On March 7, 1967, the USSR adopted a resolution "On the transfer of workers and employees of enterprises, institutions and organizations to a five-day working week with two days off."

This decision launched the process of the final transition of the enterprises of the Soviet Union to the “five-day period”.

According to historians, thanks to the reform of labor legislation, the working population gained new opportunities for education, the duration of rest increased, and communication within the family intensified.

First rights

In the Russian Empire, until the end of the 19th century, the duration of the working week and the working day was practically not regulated in any way.

The first restrictions on the length of working time (up to 11.5 hours) and the working week (up to six days) were introduced by Emperor Nicholas II on June 2, 1897, under pressure from protesters who engulfed industrial enterprises.

According to the new norms, night shifts and pre-holiday shifts could not last more than 10 hours.

In addition, 14 obligatory public holidays were introduced: 13 religious and New Year's Days.

At the same time, the days off could be shifted depending on the religion of a particular employee.

Subsequently, against the background of the intensification of the protest movement, enterprises began to gradually limit the length of the working day to nine to ten hours, while the workers, in turn, demanded that it be reduced to eight hours.

Officially, the eight-hour working day was introduced in Russia shortly after the October Revolution.

The corresponding decree was already adopted by the Council of People's Commissars on November 11, 1917.

However, the work week at the same time remained six days, its total duration was 48 hours.

On December 9, 1918, innovations were recorded in the Labor Code of the RSFSR.

According to experts, in the years 1929-1933 in the USSR they tried to radically reform the labor calendar.

On August 26, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a resolution "On the transition to continuous production in enterprises and institutions of the USSR."

Four working days were followed by one day off, which was not tied to a specific day of the week.

However, in 1931 the working week was again made six days.

“When the methodological and pedagogical sector switched to a continuous week and, instead of a clean Sunday, some purple fifths became Khvorobyev’s rest days, he disgustedly got his pension and settled far outside the city,” this is how attempts to reform Soviet labor legislation were described at the beginning 1930s Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov in The Golden Calf.

  • Workers carry a boiler at one of the factories in the Nizhny Novgorod province, 1900.

  • RIA News

However, in 1940, experiments with the organization of the labor regime were abandoned.

On June 27, a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR came into force, according to which a six-day working week with an eight-hour working day was established in the country.

After some time, Sunday became the only day off for the entire working population.

On June 26, 1941, the Soviet authorities introduced mandatory overtime hours at enterprises and organizations.

Vacations in the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War were cancelled.

These norms ceased to operate shortly after the defeat of Nazi Germany - on June 30, 1945.

"For rest and self-development"

Historian Yevgeny Spitsyn, in an interview with RT, recalled that Joseph Stalin raised the issue of the need to reduce the working week against the backdrop of rising labor productivity.

“It was said that in order to build a new communist society, a person is needed who would be engaged in self-education, who would have enough time for rest and self-development.

For such a citizen, work would not be a burden, but an internal need.

This task was set, and they began to strive to implement it, ”said Spitsyn.

In 1956-1960, in various sectors of the Soviet economy, the working day began to be gradually reduced to seven hours with a six-day working week.

“In the mid-1960s, thanks to the level of development of the Soviet economy, conditions appeared for the transition to the “five-day period,” Spitsyn says.

At the same time, according to the head of the Department of History of State and Law, Faculty of Law, Moscow State University.

M.V. Lomonosov, Doctor of Law Vladimir Tomsinov, when determining the duration of the working week, the Soviet leadership was guided not so much by economic as by social and ideological factors.

  • Workers of the plant named after I.A.

    Likhachev

  • RIA News

  • © Ivan Shagin

On March 7, 1967, the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions adopted a joint resolution "On the transfer of workers and employees of enterprises, institutions and organizations to a five-day working week with two days off."

The reform was officially timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution.

The transfer to the “five-day period”, according to the decree, was to be carried out synchronously on the territory of the union and autonomous republics, territories, regions, cities and towns.

The development of new calendar plans in the field was entrusted to the republican councils of ministers.

And the Central Committee of the Union republics was obliged to carry out appropriate organizational and political educational work.

“The transition was largely motivated by the fact that workers need two days off so they can study.

It was assumed that a person should freely express his will, and this required education.

At the same time, a network of educational institutions was developing,” Tomsinov explained.

According to Andrei Gorbunov, a researcher at the Victory Museum, the inhabitants of the USSR received "an additional opportunity for recreation and self-development."

In addition, the reform had a positive impact on strengthening the institution of the family.

“People got time for children and cultural leisure.

The day off could be spent on entertainment, hobbies, reading books.

Parents were able to see their children more often and spend more time with them.

In addition, taking into account the fact that children had six days at school, adult family members could set aside time for each other and for household chores, ”Gorbunov said.

  • Employees of the Second Moscow Watch Factory "Slava" with their families on vacation in a forest near Moscow

  • RIA News

  • © Anatoly Garanin

As Vladimir Tomsinov noted, the release of additional time for rest provoked an active expansion of the network of theaters and cinemas.

“In parallel with the advent of the second day off, the authorities went on a mass distribution of summer cottages and the creation of summer cottages.

People built houses there, spent weekends in nature, and, in addition, received an additional source of food,” said Evgeny Spitsyn.

According to Andrei Gorbunov, the system for protecting labor rights and organizing recreation for working people in the USSR was one of the most progressive in the world.

In 1971, the maximum working week of 41 hours was enshrined in the Code of Labor Laws in the RSFSR, and in 1977 - in the Constitution of the USSR.

In April 1991, the work week officially became forty hours.

Subsequently, this norm was included in the Code of Labor Laws and the Labor Code of Russia.