Introduction of a new calendar. Is the transition to the Gregorian calendar in Russia good or bad?

Since by this time the difference between the old and new styles was 13 days, the decree ordered that after January 31, 1918, not February 1, but February 14. The same decree prescribed, until July 1, 1918, after the date of each day according to the new style, to write in brackets the number according to the old style: February 14 (1), February 15 (2), etc.

From the history of chronology in Russia.

The ancient Slavs, like many other peoples, initially based their calendar on the period of change lunar phases. But already by the time of the adoption of Christianity, i.e. by the end of the 10th century. n. e., Ancient Rus' I used the lunisolar calendar.

Calendar of the ancient Slavs. It was not possible to definitively establish what the calendar of the ancient Slavs was. It is only known that initially time was counted by seasons. Probably, the 12-month period was also used at the same time moon calendar. In later times, the Slavs switched to a lunisolar calendar, in which an additional 13th month was inserted seven times every 19 years.

The most ancient monuments of Russian writing show that the months had purely Slavic names, the origin of which was closely related to natural phenomena. Moreover, the same months, depending on the climate of the places in which different tribes lived, received different names. So, January was called where the section (the time of deforestation), where the prosinets (after the winter clouds the blue sky appeared), where the jelly (since it became icy, cold), etc.; February—cut, snowy or severe (severe frosts); March - berezozol (there are several interpretations here: the birch begins to bloom; they took sap from birches; they burned the birch for coal), dry (the poorest in precipitation in the ancient Kievan Rus, in some places the earth was already dry, the sap (a reminder of birch sap); April - pollen (blooming of gardens), birch (beginning of birch flowering), duben, kviten, etc.; May - grass (grass turns green), summer, pollen; June - Cherven (cherries turn red), Izok (grasshoppers chirp - “Izoki”), Mlechen; July - lipets (linden blossoms), cherven (in the north, where phenological phenomena are delayed), serpen (from the word “sickle”, indicating the time of harvest); August - sickle, stubble, roar (from the verb “to roar” - the roar of deer, or from the word “glow” - cold dawns, and possibly from “pasori” - aurora); September - veresen (heather blossoms); Ruen (from Slavic root a word meaning wood that produces yellow dye); October - leaf fall, “pazdernik” or “kastrychnik” (pazdernik - hemp buds, the name for the south of Russia); November - gruden (from the word “heap” - frozen rut on the road), leaf fall (in the south of Russia); December - jelly, chest, prosinets.

The year began on March 1, and around this time agricultural work began.

Many ancient names of months later moved into the series Slavic languages and in to a large extent held on to some modern languages, in particular in Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish.

At the end of the 10th century. Ancient Rus' adopted Christianity. At the same time, the chronology used by the Romans came to us - the Julian calendar (based on the solar year), with Roman names for the months and a seven-day week. It counted years from the “creation of the world,” which allegedly occurred 5508 years before our chronology. This date - one of the many variants of eras from the “creation of the world” - was adopted in the 7th century. in Greece and for a long time used by the Orthodox Church.

For many centuries, the beginning of the year was considered March 1, but in 1492, in accordance with church tradition, the beginning of the year was officially moved to September 1 and was celebrated this way for more than two hundred years. However, a few months after, on September 1, 7208, Muscovites celebrated their next New Year, they had to repeat the celebration. This happened because on December 19, 7208, a personal decree of Peter I on the reform of the calendar in Russia was signed and promulgated, according to which a new beginning of the year was introduced - from January 1 and new era- Christian chronology (from the “Nativity of Christ”).

Peter's decree was called: "On the writing henceforth of Genvar from the 1st day of 1700 in all papers of the year from the Nativity of Christ, and not from the creation of the world." Therefore, the decree prescribed that the day after December 31, 7208 from the “creation of the world” should be considered January 1, 1700 from the “Nativity of Christ.” In order for the reform to be adopted without complications, the decree ended with a prudent clause: “And if anyone wants to write both those years, from the creation of the world and from the Nativity of Christ, freely in a row.”

