On the eve of the peasant reform of 1861, peasants in Russia, as it turned out, rested more than they worked, due to the presence of many holidays, on which work was just as forbidden as it was to work on Sundays. The number of Sundays in the year, of course, did not increase. But the number of holidays among our ancestors multiplied continuously! For example, in 1902 there were 258 non-working days a year, but there were 123 of them on holidays! And if in 1913 the peasants of Russia had the same number of days off as the American farmers, namely - 68 versus 135, and the money they spent on drunkenness would go to their economy, then it would be the Russian Empire in literally a few years became a world agricultural power!
Sheet of the pre-revolutionary tear-off calendar. Under the word "Thursday" it is indicated - when the next non-attendant (non-working) day.
Why it was so is also understandable. From the days of paganism, the peasants in Russia were accustomed to celebrate all devilry, and later she also converted to Christianity. For example, on July 27, the day of the holy martyr Panteleimon was celebrated, and at the same time, the summer solstice was celebrated - the essence of a pagan holiday and, naturally, no one worked on this day. June 27 was the holiday of Ivan Kupala, they covered up this paganism with the day of John the Baptist. Avdotya Plyushchikha was the Slavic folk name for the day of memory of the Monk Martyr Evdokia. In the winter of December 4, Saint Barbara was honored (from sudden and violent death). The holiday was the day of St. Cyric (this would not be a cripple), Rusalia (in atonement for the sin of babies who died without holy baptism), the day of St. Phocas (intercessor from the fire), the day of St. Simeon the Stylite (well, so that the sky that he supports, did not fall to the ground), the day of St. Nikita (from a "rabid illness"), St. Procopius (so that there was no drought), again celebrated St. Harlampy (against the plague), well, everything in the same way and further. It is clear that all this abundance of holidays was very beneficial, first of all, to the village priests, because they were "carried" for the holidays, and therefore they could not even think of any reductions in holidays.
That is, people trusted in God for a long time, and everyone wanted to live better and, like today, many people tried to find an answer to the question “who is to blame for the fact that no improvements are taking place?” But it was only when the Russian Empire suffered a shameful defeat in the Crimean War that the obviousness of a change in the order of all Russian life became undeniable for everyone. But for some reason, neither the liberation of the peasants from serf bondage, nor all the other reforms of Alexander II gave an early result. Russia - the largest power in the world at that time with huge raw materials resources, despite the ongoing changes in the level of its economic development, still lagged far behind its western neighbors, and at the beginning of the century even from Japan. Many prominent economists and industrialists already then clearly understood that this misfortune was by no means one reason, but many. They wrote that there is no development of transport infrastructure in the country, which makes the transportation of fuel and raw materials to the locations of industrial enterprises very expensive and therefore unprofitable, and their products, accordingly, are completely uncompetitive. Another serious problem of the economy, they reasonably considered the absence of a modern credit system, as a result of which entrepreneurs were forced to borrow money at extortionate interest rates and therefore often went bankrupt.
And, of course, low labor productivity hung like a stone around the neck of the Russian economy. On this occasion, in 1868, a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Finance Yu. A. Gagemeister, after retiring, presented a report on measures for the development of Russian industry, which also spoke about the impact on the economic problems of a truly huge number of holidays and non-working days and the indiscriminate drunkenness traditional for these days. He wrote that the daily wages in the factory districts are extremely low, and this is the only thing that our production can boast about, and that it keeps up. In addition, Russia will never be able to catch up with Germany in this position, because we have only 240 working days, but in Germany - 300 some of the factory workers are constantly moving from one kind of occupation to another, not improving in any one”. Well, private individuals, that is, entrepreneurs, do not have the strength to resist the extremely harmful influence of these orders.
It is clear that he was not the only one who saw and understood all this. So, in 1909, a whole group of members of the State Council of the Russian Empire, in a note on reducing the number of holidays, described the entire history of the struggle to reduce the number of holidays and weekends in Russia: the note of the Members of the State Council, has repeatedly attracted the attention of state authorities and served as the subject of discussion of both government agencies and various societies, committees and congresses. Back in 1867, the Holy Synod was discussing the question raised by the civil department about whether "should not the present number of holidays be reduced and what reductions in this part could be made." At the same time, the Holy Synod recognized it as desirable to limit the number of those special celebrations, except for the temple ones, which "are celebrated in an unreasonable multitude in villages and villages for various reasons."
