# Did the Soviet Union have a Sunday? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 5, 2008, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036 "2008-04-05T03:31:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![solkoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@solkoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solkoe)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/1 "2008-04-05T03:31:15Z")
How did the week work in communist countries? Was it a seven day week? How many days were worked and what was the reason give for the days off? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/2 "2008-04-05T03:39:31Z")
The work issue aside, why wouldn’t they have had a Sunday? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/3 "2008-04-05T04:23:27Z")
(All of this is half-remembered.) During the War, the workweek was one day off a month. After the War, Stalin tried to impose three days off every ten days. This is more generous than the two-day weekend. But, it was done to keep the production lines going, so the whole country never had the same three days off. People did not like it. It seems it is better if everyone is off all at once. So Stalin had to back down. After that, they went to a Saturday/Sunday workday. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/4 "2008-04-05T06:43:00Z")
[QUOTE=panache45] The work issue aside, why wouldn’t they have had a Sunday? [/QUOTE] Kind of reminds me of a joke that cracked me up as a kid. Me: Do they have a fourth of July in Canada? Victim: Of course not! Me: (Looking puzzled) Really? What do they do between the third and the fifth, then? ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/5 "2008-04-05T10:07:12Z")
Quotes from [this page](http://personal.ecu.edu/MCCARTYR/Russia.html): > [@](#): > > In 1923, a radical change in the calendar took place. Soviet Russia abolished both the Julian calendar, used by the Russian Orthodox Church, and the official Gregorian calendar that had been installed by Lenin. A new calendar was introduced, in which the weeks were changed and all religious feasts and holy days were replaced by five national public holidays associated with the Revolution. > > The “Eternal Calendar” went into effect on October 6 . . . , giving five days to the weeks and six weeks to the months, so that there were 12 months of 30 days, plus five holidays with national names instead of weekday names.[note] The chief objective of the “Eternal Calendar” was to increase production, and special color cards were distributed to the workers. Rest-days became staggered. It was not realized at the time that such an arrangement would cause real hardship to family life. After several years of trial, in 1931, the five-day week and staggered rest-days were replaced by another system. > > This new plan provided for a 12-month year with the same holidays as before and the same extra day for leap years, but a new week of six days was introduced wherein the rest-day came regularly on the 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th and 30th of the month, in addition to the five national holidays. Later on, the page remarks that in 1940 (interestingly, before the USSR was drawn into the war!), the country returned to the Gregorian calendar with its 7-day week and Sunday as the day off. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/6 "2008-04-05T10:12:36Z")
This all, btw, reminds of the French Revolutionary calendar, which, in its enthusiasm for decimalization, not only divided the day into two sets of ten hours, with 100 minutes making an hour and 100 seconds making a minute; it also introduced a ten-day week (with the days being tidily numbered: _primidi, duodi_ and so on), four weeks a month, plus an additional half week (six days in leap years) at the end of the year consisting of holidays. I also remember eading that the ancient Egyptian calendar was similar: Months of equal length, with five or six days at the end of the year, which do not belong to any month, to make up for the total of 365 or 366. Don’t have a cite handy, though. ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/7 "2008-04-05T12:21:07Z")
[QUOTE=Schnitte] I also remember eading that the ancient Egyptian calendar was similar: Months of equal length, with five or six days at the end of the year, which do not belong to any month, to make up for the total of 365 or 366. Don’t have a cite handy, though. [/QUOTE] I’ve heard that the Egyptians ignored leap years altogether, and just had 365-day years, despite the fact that this meant their calendar got out of sync with the seasons. ---
**Author:** ![solkoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@solkoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solkoe)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/8 "2008-04-05T15:13:23Z")
[QUOTE=panache45] The work issue aside, why wouldn’t they have had a Sunday? [/QUOTE] Sorry. I tend to write very short questions without explaining myself. Seeing as the Soviet Union was an atheist country and organized religion was banned, they couldn’t, at the same time, have a biblical seven day week with a Sunday (resurrection of Jesus) as the basis for a holiday. Thanks for all your responses. Very interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/9 "2008-04-05T15:25:53Z")
[QUOTE=Alive At Both Ends] I’ve heard that the Egyptians ignored leap years altogether, and just had 365-day years, despite the fact that this meant their calendar got out of sync with the seasons. [/QUOTE] I’ve also been taught that. And given how long they lasted, it’s entirely possible that they got so out of sync that they were okay again, just off by a year. (Possibly even more than once, I don’t remember the numbers.) ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/10 "2008-04-05T15:38:06Z")
