Soviet Calendar - Six-day Weeks

Six-day Weeks

From the summer of 1931 until 26 June 1940, each Gregorian month was usually divided into five six-day weeks, more and less (as shown by the 1933 and 1939 calendars displayed here). The sixth day of each week was a uniform day off for all workers, that is days 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30 of each month. The last day of 31-day months was always an extra work day in factories, which, when combined with the first five days of the following month, made six successive work days. But some commercial and government offices treated the 31st day as an extra day off. To make up for the short fifth week of February, 1 March was a uniform day off followed by four successive work days in the first week of March (2–5). The partial last week of February had four work days in common years (25–28) and five work days in leap years (25–29). But some enterprises treated 1 March as a regular work day, producing nine or ten successive work days between 25 February and 5 March, inclusive. The dates of the five national holidays did not change, but they now converted five regular work days into holidays within three six-day weeks rather than splitting those weeks into two parts (none of these holidays was on a "sixth day").