By decree of Peter I, Russia switched to the Julian calendar. How did modern chronology arise?

Citizens of the Soviet country, having gone to bed on January 31, 1918, woke up on February 14. The “Decree on the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic” came into force. Bolshevik Russia switched to the so-called new, or civil, style of calculating time, which coincided with the Gregorian church calendar used in Europe. These changes did not affect our Church: it continued to celebrate its holidays according to the old Julian calendar.

Calendar split between Western and Eastern Christians (believers began to celebrate the main holidays in different time) occurred in the 16th century, when Pope Gregory XIII undertook another reform that replaced the Julian style with the Gregorian one. The goal of the reform was to correct the growing difference between astronomical year and calendar.

Obsessed with the idea of ​​world revolution and internationalism, the Bolsheviks, of course, did not care about the Pope and his calendar. As stated in the decree, the transition to the Western, Gregorian style was made “in order to establish in Russia the same calculation of time with almost all cultural peoples...” At one of the first meetings of the young Soviet government in early 1918, two time reform projects were considered ". The first envisaged a gradual transition to the Gregorian calendar, dropping 24 hours every year. This would have taken 13 years. The second envisaged doing this in one fell swoop. It was he who liked the leader of the world proletariat, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who surpassed the current ideologist of multiculturalism, Angela Merkel, in globalist projects.

Competently

Religious historian Alexey Yudin talks about how Christian churches celebrate Christmas:

First of all, let’s make it clear right away: it is incorrect to say that someone celebrates December 25, and someone celebrates January 7. Everyone celebrates Christmas on the 25th, but according to different calendars. In the next hundred years, from my point of view, no unification of Christmas celebrations can be expected.

The old Julian calendar, adopted under Julius Caesar, lagged behind astronomical time. The reform of Pope Gregory XIII, which was called papist from the very beginning, was extremely negatively received in Europe, especially in Protestant countries, where the reformation was already firmly established. Protestants were against it primarily because “it was planned in Rome.” And this city in the 16th century was no longer the center of Christian Europe.

Red Army soldiers take church property out of the Simonov Monastery at a subbotnik (1925). Photo: Wikipedia.org

If desired, the calendar reform can, of course, be called a schism, keeping in mind that christian world has already split not only along the “east-west” principle, but also within the west.

Therefore, the Gregorian calendar was perceived as Roman, papist, and therefore unsuitable. Gradually, however, Protestant countries accepted it, but the transition process took centuries. This is how things were in the West. The East did not pay attention to the reform of Pope Gregory XIII.

The Soviet Republic switched to a new style, but this, unfortunately, was connected with the revolutionary events in Russia; the Bolsheviks, naturally, did not think about any Pope Gregory XIII, they simply considered the new style the most adequate to their worldview. And the Russian Orthodox Church has an additional trauma.

In 1923, on the initiative of the Patriarch of Constantinople, a meeting of Orthodox churches was held, at which they decided to correct the Julian calendar.

Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, of course, were unable to travel abroad. But Patriarch Tikhon nevertheless issued a decree on the transition to the “New Julian” calendar. However, this caused protests among believers, and the decree was quickly canceled.

You see that there were several stages of searching for a calendar match. But to final result it didn't work. So far, this issue is completely absent from serious church discussion.

Is the Church afraid of another schism? Of course, some ultra-conservative groups within the Church will say: “They betrayed sacred time". Any Church is a very conservative institution, especially with regard to everyday life and liturgical practices. And they depend on the calendar. And the church-administrative resource is ineffective in such matters.

Every Christmas, the topic of switching to the Gregorian calendar comes up. But this is politics, a profitable media presentation, PR, whatever you want. The Church itself does not participate in this and is reluctant to comment on these issues.

Why does the Russian Orthodox Church use the Julian calendar?

Father Vladimir (Vigilyansky), rector of the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University:

Orthodox churches can be divided into three categories: those that serve all church holidays according to the new (Gregorian) calendar, those that serve only according to the old (Julian) calendar, and those that mix styles: for example, in Greece Easter is celebrated according to the old calendar, and all other holidays are celebrated in a new way. Our churches (Russian, Georgian, Jerusalem, Serbian and Athos monasteries) have never changed church calendar and they did not mix it with the Gregorian, so that there would be no confusion in the holidays. We have a single calendar system, which is tied to Easter. If we switch to celebrating, say, Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar, then two weeks are “eaten up” (remember how in 1918, after January 31, February 14 came), each day of which brings Orthodox man special semantic significance.

