Where did Saturizers come from and if they are in other countries?
Saturdays as collective voluntary free work for public benefits – the phenomenon is typically Soviet. The first Saturday took place on April 12, 1919. On this day, the newspapers "Pravda" No. 79 and Izvestia VTCIK No. 79 were published written on the eve of.AND. Lenin "Theses of the Central Committee of the RKP (b) in connection with the situation of the Eastern Front", where, in particular, was called to improve the quality of labor in the rear for organizing the offensive of the army of Kolchak. A group of railway workers consisting of 15 people (13 members of the Communist Party and two sympathizers) on the night of Saturday on Sunday (hence the name) voluntarily decided to stay at work – in the depot of the Moscow-Sorting station of the Moscow-Kazan Railway – and continue repairing locomotives. The result of their 10-hour night work has become three renovated steam locomotives.
The idea was quickly picked up and assigned to party and trade union cells in various industries, primarily associated with the activities of railways. After a month, on May 10, on the same Moscow-Kazan railway, a massive communist Saturday was held, in which more than two hundred people took part. The event has become a reason for the article in.AND. Lenin "Great Pokhai (about the heroism of workers in the rear. About "Communist Saturdays") "In which he wrote, he considers such behavior by the manifestation of the heroism of the working people and the expression of a new, communist attitude towards. Approved at the highest state level, Saturdays began to be carried out massively, involving an increasing number of people and organizations.
By the decision of the XI Congress of the RCP (b) on May 1, 1920, the I All-our Saturday was held. It was then that, in the implementation of work on improvement in the Kremlin, the leaders of Soviet Russia, including.AND. Lenina. Subsequently, this fact was actively used in agitation and propaganda as a clear indicator of the unity and equality of all citizens "the world in the world of workers and peasants".
Already by the mid-1930s, Saturdays, usually dedicated to the festive dates, have become the usual, characteristic feature of the Soviet lifestyle and are firmly entered into a daily use. Any clearly regulated deadlines did not exist. This was solved in the field itself enterprises, organizations and local authorities. The exception was the All-Union Leninist Communist Saturdays: the date of their holding was timed to the birthday of Lenin (April 22), they were held annually. Gradually, all-Union Leninsky Saturdays began to be treated as a kind of preparatory measure for the celebration of the Chief Soviet Holiday – the Day of International Solidarity of the Workers on May 1.
For decades of Soviet history, the attitude to Saturdays in society has gradually transformed. Initially, voluntary, which were held on the wave of sincere enthusiasm, by the end of the Soviet era they turned into treason-mandatory events.
In modern Russia, the tradition of Saturdays continues to live, although he lost its former ideological content. Now it is usually the activities of the local level – the district, HOA, schools and t. D. The main content is the worst for the citizens of work on improvement: cleaning of streets, trimming bushes, a device of lawns, flower, playgrounds, painting of fences, cleaning school classes and university audiences and t. NS. At the national level, the Saturday in Russia remained as a purely environmental event for cleaning and landscaping urban areas.
As for the conduct of the Saturdays in other states, then in the classical understanding, this phenomenon is purely Soviet and the traditions of it remained mainly in the CIS countries. As in Russia, Saturdays there lost the ideological component. In Europe and America, something similar to the Saturday can be found in the form of various forms of volunteering.
For those who want to deepen in the topic: at the Moscow-Sorting station still exists a small departmental museum of the first subbotnik (approx. Red.).