[QUOTE=solkoe] Seeing as the Soviet Union was an atheist country and organized religion was banned, they couldn’t, at the same time, have a biblical seven day week with a Sunday (resurrection of Jesus) as the basis for a holiday. [/QUOTE] Sun day is not Son day. It’s the day of the SUN and has nothing to do with Jesus. Regardless, different cultures have different names for the days of the week that are not based on the norse gods like ours are. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/11 "2008-04-05T15:41:11Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi] After the War, Stalin tried to impose three days off every ten days. This is more generous than the two-day weekend. But, it was done to keep the production lines going, so the whole country never had the same three days off. People did not like it. It seems it is better if everyone is off all at once. So Stalin had to back down. [/QUOTE] Very interesting. I’ve thought for a long time that it would be better to have that kind of system, but also figured that most people would not stand for it. Good that I can depend on Stalin to already have tested it. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/12 "2008-04-05T15:48:29Z")
[QUOTE=solkoe] … Seeing as the Soviet Union was an atheist country and organized religion was banned, they couldn’t, at the same time, have a biblical seven day week with a Sunday (resurrection of Jesus) as the basis for a holiday… [/QUOTE] IIRRC organized religion was never banned in the Soviet Union, just more or less severely constrained in its activities (number of churches and monasteries, intake for priest training etc. limited; the nicest churches converted into museums; threat of persecution if the state saw you as a political threat or at times because the state just felt like it). A seven-day-week does not need to be grounded in any of the Mosaic religions anyway - an ideally secular state nowadays would probably keep to a seven-day week because a) it’s the way people are used to and b) 1 or 2 rest days out of 7 is a sustainable balance between work and rest days and c) international commerce would make it impractical to be out of synch with other countries. All three reasons also applied to the Soviet Union (the other COMECON countries also operating on the normal 7-day week) FWIW when I dealt with the Soviet Unions from the late to early 1980s Saturday and Sunday were the weekend there as a matter of course. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/13 "2008-04-05T15:53:09Z")
No, they didn’t have a Sunday. They had a Voskreseniye. 😃 The Russian days of the week, roughly translated, starting with Monday: Week-Beginner, Second, Middle, Fourth, Fifth, Sabbath, Resurrection. ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/14 "2008-04-05T15:56:15Z")
[QUOTE=Chimera] Sun day is not Son day. It’s the day of the SUN and has nothing to do with Jesus. Regardless, different cultures have different names for the days of the week that are not based on the norse gods like ours are. [/QUOTE] The Russian word for Sunday means Resurrection. ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/15 "2008-04-05T16:02:08Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Carrot] I’ve also been taught that. And given how long they lasted, it’s entirely possible that they got so out of sync that they were okay again, just off by a year. (Possibly even more than once, I don’t remember the numbers.) [/QUOTE] A full cycle would take 1461 years. I think the ancient Egyptian civilisation lasted long enough for at least two cycles. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/16 "2008-04-05T16:29:51Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi] … After the War, Stalin tried to impose three days off every ten days. This is more generous than the two-day weekend. But, it was done to keep the production lines going, so the whole country never had the same three days off. People did not like it. It seems it is better if everyone is off all at once. So Stalin had to back down. … [/QUOTE] US factories have sometimes used a “six on, two off” system. Factors which help acceptance of it, in the version I remember: 1 - when your two days off reached the end of the week, you got two 3 day weekends in a row - rather than an actual six days followed by two off, they rotated the weekdays you had off, so you got “Friday/Saturday” one week, “Sunday/Saturday” the next and “Sunday/Monday” after that, which created the 3 day weekends. This also means you aren’t actually losing any days off over a normal 5 day workweek. 2 - they paid time and a half on Saturday and Sunday. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/17 "2008-04-05T16:44:50Z")
RE: the Egyptians. The story I was told in grade-school: The Egyptians marked the beginning of the new year when Sirius re-appeared above the horizon. Then twelve 30-day months, then however many holidays were needed until Sirius re-appeared again. So it never got out of sync with the solar year. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/18 "2008-04-05T17:00:57Z")
[QUOTE=yabob] US factories have sometimes used a “six on, two off” system. [/QUOTE] US firefighters commonly work on a 24 hours on, 48 hours off cycle, regardless of the days of the week. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/19 "2008-04-05T17:17:44Z")
In Soviet Russia Sunday has you ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036/20 "2008-04-05T17:55:02Z")
[QUOTE=ElvisL1ves] US firefighters commonly work on a 24 hours on, 48 hours off cycle, regardless of the days of the week. [/QUOTE] Yeah, that’s one way of doing shifts for emergency personnel who have to be on call. The 6 on / 2 off for factory workers I mentioned might be combined with having three shifts, so the factory is running 24/7. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-sunday/444036.md?page=2)