The Church lives according to its own order, and in it many significant things may not coincide with secular priorities. For example, in church life there is a clear system of progression of time, which is tied to the Gospel. Every day excerpts from this book are read, which has a logic associated with gospel history and the earthly life of Jesus Christ. All this lays down a certain spiritual rhythm in the life of an Orthodox person. And those who use this calendar do not want and will not violate it.

A believer has a very ascetic life. The world can change, we see how before our eyes our fellow citizens have a lot of opportunities, for example, for relaxation during the secular New Year holidays. But the Church, as one of our rock singers sang, “will not bend to the changing world.” Make it dependent on ski resort we will not have our church life.

The Bolsheviks introduced new calendar"for the purpose of the same calculation of time with almost all cultural peoples." Photo: Publishing project of Vladimir Lisin "Days of 1917 100 years ago"

One of the main inventions of human civilization is the calendar. All modern calendars have their origins in Ancient Egypt. Man has long begun to think about how to record phenomena occurring in the world around him. This primarily concerned the most important events V Everyday life, for example, determining the time of the Nile flood, which was the main source of the harvest. The ancient Egyptians took the sunrise in the evening sky as a landmark brightest star northern hemisphere Sirius.

History of the calendar

Modern calendars are based on the Roman solar calendar, dividing the year into months, weeks and days. It is clear that the basis for the daytime period is the alternation of light and dark times of the day, which reflects the rotation of the Earth around its axis. The basis for dividing the year into months and weeks was the Moon, which revolves around the Earth in a synodic month of just over 29 days, while changing its phases. U different nations and civilizations had their own calendar with different starting dates for counting. Both at one time in Egypt and in Ancient Rome great importance Egyptian priests played a role in developing the calendar. The year in all solar calendars was calculated according to the time of the Earth's revolution around the Sun. This is the length of the tropical year, it is 365.2522 days. The fundamental problems of all calendars were that the length of the year did not fit into an integer number of days. This introduced errors into all calendars and led to the need for constant revisions.

Introduction of the Julian calendar

The first global reform step in improving the calendar was taken in ancient Rome during the reign of Roman Emperor Julius Caesar in 46 BC. e. He visited Egypt and studied the calendar that existed there, which established the length of the tropical year at 365.25 days. But since a calendar year can only have an integer number of days, it was proposed to alternate three years with 365 days, and a fourth with 366 days - in February it had 29 days and was called a leap year. On average, the length of the year was 365 days and 6 hours. The year in the new calendar began on January 1. Month names were introduced before Julius Caesar. However, as a sign of his great merits, one of the months of Quintilis was renamed Julius. Now we know him as July. Another month is named after a prominent Roman emperor and public figure Octavian Augustus, in the Roman abbreviation Augustus. He has survived to this day as Augustus. The beginning of the era began to be counted from the founding of Rome. Since then, attempts have been made repeatedly to change the names of the months in honor of different emperors, but they did not take root, and the names of the months have survived to this day without changes.

Introduction of a new chronology in Rus'

With the development of civilization, it has become very inconvenient to have different calendars in different countries. Trade, navigation, and travel expanded contacts between peoples, who were not in any way favored by the presence of different chronology. In the era of Peter, Rus' had a Byzantine calendar. Its structure was the same as that of the Roman Julian with division into months, weeks and days, New Year fell on September 1, and the beginning of chronology was considered from the creation of the world. Peter I made changes: the beginning of the new year moved to January 1, and chronology began to be calculated from the Nativity of Christ. This event occurred in 1700, although according to the Byzantine calendar it was 7208 from the creation of the world. Thus, Peter brought Russia closer to European civilization.

