. Early Soviet Power: War Communism and the NEP
The provisional government from May 1917 fell into the hands of the socialists, who for decades promised the working people an eight-hour clock. The socialists did not change their course, that is, they continued to promise an eight-hour clock in an indefinite future, which (for the Provisional Government and the Socialist-Revolutionaries) never came.
All this was of little importance, for the industry was falling apart, and the workers were insolent and did not obey the authorities; by the end of the summer of 1917, in fact, no one worked more than 5-6 hours a day (well, the output was the same as if they worked 3-4 hours).
Already on October 29, 1917, the Bolsheviks fulfilled one of the main points of their pre-revolutionary program - they proclaimed an eight-hour working day by a special decree, that is, they got a seven-day week with one day off and an eight-hour working day. The Labor Code of 1918 further expanded these provisions.
Monthly paid leave was introduced; and between the end of the working day on Saturday and the beginning on Monday there should have been 42 hours, which, with one-shift work with a lunch break, gave a five-hour working day on Saturday; before the holidays, the working day was reduced to 6 hours.
The number of holidays decreased to 6, all on a fixed date, these were New Year's Eve, May 1 (International Day) and November 7 (Proletarian Revolution Day) familiar to us, and completely unfamiliar: January 22 (January 9, 1905 (sic!)), March 12 (the day of the overthrow of the autocracy), March 18 (the day of the Paris Commune).
With the calculation method shown above, in the average year, taking into account holidays and shortened days, 2112 hours came out, 37% less than according to the tsarist Charter on Industry, 25% less than in tsarist Russia, they actually worked. It was a big breakthrough, if not for one unpleasant circumstance: the real industry did not work at all, hard workers fled the cities and died of hunger. Against the backdrop of such events, one could write anything in the law, just to please the supporting class a little.
Since the people of that era were still strongly committed to religious holidays, but it was unpleasant for the Bolsheviks to mention this in the law, they were renamed special rest days, which was supposed to be 6 per year. Days were assigned to any dates at the discretion of local authorities; if these days turned out to be religious holidays (which invariably happened in reality), then they were not paid; therefore, we do not include additional holidays in our calculations.
In 1922, the industry began to slowly revive, and the Bolsheviks slowly came to their senses. According to the Labor Code of 1922, vacation was reduced to 14 days; if the vacation fell on holidays, it was not extended. This increased the annual norm of working hours to 2212 hours per year.
With these norms, humane enough for the era, the country lived through the entire NEP.
In 1927–28, May 1 and November 7 received a second additional day off, which reduced the working year to 2,198 hours.
By the way, the Bolsheviks did not stop there and promised the people more. Solemn anniversary "Manifesto to all workers, toiling peasants, Red Army soldiers of the USSR, to the proletarians of all countries and the oppressed peoples of the world" 1927 promised a transition to a seven-hour working day as soon as possible without reducing wages.
The Great Break and the First Five-Year Plans
In 1929, the Bolsheviks, against the backdrop of the ongoing Great Break, were seized by a passion for exotic experiments with the regulation of working hours. In the fiscal year 1929/30, the country began to be vigorously transferred to a continuous working week with one floating day off in the five-day period and a seven-hour working day (NPN).
It was the strangest timesheet reform imaginable. The connection between the seven-day week and the work schedule was completely interrupted. The year was divided into 72 five-day periods and 5 permanent holidays (January 22, now called V.I. Lenin's Day and January 9, two-day May 1, two-day November 7).
The day of the overthrow of the autocracy and the day of the Paris Commune were canceled and forgotten by the people forever. New Year became a working day, but remained in people's memory. Additional unpaid religious holidays have also been permanently cancelled.
Not a single day in the five-day period was a common day off, the workers were divided into five groups, for each of which the day off was one of the five days in turn. The working day became seven hours (it was promised earlier, but no one expected the seven hours to come along with such confusion).
The vacation was fixed as 12 working days, that is, it retained the duration. The minimum Sunday rest period has been reduced to 39 hours, i.e. eve days disappeared during one-shift operation. All this led to the fact that there were now 276 7-hour working days in a year, giving 1932 working hours per year.