And in a sense, the demands of industrialists and landowners to reduce the number of "drunken days" were successful. In 1890, a section was added to the "Code of Statutes for the Prevention and Suppression of Crimes", which established how many holidays are obligatory for all subjects of the Russian Empire: departure of posts and service regarding general silence and security), and schools from teaching, the essence, except for Sundays, is as follows: 1) in January the numbers (according to the old style) are the first and sixth, in February the second, in March twenty-fifth, in May the ninth, in June twenty-ninth, in August sixth, fifteenth, twenty-ninth, in September eighth, fourteenth, twenty-sixth, in October first, twenty-second, in November twenty-first, in December sixth, twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh, 2) those dates on which the birthdays and namesake of the Sovereign Emperor and the Empress Empress are celebrated, the day of the namesake of the Sovereign Heir, the day of accession to the throne ol, the day of coronation and 3) those dates on which there are Friday and Saturday of Cheese week, Thursday, Friday and Saturday of Holy Week, Easter (light) week all, the day of the Ascension of the Lord and the second day of the holiday (Monday) of the day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit " …
Now in Russia it was possible to rest 91 days a year. And then the centuries-old ban on government work on Sundays and holidays was canceled, and in 1897 the number of rest days for factory workers was reduced. As a result, the rest days were reduced by 26 days, that is, by almost a whole month, and it is not surprising that after that Russian artisans began to consider themselves the most disadvantaged people in Russia. The fact is that all the other subjects of the empire were not affected by all these innovations and they both rested on the so-called local and other holidays and continued to rest. For example, many rested on … regimental holidays, which were celebrated not by the soldiers and officers of the regiment, but by all its veterans. In addition, each order in Russia had its own holiday, which was also celebrated by all those awarded with it.
In 1904, industrialists and landowners began to ask the government to extend the right to work on holidays not only to craftsmen, but also to everyone else. And such a right was given to them, but … only and exclusively of their own free will. But the peasants, naturally, did not have this "good will". Therefore, as the members of the State Council wrote about this in their note, the peasants continued to rest more than all other classes, which caused irreparable damage both to themselves and to their country. And this is what they wrote:
“In addition to the listed 91 days of legal holidays, we also have local holidays established in memory of various events that are important for a given area, as well as temple, patronal and various special holidays revered in villages. Many of these holidays have no basis in the Church Statutes, and some of them are directly a remnant and experience of pagan beliefs. Celebrated are days dedicated to the memory of various saints, minor church holidays, and finally, the second days of such holidays, called "the giving of the holiday." Often, patronal holidays are also celebrated for several days in a row, and in some villages there are 2 and 3 of them. Under such conditions, in rural areas of the Empire, and partly in cities, the number of holidays increases significantly. On average, the Russian population celebrates from 100 to 120 days a year, and in some areas up to 150 days. In general, therefore, one non-working day falls on 3, 5 working days. This situation seems to be completely intolerable. If we turn to the laws and customs of various countries of Western Europe, then the number of holidays that exist in our country in comparison with the established there seems to be especially high. In Germany and Switzerland there are 60 holidays, including Sundays, in England - 58 holidays, in France - 56. Only Spain and Italy can be compared with Russia in this respect, since the number of holidays in these countries reaches 100 per year ".
In their opinion, such a number of “unemployed” days was simply disastrous for the country and its economy.
“In particular, our agricultural industry suffers from the excessive abundance of holidays. First, those employed in industry of this kind, mainly our peasantry, celebrate more than other classes of the population. Secondly, due to the climatic conditions of our country, the time suitable for field work is shorter here than anywhere else in Western Europe. The Ministry of Agriculture and State Property determines the time suitable for field work at an average of 183 days, and for northern and central Russia at 160-150 days. At the same time, due to the same climatic conditions, the harvesting of grain in our country must be carried out extremely hastily, sometimes within several days, since otherwise the bread may overripe and crumble or suffer from rain. Under such conditions, we have to especially value time, avoiding celebrations, and yet it is during the period of field work that we have the largest number of holidays. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and State Property, from April 1 to October 1 there are 74-77 days, revered in our villages as holidays, that is, almost half of the time suitable for field work should be spent, according to the deep-rooted opinion, in idleness and rest from work. If we add to this that summer holidays follow one after the other with the most insignificant interruptions, then it becomes quite clear why farmers see their abundance as one of the essential evils of our agricultural industry."