Background and introduction of the Gregorian calendar

The Catholic Church had a great influence on the reform of the calendar due to the fact that the main church holidays fell on certain calendar dates. Since the Julian calendar was 365.25 days long and the tropical year was 365.2422 days long, the difference was 11 minutes and 14 seconds. The Julian calendar adopted at that time was late by this amount every year. One day late accumulated over 128 years. At the Council of Nicaea in 325, the basic creeds were adopted, and church holidays such as Easter were established. The problem arising from the inaccuracy of the calendar affected the correct determination of the date of Easter. This date is closely related to such celestial events as the spring equinox and full moon. Easter was traditionally celebrated on the first Sunday after spring equinox and the following first full moon. In the year of the cathedral, the vernal equinox occurred on March 21. But, due to the difference in the duration of the Julian and tropical years, by the sixteenth century an error of 10 days had accumulated. The day of equality of day and night has smoothly moved to March 11th. This was the impetus for Pope Gregory XIII, with the help of the scientist Luigi Luio, to reform the Julian calendar. The main postulates of the introduction of the new chronology were as follows:
The day of the vernal equinox was moved again to March 21, i.e. cleaned up for 10 days.
In a gap of 400 years, out of 100 leap years, 3 are removed, leaving 97.
The introduction of a new chronology occurred in 1582, and many Catholic powers switched to the new chronology. Other countries transitioned over several decades, and some over hundreds of years. The introduction of the new chronology did not go smoothly in all countries. The adoption of the Gregorian calendar in Riga led to a popular revolt that lasted for years until the instigators were convicted and executed. In Russia, the transition to the Gregorian calendar occurred after the October Revolution. After January 31, 1918, the government decree began to consider the arrival of February 14. This removed the accumulated difference of 13 days. Before the Bolsheviks came to power, the introduction of a new calendar in Russia was prevented by the Orthodox Church. And in monarchical Russia, the degree of influence of the church on the government was very high. Today, almost all countries of the world have switched to a new calendar. The exceptions are countries such as Thailand and Ethiopia. Orthodox Church also uses the old Julian calendar. How important it is to use the same calendar in neighboring countries can be understood in the following example. Exists Scientific research, concerning the Battle of Austerlitz, when Napoleon was victorious. Some scientists argue that it is the use of different calendars in Russian and Austrian army caused uncoordinated actions on the battlefield, which led to defeat. Today, the accuracy of the Gregorian calendar is quite high. Over the past few years, projects have been put forward to revise the current calendar. This concerned mainly changes in the number of days in months, but these proposals remain only projects.

The modern Christian calendar began in the Early Middle Ages. Until the first half of the 6th century, the era of Diocletian was widely used. The years were counted from 284, when he was proclaimed Roman Emperor. Despite the fact that Diocletian was one of the organizers of the persecution of Christians, this chronology system was also used by the clergy to calculate the dates of Easter celebrations. It was later called the “era of martyrs” and is still used by Monophysites in North Africa.

In 525, the Roman abbot Dionysius the Lesser, who, on behalf of Pope John I, compiled Easter tables, decided to abandon the chronology system based on the start date of the reign of the persecutor of Christians. He proposed a chronology from the Nativity of Christ. Dionysius, based on the Gospel of Luke, assumed that Jesus was about 30 years old at the time he began preaching. His crucifixion took place on the eve of the Jewish Passover under Emperor Tiberius. Using the already existing method of calculating Easter, the abbot calculated that the Resurrection of Christ falls on March 25, 31 years from his birth.

Many researchers believe that Dionysius the Small made a mistake in his calculations. Thus, the date of Christ’s birth turned out to be shifted forward by several years. This opinion was shared by top officials catholic church. In the summer of 1996, in one of his messages, Pope John Paul II confirmed that the historical date of the Nativity of Christ is unknown and in fact he was born 5 - 7 years earlier than our era. Benedict XVI also considered Christian chronology to be based on incorrect calculations. In 2009, in the first part of the book “Jesus of Nazareth,” he wrote that Dionysius the Lesser “was mistaken in his calculations by several years.” The birth of Christ, according to the pope, occurred 3 to 4 years earlier than the established date.

The chronology system developed by Dionysius the Small began to be used two centuries after its creation. In 726, the English Benedictine monk Bede the Venerable in his work “De sex aetatibus mundi” (On the six ages of the world) for the first time used chronology from the Nativity of Christ to describe historical events. Soon the new chronology spread widely in Europe.