Celebrating the first civil New Year in Moscow. The day after the announcement of Peter I’s decree on calendar reform on Red Square in Moscow, i.e. December 20, 7208, a new decree of the tsar was announced - “On the celebration of the New Year.” Considering that January 1, 1700 is not only the beginning of a new year, but also the beginning of a new century (Here a significant mistake was made in the decree: 1700 is last year XVII century, and not the first year of the XVIII century. New Age occurred on January 1, 1701. An error that is sometimes repeated today.), the decree ordered that this event be celebrated with especially solemnity. It gave detailed instructions on how to organize a holiday in Moscow. On New Year's Eve, Peter I himself lit the first rocket on Red Square, giving the signal for the opening of the holiday. The streets were illuminated. The ringing of bells and cannon fire began, and the sounds of trumpets and timpani were heard. The Tsar congratulated the population of the capital on the New Year, and the festivities continued all night. Multi-colored rockets took off from the courtyards into the dark winter sky, and “along the large streets, where there is space,” lights burned—bonfires and tar barrels attached to poles.

The houses of the residents of the wooden capital were decorated with needles “from trees and branches of pine, spruce and juniper.” For a whole week the houses were decorated, and as night fell the lights were lit. Shooting “from small cannons and from muskets or other small weapons,” as well as launching “missiles,” were entrusted to people “who do not count gold.” And “poor people” were asked to “put at least a tree or branch on each of their gates or over their temple.” Since that time, our country has established the custom of celebrating New Year's Day on January 1 every year.

After 1918, there were still calendar reforms in the USSR. In the period from 1929 to 1940, calendar reforms were carried out in our country three times, caused by production needs. Thus, on August 26, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution “On the transition to continuous production in enterprises and institutions of the USSR,” which recognized the need to begin systematic and consecutive translation enterprises and institutions for continuous production. In the fall of 1929, a gradual transition to “continuity” began, which ended in the spring of 1930 after the publication of a resolution of a special government commission under the Council of Labor and Defense. This decree introduced a unified production timesheet and calendar. The calendar year had 360 days, i.e. 72 five-day periods. It was decided to consider the remaining 5 days as holidays. Unlike the ancient Egyptian calendar, they were not located all together at the end of the year, but were timed to coincide with Soviet memorial days and revolutionary holidays: January 22, May 1 and 2, and November 7 and 8.

The workers of each enterprise and institution were divided into 5 groups, and each group was given a day of rest on every five-day week for the whole year. This meant that after four working days there was a day of rest. After the introduction of the “uninterrupted” period, there was no longer a need for a seven-day week, since weekends could fall not only on different numbers month, but also on different days of the week.

However, this calendar did not last long. Already on November 21, 1931, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution “On the intermittent production week in institutions,” which allowed the People's Commissariats and other institutions to switch to a six-day intermittent production week. For them, permanent days off were established on the following dates of the month: 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30. At the end of February, the day off fell on the last day of the month or was postponed to March 1. In those months that contained 31 days, the last day of the month was considered the same month and was paid specially. The decree on the transition to an intermittent six-day week came into force on December 1, 1931.

Both the five-day and six-day periods completely disrupted the traditional seven-day week with a general day off on Sunday. The six-day week was used for about nine years. Only on June 26, 1940, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree “On the transition to an eight-hour working day, to a seven-day working week and on the prohibition of the unauthorized departure of workers and employees from enterprises and institutions.” In development of this decree, on June 27, 1940, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted resolution, which established that “over Sundays non-working days are also:

January 22, May 1 and 2, November 7 and 8, December 5. The same decree abolished the existing rural areas six special days rest and non-working days March 12 (Day of the Overthrow of the Autocracy) and March 18 (Paris Commune Day).

On March 7, 1967, the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions adopted a resolution “On the transfer of workers and employees of enterprises, institutions and organizations to a five-day work week with two days off,” but this reform did not in any way affect the structure of the modern calendar."

But the most interesting thing is that passions do not subside. The next revolution is happening in our new time. Sergei Baburin, Victor Alksnis, Irina Savelyeva and Alexander Fomenko introduced a bill to the State Duma in 2007 on the transition of Russia to the Julian calendar from January 1, 2008. IN explanatory note the deputies noted that “there is no world calendar” and proposed establishing a transition period from December 31, 2007, when, for 13 days, chronology would be carried out simultaneously according to two calendars at once. Only four deputies took part in the voting. Three are against, one is for. There were no abstentions. The rest of the elected representatives ignored the vote.

