13 days disappeared: why the USSR changed the calendar

Citizens of our state well remember last year's calendar reform, which was carried out by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. However, such changes have happened more than once in relatively recent history - it happened during the Soviet era as well.

In the Soviet Union, once 13 days simply disappeared from the calendar. OBOZ.UA tells when it happened and why.

The whole point is that the Russian Empire, in place of which the USSR appeared, lived on the Julian calendar. While the whole world has long used the Gregorian. The authorities of the Soviet country tried to do everything to break with the "bourgeois" past. Therefore, in order to unify the calculation of time with the international approach, it was decided to switch to the Western European calendar. It happened on February 6, 1918, when the historic meeting of the Council of People's Commissars took place.

Interestingly, the Western world had been living on the Gregorian calendar since 1582, when it was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII. He listened to the arguments of scientists who pointed out to him that the calculation established by Emperor Julius Caesar was astronomically inaccurate.

It is noteworthy that the Tsarist authorities had been discussing the transition to a common calendar with Europe since the 1830s. However, the influence of the church was so strong that the decision could not be made. In documents and the press even indicated two dates for convenience.

However, after the October Revolution, the influence of the church was reduced to zero and the calendar reform was finally implemented. It came into force on January 31, 1918, followed immediately by February 14.

Until July 1, 1918 in official documents the date of the Gregorian calendar was indicated in brackets after the date of the Julian calendar. Subsequently, the practice was retained, but the Gregorian date began to be placed in parentheses. This calendar reform gave rise, in particular, to such an unusual holiday for the Western observer as Old New Year, which in the USSR was celebrated on January 13.

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