Already in 742, dating from the Nativity of Christ first appeared in an official document - one of the capitularies of the Frankish mayor of Carloman. This was probably his independent initiative, not related to the works of the Venerable Bede. During the reign of Emperor Charlemagne in official documents The Frankish court widely used the counting of years “from the incarnation of our Lord.” In the 9th – 10th centuries, the new chronology became firmly established in European royal decrees and historical chronicles, and the Christian era began to be used in acts of the papal office.

But in some states there is still for a long time other chronological systems were preserved. The countries of the Iberian Peninsula used the Spanish era. The years were counted in it from January 1, 38 BC. BC, when the region became part of the “Roman Peace” (Pax Romana). Most of the Iberian states gradually abandoned the Spanish era in the 12th century. XIV centuries. It lasted the longest in Portugal. Only in August 1422 did King João I introduce Christian chronology in the country. In Russia, until the end of the 17th century, the Byzantine countdown of time from the creation of the world was used. The state switched to a new chronology after the decree of Peter I of December 20, 1699. Greece was the last European region to embrace the Christian era. The new chronology was established in the country in 1821 after the start of the war for independence from Ottoman Empire.

The Tridensky Cathedral in the 16th century introduced a new chronology, and the first (if not the only) monument to the new millennium was the bell tower of Ivan the Great in 1600, built by the most authoritative monarch of that time in Europe - Tsar Boris

Answer

You clearly messed something up. The Romans counted down from the legendary foundation of Rome (753 BC), Most other civilizations from the creation of the world, only their starting point was different; the Jews dated it to 3761 BC. e., Alexandrian chronology considered this date to be May 25, 5493 BC. BC The Byzantine calendar considered the starting point to be September 1, 5509 BC. e., it was actually adopted as a basis by Emperor Vasily II in 988. Yes, the year began on September 1 in Byzantium around 462, but this was officially recognized in 537. Otherwise, the calendar, with the exception of the names of the months, coincided with the Julian calendar (adopted under Julius Caesar). The Byzantine calendar lasted until the fall of the empire in 1453. The Gregorian calendar, which replaced it, was introduced under Pope Gregory XIII on October 15, 1582.

Answer

Oksana, I don’t deny the Romans’ use of Ab Urbe condita chronology. But it is a fact that the era of Diocletian was used for a long time by the inhabitants of the empire and was used even for some time after its fall. If you don't believe me, read more here

I did not set myself the task of talking about all the existing chronology systems, since the question was a little different. It concerned only the beginning of dating from the Nativity of Christ. And Dionysius the Less calculated this time focusing specifically on the era of Diocletian, and not on the founding of Rome or any other system.

All other calendars were well covered in this question.

Answer

Comment

Not right away. The chronology from the Nativity of Christ, and with it the concept of “our era,” appeared about one and a half thousand years ago, when Pope John I instructed the learned monk of Scythian origin Dionysius the Less to compile tables for calculating the day of Easter. IN early Middle Ages in Europe, they counted the years from the beginning of the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian (284 AD). Instead of the date of the accession of this pagan and persecutor of Christians, Dionysius the Small took the estimated year of birth of Jesus Christ as his starting point. He calculated it based on the text of the New Testament. (Today it is believed that the monk was wrong by four years, and our 2017 should be 2013.) In the 8th century, new dating became widespread thanks to the Anglo-Saxon chronicler Bede the Venerable, who relied on Dionysius’ system in his work “On the Six Ages of the World.” From the same Bede came the custom of dating events that occurred before the Nativity of Christ (“BC”), counting in reverse side. Gradually, all of Europe began to measure time from the birth of Christ. Russia switched to a new account of “the best for the sake of agreement with European peoples in contracts and treaties” in 1699 by decree of Peter I.

