Editing Soviet calendar (section)

== Erroneous reporting of "30-day months" ==
Many sources erroneously state that both five- and six-day work weeks were collected into 30-day months.

A 1929 [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] article reporting Soviet five-day work weeks, which it called an "Eternal calendar", associated them with the [[French Republican Calendar]], which had months containing three ten-day weeks.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121025064345/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,752070,00.html?iid=chix-sphere Oneday, Twoday] (Time: 7 October 1929) {{dead link|date=January 2020}}</ref> In {{nowrap|February 1930}} a government commission proposed a "Soviet revolutionary calendar" containing twelve 30-day months plus five national holidays that were not part of any month, but it was rejected because it would differ from the Gregorian calendar used by the rest of Europe.<ref name=Davies>[[R. W. Davies]], ''The Soviet economy in turmoil, 1929–1930'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press, 1989) 84–86, 143–144, 252–256, 469, 544.</ref> Four ''Journal of Calendar Reform'' articles (1938, 1940, 1943, 1954) thought that five-day weeks actually were collected into {{nowrap|30-day}} months,<ref name=Echlin/><ref name=Parry/><ref name=Ketchum/><ref name=Achelis>Elisabeth Achelis, "Calendar marches on: [http://personal.ecu.edu/MCCARTYR/Russia.html Russia's difficulties] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120712090601/http://personal.ecu.edu/mccartyr/Russia.html |date=12 July 2012 }}", ''Journal of Calendar Reform'' '''24''' (1954) 91–93.</ref> as do several modern sources.<ref name=Holford/><ref name=Saga/><ref name=Richards/><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.friesian.com/russia.htm#calendar |title=The Orthodox and Soviet Calendar Reforms |access-date=24 July 2008 |archive-date=31 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200531005930/https://www.friesian.com/russia.htm#calendar |url-status=live }}</ref>

A 1931 ''Time'' magazine article reporting six-day weeks stated that they too were collected into 30-day months, with the five national holidays between those months.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071223005657/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,930406,00.html Staggers Unstaggers] (Time: 7 December 1931)</ref> Two of the ''Journal of Calendar Reform'' articles (1938 and 1943) thought that six-day as well as five-day weeks were collected into 30-day months.<ref name=Echlin/><ref name=Ketchum/> A couple of modern sources state that five-day weeks plus the first two years of six-day weeks were collected into 30-day months.<ref name=Parise/><ref name=Steel/>

Apparently to place the five national holidays between 30-day months since {{nowrap|1 October 1929}}, Parise (1982) shifted Lenin's Day to {{nowrap|31 January}}, left two Days of the Proletariat on {{nowrap|1–2 May}}, and shifted two Days of the Revolution to {{nowrap|31 October}} and {{nowrap|1 November}}, plus {{nowrap|1 January}} (all Gregorian dates).<ref name=Parise/> Stating that all months had 30 days between {{nowrap|1 October 1929}} and {{nowrap|1 December 1931}}, the ''Oxford Companion to the Year'' (1999) 'corrected' Parise's list by specifying that "Lenin Day" was after {{nowrap|30 January}} ({{nowrap|31 January}} Gregorian), a two-day "Workers' First of May" was after {{nowrap|30 April}} ({{nowrap|1–2 May}} Gregorian), two "Industry Days" were after {{nowrap|7 November}} ({{nowrap|8–9 November}} Gregorian), and placed the leap day after {{nowrap|30 February}} ({{nowrap|2 March}} Gregorian).<ref name=Holford/><ref name=Saga/>

Throughout this period, ''[[Pravda]]'', the official newspaper of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]], and other newspapers continued to use Gregorian calendar dates in their [[Nameplate (publishing)|masthead]]s alongside the traditional seven-day week.<ref name=Riga/><ref name=Parry/> Pravda dated individual issues with {{nowrap|31 January}}, {{nowrap|31 March}}, {{nowrap|31 May}}, {{nowrap|31 July}}, {{nowrap|31 August}}, {{nowrap|31 October}}, and {{nowrap|31 December}}, but never used {{nowrap|30 February}} during the period {{nowrap|1929–1940}}. The traditional names of "Resurrection" ({{linktext|воскресенье|lang=ru}}) for Sunday and "Sabbath" ({{linktext|суббота|lang=ru}}) for Saturday continued to be used, despite the government's officially anti-religious atheistic policy. In rural areas, the traditional seven-day week continued to be used despite official disfavor.<ref name=Riga/><ref name=Parry/><ref name=Richards/> Several sources from the 1930s state that the old Gregorian calendar was not changed.<ref name=Riga/><ref name=Kingsbury/><ref>P. Malevsky-Malevitch, ''Russia U.S.S.R.: A complete handbook'' (New York: William Farquhar Payson, 1933) 601–602.</ref> Two modern sources explicitly state that the structure of the Gregorian calendar was not touched.<ref name=Latham>Lance Latham, ''Standard C date/time library: Programming the world's calendars and clocks'' (Lawrence, KS: R&D Books, 1998) 390–392.</ref><ref name=Norby>Toke Nørby, [http://norbyhus.dk/calendar.php#Russia The Perpetual Calendar: A helpful tool to postal historians: What about Russia?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191112032636/http://norbyhus.dk/calendar.php#Russia |date=12 November 2019 }}</ref>