When they introduced the five-day. Five day work week. Statistics on the working week in different countries

UPDATE: Apparently, the photo of the grave is most likely a photoshop fake and February 30th never really existed in the USSR. Personally, I have not yet been able to find a single confirmation in the form of any calendar or newspaper for 1930 or 1931. But calendars are known that testify to the opposite.

Original taken from masterok to the Soviet revolutionary ...

It would seem, why am I showing you this photo. Do you notice anything strange about her? Exactly exactly? Well, take a closer look! Found? Ok, let's go under the cut, we will read the details ...

- a calendar, an attempt to introduce which was carried out starting from October 1, 1929 in the USSR. However, from December 1, 1931, this calendar was partially canceled. The final return to the traditional calendar was made on June 26, 1940.

During the operation of the Soviet revolutionary calendar, the Gregorian calendar was used in parallel in some cases.

The Soviet revolutionary calendar with a five-day week was introduced on October 1, 1929. Its main goal was to destroy the Christian seven-day weekly cycle, making Sundays working days. However, despite the fact that there were more days off (6 per month instead of 4-5), such an artificial rhythm of life turned out to be unviable, it contradicted both everyday habits and the entire well-established folk culture. Therefore, the revolutionary calendar, under the pressure of life, gradually changed towards the traditional one, which was restored in 1940. This calendar reform took place as follows.

On August 26, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR in the resolution "On the transition to continuous production in enterprises and institutions of the USSR" recognized it as necessary from the 1929-1930 financial year (from October 1) to begin a systematic and consistent transfer of enterprises and institutions to continuous production. The transition to "continuous work", which began in the autumn of 1929, was consolidated in the spring of 1930 by a resolution of a special government commission under the Council of Labor and Defense, which introduced a single production time sheet-calendar.

In the calendar year, 360 days were provided, and, accordingly, 72 five-day days. Each of the 12 months consisted of exactly 30 days, including February. The remaining 5 or 6 days (in a leap year) were declared "monthless holidays" and were not included in any month or week, but they had their own names:

Week in the USSR in 1929-1930. consisted of 5 days, while they were divided into five groups named by colors (yellow, pink, red, purple, green), and each group had its own day off per week.

The five-day period took root with exceptional difficulty - in fact, it was a constant violence also against the usual biological rhythm of people's lives. Therefore, the Bolsheviks decided to retreat slightly.

By the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of November 21, 1931 "On the interrupted production week in institutions", from December 1, 1931, the five-day week was replaced by a 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 31 was treated as an additional working day). 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" ...).

Since 1931, the number of days in a month has been returned to its former form. But these concessions did not change the main goal of the calendar reform: the eradication of Sunday. And they also could not normalize the rhythm of life. Therefore, with the first signs of the rehabilitation of Russian patriotism on the eve of the war, Stalin also decided to stop the fight against the traditional structure of time calculation.

The return to the 7-day week occurred 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." However, the week in the USSR began on Sunday, only in later years - on Monday.

Despite the fact that the chronology continued according to the Gregorian calendar, in some cases the date was indicated as "NN year of the socialist revolution", with a starting point from November 7, 1917. The phrase "NN year of the socialist revolution" was present in tear-off and flip calendars through 1991, inclusive - until the end of the Communist Party's power.

The decision is still valid in all countries of the now former USSR. Prior to this, the working week had been six days since the 1920s.

“The shortening of the working week was in line with the economic reforms of the mid-60s, initiated by Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin, and had a propaganda effect, especially in the context of the political and ideological confrontation with China”

The joint resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions "On the transfer of workers and employees of enterprises, institutions and organizations to a five-day working week" was adopted in preparation for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. And it was signed on March 7 for a reason. Because it was addressed, first of all, to working women, because it freed up a whole day for household chores.