Other sectors of the economy of the Russian Empire also faced serious problems due to the abundance of holidays:
“The factory industry and trade suffer no less from the abundance of holidays. The economic turnover is suspended on holidays. The stock exchange and post office are idle, credit operations are stopped, as banks and other credit institutions are closed. The transported goods remain unloaded, which forces the owners to bear the costs of storing them on the railways. The latter circumstance, given the frequent deposits of goods at the stations, takes on special significance, and in our railway practice there was an example when the manager of the railway was forced to turn to the local supreme spiritual authority, asking her for an explanation that the population could, without fear of sin, produce a load and unloading of goods not only on weekdays, but also on holidays, when it is deemed necessary!"
Moreover, it was noted that members of the Holy Synod usually stand in the way of any reduction in weekends and holidays in the country with an insurmountable wall! Meanwhile, such an apparent abundance of non-attendant days, according to the members of the State Council, was extremely harmful to the rest of Russian society:
“A large number of holidays is reflected in the activities of public places, and also unnecessarily reduces the study time, which is much shorter in our country than in the countries of Western Europe. These are, in brief outline, the material disadvantages of an excessive number of holidays, but it seems that their abundance, combined with the view of holidays as days in which all work is considered a sin, also causes significant moral harm to the population, accustoming it to idleness and laziness and making it less energetic. and active. At the same time, it should also be mentioned that our holidays are usually accompanied by revelry and drunkenness, the sad pictures of which can be observed both in cities and in villages. Thus, the Christian idea of celebrating great events in the life of our Church is completely distorted, and the country suffers material and moral damage."
At the same time, the material damage from the “celebrations” was extremely great and comparable in terms of impact to the strongest natural disasters: “The average productivity of one working day in Russia is currently estimated at about 50,000,000 rubles. Working in general for 40 days a year less than, for example, our neighboring Germany, our country produces annually 2 billion less than its international competitors, and is forced to protect their labor with high customs duties. As a result, it is still constantly lagging behind in industrial development from the peoples of Western Europe and America."
Moreover, 35 members of the State Council, who signed this note on the reduction of the number of holidays, not only stated the fact, but also proposed how to solve the issue of increasing the intensity of production in the country - and this is how their main idea should be understood. In their opinion, all that was required was that, by law, all citizens of Russia would rest as much time as its factory workers. That is, in fact, an unthinkable thing - the equality of all estates, without exception, before the law. Moreover, the authors of the note in their hereticism went even further and proposed to postpone the days of honoring members of the royal family to Sunday in order to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. But this was already a challenge to the very foundations of autocracy:
“Regarding with deep respect to the so-called Royal celebrations dedicated to the memories of important events in the life of the Monarch and His Family, it should be noted that the number of these days is also excessive. Currently there are 7. The love of the people for their Monarch and loyalty to the reigning dynasty would not be undermined if these days were devoted not to idleness, but to productive labor for the state for the good of the Tsar and the Fatherland. An exception could be made only for the highly solemn day of the namesake of the Sovereign Emperor, when it is especially fitting to offer the Lord God a prayer for the health and longevity of the Monarch. In addition, the days of honoring various saints (Nicholas, Peter and Paul, John the Baptist, John the Theologian, the Kazan Mother of God, the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos), as well as some of the twelve feasts (Nativity of the Virgin, Introduction to the temple, Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord). All this would reduce the number of officially celebrated days in a year by 28, that is, our law would know 63 holidays, including Sundays - a number close to the number of holidays in Western Europe."