We need to start with this primitive people represented time chaotically, i.e. sets of unrelated periods of time, the boundaries of which were natural events (thunderstorms/hurricanes, etc.). IN Ancient world the boundaries of the reign of the kings (Egypt) acted as an era, or the counting was carried out according to EPONIM (Greece, Rome, Assyria) - this is the official by which the years are counted. (For example: “in the year when so-and-so was the archon..”). Archons - in Greece, Consuls - in Rome, Limmu - in Assyria.
In the ancient world, time was represented cyclically - as a spiral.
The linear era (universal) that is familiar to us appeared with the development of Christianity (so that all Christian communities celebrated holidays at the same time).
In 525 AD the era from the Nativity of Christ appeared. It was proposed by the monk Dionysius the Small. Before this, Easter was calculated based on the era of the martyrs (that is, the era of Diocletian (the cruel persecutor of Christians), the date when he began to rule on August 16, 284). However, Dionysius made a mistake in his calculations - Jesus Christ was born 5-6 years later than the date that Dionysius calculated. Since the 10th century, the Vatican switched to chronology from the Republic of Christ.

In general, the main chronological question of humanity is how to correlate units of time expressed as an integer.
There are several basic units of time:
1. solar day (24 hours)
2. synodal month (approximately 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes 3 seconds - from new moon to new moon)
3. tropical year (365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds) period from day summer solstice until the next day of the same.
Based on these units of time, people began to divide time into segments - calendars appeared - solar (ancient Egyptian) and lunar (ancient Babylon, Ancient Greece). It is believed that the first such calendars appeared at the turn of 4-3 thousand BC.

The seven-cyclic calendar is a relic of the Ancient Babylonian calendar, which was considered sacred. In it, every day was under the auspices of a god or goddess, who in turn was associated with certain celestial bodies. This method migrated to Europe, and in 325 a seven-day week was declared to all Christian communities.

24 hours in a day also came to us from the Babylonian calendar, in which the day was divided into 12 parts according to the signs of the zodiac (the night was not divided), such a division came to Ancient Egypt, where the night was divided, thereby doubling the zodiac.

In Ancient Rome, the calendar appeared in the 7th century BC. Initially there were 10 lunar months = 304 days. Numa Pompilius carried out a calendar reform by adding 2 lunar months= 355 days. in the 5th century BC the second calendar reform was carried out, a year later they began to add the thirteenth month MARCEDONIUS, which was inserted between February 22 and 23, it was equal to 20 days. Thus, approximately 365 days were obtained. However, every 4 years the calendar and astrological New Year diverged by a day. The duration of marcedonia was determined by the priests in Ancient Rome. New Year's Day fell on March 1st.
The months were called:
martos (from Mars),
aprelis (on behalf of the goddess Apra - one of the names of the goddess Aphrodite), mainos (Maya goddess of beauty)
junius (Juno - goddess of fertility)
quintilis (fifth)
sexteles (6)
Septembrius(7)
octobrius(8)
Novembrius(9)
Yunoarius (Janos - god of secrets)
februarius (Februarius is the god of the dead, an unlucky month, because even number days - 28).
There was no concept of a week. They counted according to the CALENDS - the first day of the month.

Julius Caesar stopped all this and during his reign a new calendar was created: JULIAN - 46 AD: New Year was moved to January 1 (when the distribution of positions of authority took place), Marcedonius was abolished, 1 day BISEXTUS began to be inserted into this place once every 4 years (twice a sixth) = leap year. Wed. The length of the year became 365 days 6 hours. Quintilis was renamed Julius (January).
In 365, the Julian calendar became mandatory for all Christians. But it was 11 minutes longer than the tropical year; in 128 years a day had passed, and by the 16th century 10 days had passed.

in 1582 - Gregory XIII Pope convened a commission (the calendar is the prerogative of the church, since time is the place of God), it was decided to count October 5, 1582 as October 15.

The Gregorian calendar is closer to the tropical year (the difference is a few seconds), one day in such a calendar accumulates once every 3200 years.

If we talk about the history of chronology in Russia, then little is known about the Slavic calendar. Initially, time was counted seasonally, i.e. simultaneously with agricultural work, the boundaries did not coincide (for example, spring from March 23 to June 22). Changes came with the advent of Christianity. Since the end of the 10th century, there have been two New Years - March and September. I will not go into details of this, I will just say that throughout Rus' there was no clear chronology. In 1492, the March calendar was abolished. This is due to the fact that from the creation of the world (5508), the year 1492 was considered 7000, in theory the end of the world was supposed to happen, this idea took possession of Christians so much that they did not even calculate the calendar - Paschal (Easter year) after this year.
In Peter's time it was discovered that the calendar did not coincide with the Western one. On December 19, 7208 (1699) from the creation of the world, Peter issued a decree on the transition to the era from Christ.