The issues of switching to a five-day week and, in general, reducing the time spent by workers and employees in production were first discussed in the country during the all-Union economic discussion of 1951-1952 and were mentioned in Stalin's last work, Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR (1952). It was noted that with the successful development of the national economy in the country, conditions will appear for the working people to have more free time for recreation and cultural leisure. But…

Khrushchev's policy ruled out the implementation of such plans. Since the late 1950s, the socio-economic situation in the country has been deteriorating. The manifestations of this trend were, first of all, the growing imports of food and equipment, the confiscatory monetary reform of 1961, accompanied by an increase in prices for goods and services, coupled with their deficit, new taxes on subsidiary and personal farms. All this caused social tension and, as a result, led to mass unrest in Novocherkassk (1962) and a number of other regions in the last years of Khrushchev's rule.

The new leadership understood that some kind of “social outlet” was urgently needed, which would prove its desire to improve the quality of life in the country of victorious socialism. This was especially necessary, for obvious reasons, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. And also because in most socialist countries Saturdays were already days off.

The introduction of the five-day period was supplemented by the announcement of May 9 as a non-working holiday, the expansion of social benefits, and the gradual abolition of Khrushchev's agricultural taxes. As well as the resumption of circulation for the redemption of bonds of recovery loans of 1946-1958. Recall that almost all workers and employees of the country were subscribed to these loans. But in 1961, the repayment was stopped - as the then leadership stated, at the numerous requests of the workers.

In a broader context, the reduction of the working week fit into the economic reforms of the mid-1960s, initiated by Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin. It was he who, in 1965, on the basis of state planning analytics, proposed to the Politburo to positively resolve this issue. It was said that according to the State Planning Committee of the USSR, there is no shortage of labor and engineering personnel in most regions and industries in the near future. And the increase in wage funds and bonuses envisaged by the reforms will more than compensate the workers for the “loss” of one working day from their earnings. At the same time, Kosygin noted that the indicators of the country's socio-economic development in the 8th five-year plan (1966-1970), especially in terms of labor productivity growth, were much higher than in the previous period. This allows you to reduce the working week by one day without harming the economy. Brezhnev and the then head of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions Grishin were the first to support the prime minister's arguments and, accordingly, the draft of the aforementioned resolution.

It is worth mentioning the propaganda effect of this decision in the context of the political and ideological confrontation between Moscow and Beijing: in China and Albania that joined it (as well as in the DPRK, Cuba, Mongolia) at that time, even Sunday was rarely a day off.

Economic problems in the country began to worsen from about the mid-70s, after the Kosygin reforms were suspended. The West increasingly purchased Soviet energy carriers and other types of raw materials, which negatively affected both the pace and the quality of the development of the national economy. This combined led the USSR to 1991.

But all the countries of the ex-USSR owe the five-day working week precisely to the decision of the Soviet leadership of March 7, 1967.

Alexey Chichkin

On October 29 (November 11), 1917, a decree of the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) in Russia established an 8-hour working day (instead of 9-10 hours, as it was before) and introduced a 48-hour working week with six workers and one day off afternoon. Works that were particularly harmful to health were subject to reduced working hours. On December 9, 1918, the Labor Code of the RSFSR was adopted, which consolidated these provisions.
From January 2, 1929 to October 1, 1933, in accordance with the decision of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, a gradual transition to a 7-hour working day was carried out. The working week was 42 hours.
On August 26, 1929, by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "On the transition to continuous production in enterprises and institutions of the USSR", a new personnel calendar was introduced, in which the week consisted of five days: four working days of 7 hours, the fifth was a day off.
In November 1931, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution in which it allowed the people's commissariats and other institutions to switch to a six-day calendar week, in which the 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th and 30th of each month, as well as March 1, were non-working.
On June 27, 1940, the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR came into force on the transition to an 8-hour working day with a "normal" working week according to the Gregorian calendar (6 working days, Sunday is a day off). The working week was 48 hours.
On June 26, 1941, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree "On the working hours of workers and employees in wartime", according to which mandatory overtime work from 1 to 3 hours a day was introduced and holidays were canceled. These wartime measures were abolished by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on June 30, 1945.
At the end of the post-war recovery period in 1956-1960. the working day in the USSR was gradually (by sectors of the national economy) again reduced to 7 hours with a six-day working week (Sunday is a day off), and the working week was reduced to 42 hours.
At the XXIII Congress of the CPSU (March 29 - April 8, 1966) it was decided to switch to a five-day working week with two days off (Saturday and Sunday). In March 1967, a series of decrees and resolutions of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and the Central Committee of the CPSU introduced a standard "five-day work" with an 8-hour working day in the USSR. In general education schools, higher and secondary specialized educational institutions, a six-day working week with a 7-hour working day has been preserved. Thus, the working week did not exceed 42 hours.
On December 9, 1971, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR adopted a new Code of Labor Laws (Labor Code), according to which the length of working time could not exceed 41 hours. The Constitution of the USSR adopted on October 7, 1977 (Article 41) legitimized this norm.
In Russia, the law of April 19, 1991 "On increasing social guarantees for workers" reduced working hours to 40 hours a week. On September 25, 1992, this norm was enshrined in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. In this form, the working week exists in Russia to this day.