As in other Christian countries, from the end of the 10th century in Rus', the Julian calendar was used, based on observations of the visible movement of the Sun across the sky. He was brought into Ancient Rome Gaius Julius Caesar in 46 BC. e.

The calendar was developed by the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes based on the calendar of Ancient Egypt. When Rus' adopted Christianity in the 10th century, the Julian calendar came with it. However, the average length of a year in the Julian calendar is 365 days and 6 hours (that is, there are 365 days in a year, with an additional day added every fourth year). While the duration of the astronomical solar year is 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 46 seconds. That is, the Julian year was 11 minutes 14 seconds longer than the astronomical year and, therefore, lagged behind the real change of years.

By 1582, the difference between the Julian calendar and the real change of years was already 10 days.

This led to a reform of the calendar, which was carried out in 1582 by a special commission created by Pope Gregory XIII. The difference was eliminated when, after October 4, 1582, it was ordered to count not October 5, but immediately October 15. After the name of the pope, the new, reformed calendar began to be called the Gregorian calendar.

In this calendar, unlike the Julian calendar, the final year of the century, if it is not divisible by 400, is not a leap year. Thus, Gregorian calendar has 3 fewer leap years in each quaternary year than the Julian year. The Gregorian calendar retained the names of the months of the Julian calendar, the additional day in the leap year is February 29, and the beginning of the year is January 1.

The transition of countries around the world to the Gregorian calendar was long. First, the reform took place in Catholic countries (Spain, Italian states, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a little later in France, etc.), then in Protestant countries (in Prussia in 1610, in all German states by 1700, in Denmark in 1700, in Great Britain in 1752, in Sweden in 1753). And only in the 19th-20th centuries the Gregorian calendar was adopted in some Asian (in Japan in 1873, China in 1911, Turkey in 1925) and Orthodox (in Bulgaria in 1916, in Serbia in 1919, in Greece in 1924 year) states.

In the RSFSR, the transition to the Gregorian calendar was carried out according to the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR “On the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic” dated February 6, 1918 (January 26, old style).

The calendar problem in Russia has been discussed several times. In 1899, a Commission on the issue of calendar reform in Russia worked under the Astronomical Society, which included Dmitry Mendeleev and historian Vasily Bolotov. The commission proposed modernizing the Julian calendar.

“Taking into account: 1) that in 1830 the petition of the Imperial Academy of Sciences for the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Russia was rejected by Emperor Nicholas I and 2) that the Orthodox states and the entire Orthodox population of the East and West rejected the attempts of representatives of Catholicism to introduce the Gregorian calendar in Russia, the Commission unanimously decided to reject all proposals for the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Russia and, without being embarrassed by the choice of reform, to settle on one that would combine the idea of ​​​​truth and possible accuracy, both scientific and historical, in relation to Christian chronology in Russia,” reads Resolution of the Commission on the reform of the calendar in Russia from 1900.

Such a long use of the Julian calendar in Russia was due to the position of the Orthodox Church, which had a negative attitude towards the Gregorian calendar.

After the church was separated from the state in the RSFSR, linking the civil calendar to the church calendar lost its relevance.

The difference in calendars created inconvenience in relations with Europe, which was the reason for the adoption of the decree “in order to establish in Russia the same with almost all cultural peoples calculation of time."

The question of reform was raised in the fall of 1917. One of the projects under consideration proposed a gradual transition from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, dropping a day each year. But, since the difference between the calendars by that time was 13 days, the transition would take 13 years. Therefore, Lenin supported the option of a one-time transition to a new style. The church refused to switch to the new style.

“The first day after January 31 of this year should be considered not February 1, but February 14, the second day should be considered the 15th, etc.,” read the first paragraph of the decree. The remaining points indicated how new deadlines for fulfilling any obligations should be calculated and on what dates citizens would be able to receive their salaries.

The change of dates has created confusion with the celebration of Christmas. Before the transition to the Gregorian calendar in Russia, Christmas was celebrated on December 25, but now it has moved to January 7. As a result of these changes, in 1918 there was no Christmas at all in Russia. In 1917 they met last christmas, which fell on December 25. And next time Orthodox holiday was celebrated already on January 7, 1919.

The converter converts dates to the Gregorian and Julian calendars and calculates the Julian date; for the Julian calendar, the Latin and Roman versions are displayed.