Of course, the members of the State Council foresaw that the Russian Orthodox Church would immediately oppose the reduction of holidays and, accordingly, the presentations to clergymen and donations for churches taking place on their days. But they could not even imagine how fiercely and fiercely the Russian clergy would fight their proposal. The petitions of the “outraged Orthodox” were sent to the Synod, the government and the emperor himself in batches. Not only were they vilified from the pulpits, but articles soon appeared in the newspapers scourging the "apostates." Thus, Bishop Nikon of Vologda and Totemsky wrote in Tserkovnye vedomosti about the inadmissibility of any interference in the affairs of the church and, above all, insisted on the impossibility of canceling the celebrations in the "tsarist days":
“These days are of high patriotic significance, especially in schools, troops and public places. They are established by the Government and blessed by the Church. For the days of the Accession to the throne of the Sovereign Emperor and His holy chrismation (coronation), the Church compiled special prayers, touching prayers, established an all-day ringing; it gives these days a kind of brilliance with the bright days of Easter: is it really possible that the state will cross them out in the report card, make them everyday? The Church makes it clear that the day of the Sovereign's Accession to the throne is a remembrance of the great mercy of God to an orphaned people, and His anointing is His betrothal to the people, His sanctification by the Spirit of God in a sacred sacrament, the sending of those Gifts of the Spirit of God to Him that give Him the strength to be an Autocrat in the image God's Almighty. And these days, so significant in the life of the people, are supposed to be excluded from the number of holidays! Have mercy on the heart of the people, who loves their Monarchs; do not take away from the people the day dedicated to the celebration in honor of our God-beloved Autocrat like the Anointed One of God!"
The so-called Black Hundred organizations and unions, which saw in an attempt to reduce the number of holidays … of course, a conspiracy of foreigners, also showed their vision of the situation. The newspaper "Russian banner" in 1909 wrote:
“Recently, the St. Petersburg Jewish newspapers reported an interview with the Minister of Trade, Mr. Timiryazev, about the reduction of Orthodox holidays in Russia. On this occasion, the minister expressed his "trade" considerations in such a way that the holidays prevent him from developing Russian trade to the extent that it is pleasant in those income items of the state that make up his first violin in our balance sheets, and that drunkenness thanks to the holidays brings Russia to its complete bankruptcy and our people are heading towards their inevitable death … This is a very old policy of Russian foreign bureaucrats to intimidate Russia with its close bankruptcy and that it will be sold by auction to foreigners for debts. But to whom do we owe the fact that the Russian people have now become a beggar, that they are threatened with a bag or prison for their debts, if not our bureaucrats themselves?.."
Very soon the authors of this bill began to receive various kinds of threats, and they realized that they would not receive any support, neither the authorities, nor the society wanted changes! Nicholas II, having received a note from 35 members of the State Council, submitted it to the Council of Ministers for consideration, where it remained until the summer of 1910, after which his following resolution followed:
“The relevant issue has been repeatedly discussed by both spiritual and civil authorities, for the adverse impact of an excessive number of non-working days on the cultural and economic development of Russia cannot be denied. Accordingly, the Government has already made attempts to reduce, at least to some extent, the resulting harm, and the measures it took in this direction tended, however, only to eliminate in the legislation any obstacles to voluntary labor on holidays. The adoption of other, more decisive measures in this direction, in the opinion of the Council of Ministers, with the exception of the Minister of Trade and Industry, who joined the main idea of 35 Members of the State Council on reducing the number of days in which public places and educational institutions are free from classes, seems to be practically hardly possible, since from time immemorial the prevailing way of working life of the people is hardly amenable to the influence of legislative decisions; moreover, in this case, which closely touches on the area of religious beliefs, concepts and habits of the Russian people, the state power should be especially careful in establishing any binding regulations and rules in the legislative order. Yes, in fact, all such prescriptions and rules in this area are inactive."
That is, the government has signed in its complete disregard for the interests of the state and the people. References to "from time immemorial", "caution" and so on are unconvincing when it was proved that the country is lagging economically, and therefore militarily, from its likely opponents. And here's the conclusion: the events of 1917 are primarily to blame for … the Orthodox Church, which became a brake on the development of the country's economy. And all subsequent events, including the transfer of the USSR economy to the rails of intensification of production, had one goal in front of them - to break the extensive and dead-end path of the country's development, which had already once led to a national catastrophe and … mass death of the clergy themselves. Indeed, “they did not know what they were doing,” and to what they doomed themselves and their families!
And now for the sake of interest, take the calendar and just count how many weekends and holidays there were this year. And it will turn out to be about the same number of holidays and days off that the average citizen of the pre-revolutionary Russian Empire had. And then look at what place in the world in terms of our economic development we were then and are today …