Soviet calendar for 1930. Different days of the five-day week are highlighted in color, but the traditional seven-day weeks and the number of days in months have been preserved.
The five-day period was hated both among the people and at work. If the spouses had a rest day on different days of the five-day period, they could not meet each other on a day off.
At the same factories, accustomed to securing equipment for certain workers and teams, now there were 5 workers for 4 machines. On the one hand, the efficiency of using the equipment theoretically increased, but in practice there was also a loss of responsibility. All this led to the fact that the five-day period did not last long.
Since 1931, the country began to be transferred to a six-day working week with five fixed days of rest per month and a seven-hour working day. The connection between the working week and the seven-day period was still lost. In each month, days off were assigned on the 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th, and 30th (meaning that some weeks actually had seven days). January 22, the two-day May Day and the two-day November holidays still remained from the holidays.
With a six-day week, there were 288 working days of 7 hours a year, which gave 2016 working hours. The Bolsheviks acknowledged that the working day had been increased, but vowed to proportionally (by 4.3%) increase wages as well; in practice it didn't matter, since prices and wages rose very quickly in that era.
The six-day period was able to somewhat reduce the damn confusion with the time sheet and more or less (in fact, about half of the workers were transferred to it) took root. So, with a rather short nominal working day, the country lived through the first five years.
It must, of course, be understood that in reality the picture was not so joyful - the assault typical of the era was provided through continuous and long overtime work, which, from an unpleasant exception, gradually became the norm.
Mature Stalinism
In 1940, the era of relatively liberal labor law came to an end. The USSR was preparing to conquer Europe. Criminal penalties for being late, a ban on voluntary redundancy—of course, these measures would look strange without the accompanying increase in the workload.
June 26, 1940 transition to a seven-day work week. This appeal to all the working people of the USSR was made at the ninth plenary session of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions. In addition to the seven-day period, during the plenum it was also proposed to introduce an eight-hour working day.
Since 1940, a seven-day week has been introduced with one day off and an eight-hour working day. There were 6 holidays, the day of the Stalin Constitution, December 5, was added to the old holidays. The shortened pre-holiday days that accompanied the seven-day period until 1929 did not appear.
Now there are 2,366 working hours a year, up 17% more than before. Unlike previous eras, the authorities did not apologize to the people about this and did not promise anything. With this simple and understandable calendar, which gave a historical maximum (for the USSR) of working time, the country lived until the complete death of Stalinism in 1956.
In 1947, against the backdrop of a general return to the national tradition, the holiday on January 22 was replaced by the New Year.
Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras
In 1956, having coped with the resistance of the elites, Khrushchev opened a new page - labor law was sharply softened again. Since 1956, the country has switched to a seven-day work week with one day off and a seven-hour workday; in practice, the transition took 3-4 years, but it was complete.
In addition to the seven-day period, the country received a new mitigation - all pre-weekend and pre-holiday days were reduced by two hours. Holidays remain the same. This led to a sharp reduction in working hours, the year was now 1963 working hours, 17% less. In 1966, March 8 and May 9, familiar to us, were added to the holidays, which reduced the working year to 1950 hours, that is, almost to the time of the half-forgotten five-day period.
And finally, in 1967, already under Brezhnev, the most fundamental of the reforms took place, which gave the form of the work schedule familiar to all of us today: a seven-day work week with two days off and an eight-hour work day was introduced.
Although the working week had 5 working days of 8 hours, its duration was 41 hours. This extra hour added up and formed 6–7 black (that is, workers) Saturdays hated by the people in a year; which days they fell on were decided by departments and local authorities.
The length of the working year has grown slightly and is now 2008 hours. But the people still liked the reform, two days off are much better than one.
In 1971, a new Labor Code was adopted, containing one pleasant innovation: vacation was increased to 15 working days. There were now 1968 working hours in a year. With this labor right, the Soviet Union reached its collapse.
For reference: today, thanks to the reduction of the working week to 40 hours, the increase in vacation to 20 working days, and holidays to 14 days, which always fall on weekends, we work 1819 hours on an average non-leap year.
linkI'll be busy with another exposure of liberal myths.