...Probably, we should start with the fact that this year it opens today Maslenitsa!.. And at the same time ask: isn’t it time to make this glorious week a truly festive one - that is, a day off?.. No?.. Then we go to the past ...

... March 7, 321 Constantine the Great ordered to consider Sunday as a day off - as we remember, it was this emperor who legalized Christianity eight years earlier ... As if these events were interconnected - but in fact the edict gave rise to some confusion, about which nine centuries later Thomas Aquinas will say this: " In the new law, the observance of the day of the Lord took the place of the observance of the Sabbath, not according to the commandment, but according to the church establishment and the custom accepted among Christians "... One way or another - according to the modern European standard, Sunday is considered the last day of the week; and in Israel, the USA and Canada - on the contrary, the first. Also, according to the observations of scientists, in a month that begins on Sunday, it always happens Friday the 13th...

... It must be said that the tolerant Konstantin was consistent - and did not introduce any bans on labor activity, limiting himself to closing markets and government offices on Sunday. (By the way, the Romans once had an eight-day week - for unclear reasons they borrowed the “seven days” from the conquered eastern peoples). Thus, initially the day off was distributed exclusively to the civil service - because the event went relatively unnoticed ...

... And it remained so for many centuries - despite various restrictions of a "local nature" ... even in the harsh Victorian England of the late 19th century, it seemed to be forbidden to work on this day - but with a number of exceptions. Russian "Craft charter" around the same time it says: “... there are six craft days in a week; but on Sundays and on the days of the Twelfth Feasts, artisans must not work without the necessary need. However, Sunday will become our official holiday only in 1897! (At the same time, an 11.5-hour working day will be legalized ... however, in those harsh times, this was a big relief).

The law on the day off took root in Rus' for a long time and hard ... and in the village - for obvious reasons! - and not at all. (Perhaps because of the name; in other Slavic languages ​​this day is called simply "a week"- that is, you can do nothing ... why our hardworking people called the whole seven-day period like that - a mystery! As you know, in most Germanic languages ​​Sunday is called "day of the sun").

The uncompromising Bolsheviks at first wanted to get rid of Sunday ... In 1930 they introduced four days with the fifth day off - moreover, it could be chosen independently; a year later the same six days. Finally, in 1940, they spat on the experiments - and returned Sunday with a seven-day week to its rightful place. And twenty-seven years later they became generous - and added Saturday to the weekend ...

... Coincidentally, this happened exactly on March 7 - in 1967, a decree was issued by the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions "On the transfer of workers and employees of enterprises, institutions and organizations to a five-day working week with two days off." So, after more than a millennium and a half, the edict of Emperor Constantine was significantly supplemented ...

PS: Nowadays, the most respectable public is working more and more, as it turns out - but, in fairness, the majority have warm feelings for Sunday ... However, this is a completely different story.