How The Soviet Union Tried to Abolish Weekends

 Nearly a hundred years ago in August 1929, the Soviet Union took the step to replace the most basic tool of daily functioning: the calendar. The Industrial Revolution had already set the stage for radical reforms in labor, each of which was driven by the need for rapid economic growth and infrastructural development. Stalin's government was inspiring its proletariat with new enthusiasm to achieve new and stable goals. Flowing into this momentum of socialist progress, Yuri Larin, a Bolshevik economist, proposed what would be called neprerevka or 'continuous work week'. It eliminated the universal recognition of Sunday as a day of rest and instead imposed a five-day week with a strange system of holidays.

Nepreryvka: a Boon or a Bane?

Larin stood before the Fifth Congress of the Soviets in May 1929 with a proposal to provide cultural relief to citizens and increase productivity for industries. In the modified weekly system, workers in all industries were to work for four days and rest on the fifth day. The unique thing was that this fifth day was not the same for everyone. Instead, each person will follow a unique program. But the cabinet's response was unexpectedly disappointing. Convinced of the prudence of the plan, Larin managed to negotiate with Stalin, and in the name of industrialization, a new working week was implemented. The entire workforce was divided into five groups, and each was allocated vacation days, similar to a shift system, which was generally practiced in terms of hours, not days. In this way, four-fifths of the proletariat will be at work on any given day. The weeks continued, as production was now running continuously.

The new roster was color-coded or arranged, often using symbols such as a star, a hammer, an airplane and more. Each man and woman were given a color or symbol, using which they could look at their calendar and understand when their next child would arrive. In theory, the system was simple and easy to follow, with each person responsible only for his or her own calendar. Development will now run like a relay race, with each employee performing his or her best during a reduced work week and dropping out of the game to pass the work on to the next runner. On paper, layoffs now became increasingly frequent for each employee, and their frequency also increased over the year.

However, gradually, the cabinet's initial fears began to surface on the ground. Imagine that you spend a week working in sooty basements, and finally come home for a day and find that there is no one to enjoy yourself with. This lonely scenario painted a grim picture in the already overworked Soviet Union, as continuous work weeks meant that friends and families no longer got a single day off. The bourgeois methods of socialization were breaking down and faith was also under attack. Churchgoers became inconsistent in their practice, as there was no longer any single day allotted for rest and gathering. Disgruntled employees, unhappy and angry at the loneliness of life and the pressure of working with overused machines, began to protest. In turn, absenteeism began to increase and productivity rates became questionable. The so-called utopian socialist experiment was falling apart faster than imagined.

No one left behind the undercurrent of religious intolerance. Citizens across the country viewed this system as cracking down on ritual traditions, removing Sunday's association with religious significance, and taking away the freedom to enjoy festive traditions as a nation. In total, the calendar offered five days a year when the entire workforce was on secular leave: the day of Lenin's death; Two days in May, International Workers' Day is celebrated; And for two days in November, the October Revolution is celebrated. The rest of the celebrations were completely ignored. What value will they hold if you can't celebrate them with your loved ones?

It was not that Despite the ostentatious effect of Napreevka's pluses, the government continued to recognize work outside the seven-day week. The only difference was that Sunday was no longer recognized as the normal end of the week. The working class was forced to work according to a five-day work week, but recognized the seven-day Gregorian calendar for daily life. Developmental propaganda thus deepened the gap between urban industrialists and rural peasants: one group was moving to the new work week while the other, freed from the shackles of the service sector, continued to follow the traditional calendar system.

Within three years, Stalin had to step forward. In 1931, he described the decision as hasty and acknowledged the lack of personal responsibility it had created among the public. The negative impact of continuous production on machines was also taken into account. Soon, the Bolshevik government added a day of mass rest to the schedule, changing the work calendar to a six-day week. People will now work for five days instead of four and everyone will have a holiday on the sixth day. Calendars from that time display the week divided into numbers rather than days, keeping track of holidays according to work schedules.