Today we will talk about the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 06/26/1940 "On the transition to an eight-hour working day, a seven-day working week and the prohibition of unauthorized departure of workers and employees from enterprises and institutions"
Today, this decree is presented as follows:
Volodya Rezun-Suvorov curses him loudest of all "The labor legislation of 1940 was so perfect that during the war it did not have to be either corrected or supplemented.
And the working day grew stout and expanded: the nine-hour one imperceptibly turned into a ten-hour one, then into an eleven-hour one. And they allowed overtime work: if you want to earn extra money, stay in the evening. The government prints money, distributes it to overtime enthusiasts, and then pumps this money back from the population with defense loans. And people don't have enough money. Then the government meets the people halfway: you can work seven days a week. For lovers. Then, however, this was introduced for everyone - to work seven days a week." ("M Day" http://tapirr.narod.ru/texts/history/suvorov/denm.htm)
"Holidays cancelled.
In June 1940, an appeal appeared in the Soviet press to the working people with an appeal to switch to a seven-day working week. Of course, this was an "initiative from below", signed by hundreds of representatives of class-conscious advanced workers and progressive intelligentsia. The rest of the population understood that soon the war. It should be noted that since the beginning of the 1930s, a six-day working week was established in the Soviet Union with a seven-hour working day. In other countries, they worked more - with a six-day workday, workers worked 9-11 hours a day. On June 26, 1940, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, an eight-hour working day, a seven-day working week and criminal liability for being late for work by more than 21 minutes were introduced. Voluntary dismissal was prohibited. For workers and employees, criminal punishment was established for violation of labor discipline. For being late for work, they were given five years in the camps, for arguing with superiors one could get a year, and for marriage - up to ten years of strict regime. In 1940, it was very easy to be late for work in Moscow - there was not enough public transport, suburban trains and buses could not physically accommodate all passengers, especially during "rush hour". People hung in clusters on the outer handrails, which sometimes came off on the move and passengers flew under the wheels. Sometimes genuine tragedies were played out when hopelessly late people threw themselves under the transport. Semidnevka was canceled in 1946, and criminal liability for being late - in 1956. "(Finance magazine." http://www.finansmag.ru/64351)
"...in 1940, days off at enterprises were canceled in the USSR"("From victory to defeat - one step" http://www.ruska-pravda.com/index.php/200906233017/stat-i/monitoring-smi/2009-06-23-05-54-19/pechat .html)
Do not lag behind and homegrown fighters against Stalinism
"Six days is 6 working days out of 7 with one day off, 7 days is WITHOUT days off!"("To the Stalinists: Decree on the prohibition of unauthorized departure of workers and employees from enterprises and institutions" http://makhk.livejournal.com/211239.html?thread=2970407)
Well, okay, enough examples, now I'll explain.
A feature of the Soviet calendar of the 30s was that there was a six-day week (the so-called six-day week) with a fixed day of rest falling on the 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th and 30th of each month (March 1 was used instead of February 30, every 31st treated as an extra day of work). Traces of this are visible, for example, in the credits of the film "Volga-Volga" ("the first day of the six-day period", "the second day of the six-day period" and so on).
The return to the seven-day week took place on June 26, 1940 in accordance with the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "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."
And the Decree sounded like this:
1. To increase the length of the working day of workers and employees in all state, cooperative and public enterprises and institutions:
from seven to eight hours - at enterprises with a seven-hour working day;
from six to seven o'clock - at work with a six-hour working day, with the exception of professions with harmful working conditions, according to the lists approved by the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR;
from six to eight o'clock - for employees of institutions;
from six to eight hours - for persons over 16 years of age.
2. Transfer work in all state, cooperative and public enterprises and institutions from a six-day week to a seven-day week, counting seventh day of the week - Sunday - day of rest. http://www.gumer.info/bibliotek_Buks/History/Article/perehod8.php
So, the transition from a six- to a seven-day calendar is being actively used today by anti-Sovietists as a crime of Stalinism and the enslavement of workers.
We draw our own conclusions, as always.