Notes

• Gregorian calendar(“new style”) introduced in 1582 AD. e. Pope Gregory XIII, so that the day spring equinox corresponded to a specific day (March 21). More early dates converted using standard rules for Gregorian leap years. Conversion up to 2400g is possible.
• Julian calendar(“old style”) introduced in 46 BC. e. Julius Caesar and totaled 365 days; Every third year was a leap year. This error was corrected by Emperor Augustus: from 8 BC. e. and until 8 AD e. additional days Leap years were skipped. Earlier dates are converted using standard rules for Julian leap years.
• Roman version The Julian calendar was introduced around 750 BC. e. Due to the fact that the number of days in the Roman calendar year changed, dates before 8 AD. e. are not accurate and are presented for demonstration purposes. The chronology was carried out from the founding of Rome ( ab Urbe condita) - 753/754 BC e. Dates before 753 BC e. not calculated.
• Month names Roman calendar are agreed modifiers (adjectives) with a noun mensis'month':

• Days of the month determined by the phases of the moon. In different months, the Kalends, Nonas and Ides fell on different dates:

The first days of the month are determined by counting the days from the upcoming Nons, after the Nons - from the Ides, after the Ides - from the upcoming Kalends. The preposition is used ante‘to’ with accusative case (accusatīvus):

a. d. XI Kal. Sept. (short form);

ante diem undecĭmum Kalendas Septembres (full form).

The ordinal number agrees with the form diem, that is, put in the accusative case singular masculine (accusatīvus singulāris masculīnum). Thus, the numerals take the following forms:

If the day falls on the Kalends, Nones or Ides, then the name of this day (Kalendae, Nonae, Idūs) and the name of the month are put in the instrumental case plural female(ablatīvus plurālis feminīnum), for example:

The day immediately preceding the Kalends, Nones or Idams is designated by the word pridie(‘the day before’) with the feminine accusative plural (accusatīvus plurālis feminīnum):

Thus, month adjectives can take the following forms:

• Julian date is the number of days that have passed since noon on January 1, 4713 BC. e. This date is arbitrary and was chosen only to harmonize different chronology systems.

Various nations, religious cults, and astronomers tried to make counting the inexorably current time both the most accurate and simplest for any person. The starting point was the movement of the Sun, Moon, Earth, and the location of the stars. There are dozens of calendars developed and still used today. For Christendom There were only two significant calendars used for centuries - Julian and Gregorian. The latter is still the basis of chronology, considered the most accurate and not subject to the accumulation of errors. The transition to the Gregorian calendar in Russia occurred in 1918. This article will tell you what this was connected with.

From Caesar to the present day

It was after this multifaceted personality that the Julian calendar was named. The date of its appearance is considered to be January 1, 1945. BC e. based on the emperor's decree. It's funny that the starting point has little to do with astronomy - it is the day the consuls of Rome took office. This calendar, however, was not born out of nowhere:

• The basis for it was the calendar ancient egypt, which has existed for centuries, in which there were exactly 365 days, changing seasons.
• The second source for compiling the Julian calendar was the existing Roman one, which was divided into months.

The result is a fairly balanced, thoughtful way of visualizing the passage of time. It harmoniously combined ease of use, clear periods with the astronomical correlation between the Sun, Moon and stars, known for a long time and influencing the movement of the Earth.

The appearance of the Gregorian calendar, completely tied to the solar or tropical year, owes grateful humanity to Pope Gregory XIII, who ordered all Catholic countries to switch to a new time on October 4, 1582. It must be said that even in Europe this process was neither shaky nor slow. Thus, Prussia switched to it in 1610, Denmark, Norway, Iceland - in 1700, Great Britain with all its overseas colonies - only in 1752.

When did Russia switch to the Gregorian calendar?

Thirsty for everything new after having destroyed everything, the fiery Bolsheviks gladly gave the command to switch to a new progressive calendar. The transition to it in Russia took place on January 31 (February 14), 1918. The Soviet government had quite revolutionary reasons for this event:

• Almost all European countries had long ago switched to this method of chronology, and only the reactionary tsarist government suppressed the initiative of peasants and workers who were very inclined to astronomy and other exact sciences.
• The Russian Orthodox Church was against such violent intervention, which violates the sequence of biblical events. But can “sellers of dope for the people” be smarter than the most armed? advanced ideas proletariat.

Moreover, the differences between the two calendars cannot be called fundamentally different. By and large, the Gregorian calendar is a modified version of the Julian calendar. The changes are mainly aimed at eliminating, reducing the accumulation of temporary errors. But as a result of dates that happened long ago historical events, birth famous personalities have a double, confusing calculation.

For example, October Revolution happened in Russia on October 25, 1917 - according to the Julian calendar or the so-called old style, which is historical fact or November 7 of the same year in a new way - Gregorian. It feels like the Bolsheviks carried out the October Rebellion twice - the second time as an encore.

The Russian Orthodox Church, which the Bolsheviks were unable to force either by executions of clergy or by organized robbery of artistic values ​​to recognize the new calendar, did not deviate from the biblical canons, calculating the passage of time and the onset of church holidays according to the Julian calendar.

Therefore, the transition to the Gregorian calendar in Russia is not so much a scientific, organizational event as a political one, which at one time affected the destinies of many people, and its echoes are still heard today. However, against the background fun game in “move the time forward / back an hour”, which has not yet finally ended, judging by the initiatives of the most active deputies, this is simply a historical event.

07.12.2015

Gregorian calendar - modern system calculus based on astronomical phenomena, namely, on the cyclic revolution of our planet around the Sun. The length of the year in this system is 365 days, with every fourth year becoming a leap year and equal to 364 days.

History of origin

The date of approval of the Gregorian calendar is October 4, 1582. This calendar replaced the Julian calendar in force until that time. Majority modern countries lives precisely according to the new calendar: look at any calendar and you will get a clear idea of ​​the Gregorian system. According to the Gregorian Calculus, the year is divided into 12 months, the duration of which is 28, 29, 30 and 31 days. The calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII.

The transition to a new calculation entailed the following changes:

• At the time of adoption, the Gregorian calendar immediately shifted the current date by 10 days and corrected the errors accumulated by the previous system;
• In the new calculus, a more correct rule for determining leap years began to apply;
• The rules for calculating the day of Christian Easter have been modified.

In the year the new system was adopted, Spain, Italy, France, and Portugal joined the chronology, and a couple of years later other European countries joined them. In Russia, the transition to the Gregorian calendar took place only in the 20th century - in 1918. In the territory under the control of Soviet power, it was announced that after January 31, 1918, February 14 would immediately follow. For a long time citizens new country could not get used to the new system: the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Russia caused confusion in documents and minds. In official papers, dates of birth and other significant events have long been indicated in the strict and new style.

By the way, the Orthodox Church still lives according to the Julian calendar (unlike the Catholic calendar), so the days of church holidays (Easter, Christmas) in Catholic countries do not coincide with Russian ones. According to the highest clergy of the Orthodox Church, the transition to the Gregorian system will lead to canonical violations: the rules of the Apostles do not allow the celebration of Holy Easter to begin on the same day as the Jewish pagan holiday.

China was the last to switch to the new timekeeping system. This happened in 1949 after the proclamation of the People's Republic of China. In the same year, the world-accepted calculation of years was established in China - from the Nativity of Christ.

At the time of approval of the Gregorian calendar, the difference between the two calculation systems was 10 days. By now, due to the different number of leap years, the discrepancy has increased to 13 days. By March 1, 2100, the difference will already reach 14 days.

Compared to the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar is more accurate from an astronomical point of view: it is as close as possible to the tropical year. The reason for the change in systems was the gradual shift of the day of the equinox in the Julian calendar: this caused a discrepancy between the Easter full moons and the astronomical ones.

All modern calendars have a familiar appearance to us precisely thanks to the transition of leadership Catholic Church to a new time calculation. If the Julian calendar continued to function, the discrepancies between the actual (astronomical) equinoxes and Easter holidays would increase even more, which would introduce confusion into the very principle of determining church holidays.

By the way, the Gregorian calendar itself is not 100% accurate from an astronomical point of view, but the error in it, according to astronomers, will accumulate only after 10,000 years of use.

People continue to use it successfully new system time is already more than 400 years. A calendar is still a useful and functional thing that everyone needs to coordinate dates, plan business and personal life.

Modern printing production has achieved unprecedented technological development. Any commercial or public organization can order calendars with their own symbols from a printing house: they will be produced promptly, with high quality, and at an adequate price.