At the end of the 18th century, all European countries adopted the Gregorian calendar, while Russia still had the Julian calendar. Throughout the 19th century, there were many disputes about whether Russia should switch to the Gregorian calendar, and on January 24, 1918, a Decree was adopted on Russia’s transition to the Gregorian calendar, after January 31, 1918, not counting February 1, but February 14. Actually what we have now.

If you have finished reading this long post, know that you have become a little smarter and more patient :)

Calculation: what is it? Chronology is a system of counting time (in days, weeks, months, years), starting from a specific event. The chronology could differ among different peoples and religions. This can be explained by the fact that various events were taken as the starting point. However, today one chronology system has been officially established throughout the world, which is used in all countries and on all continents.

Calculation of chronology in Rus'

The chronology in Rus' was carried out according to the calendar adopted by Byzantium. As you know, after the adoption of Christianity in the tenth century AD, the year of the creation of the world was chosen as the starting point. To be more precise, this day is the day when the first man, Adam, was created. This happened on the first of March 5508 AD. And in Rus', the beginning of spring was long considered the beginning of the year.

Reform of Peter the Great

The old chronology “from the creation of the world” was changed by Emperor Peter the Great to the chronology from the Nativity of Christ. this was done from the first of January 1700 (or in 7208 "from the creation of the world"). Why did they change the calendar? It is believed that Peter the Great did this for convenience, to synchronize time with Europe. European countries have long lived according to the system “from the Nativity of Christ”. And since the emperor had a lot of business with Europeans, this step was quite appropriate. After all, the difference in years in Europe and in Russian Empire at that time was 5508 years!

The Old Russian chronology, thus, differed from the modern one in the reference point of time. And the chronology before the Nativity of Christ was called the chronology “from the creation of the world.”

How it all began

When did chronology begin? There is evidence that in 325 AD the first council of Christian bishops took place. It was they who decided that chronology should be carried out from the creation of the world. The reason for this countdown was the need to know when to celebrate Easter. The date of creation of the world was proposed based on considerations and reasoning about the life of Jesus Christ.

After the Council of Bishops, the Roman Empire adopted this chronology. And after a couple of hundred years, it was proposed to switch to chronology from the Nativity of Christ. This idea was expressed by Dionysius the Small, a Roman monk, in 532. It is not known exactly when Jesus was born, but it happened around the second or fourth year of our era. It was from this year that the countdown of time began, which is now called from the Nativity of Christ. This point divides new era(our) from the past (respectively the designations AD and BC).

But the world took a long time to switch to new option countdown. This took about half a millennium, and for Russia - more than a thousand years. The transition was gradual, so often the year “from the creation of the world” was also indicated in brackets.

Aryan chronology and Slavic chronology

The chronology of the Aryans was carried out from the creation of the world, that is, different from what existed in the world. But the Aryans did not believe that the world was created precisely in 5508 BC. In their opinion, the starting point was the year when peace was concluded between the Slavic-Aryans and the Arima (ancient Chinese tribes). Another name for this chronology is the Creation of the World in the Star Temple. After the victory over the Chinese, a symbol appeared - a rider on a white horse killing a dragon. The latter in this case symbolized China, which was defeated.

The Old Slavic chronology was carried out according to the Daariysky Krugolet of Chislobog. You can read more about this calendar in the corresponding article. After the reform of Peter the Great, they began to say that “he stole 5508 years from the Slavs.” In general, the emperor’s innovation was not found positive feedback from the Slavs, they resisted him for a long time. But the chronology of the ancient Slavs and their calendar were prohibited. Today, only Old Believers and Ynglings use them.

Calculation according to Slavic calendar had its own interesting features:

• The Slavs had only three seasons: spring, autumn, winter. By the way, the ancient Slavs called the whole year “summer”.
• It was nine months.
• There were forty or forty-one days in the month.

Thus, the chronology of the ancient Slavs, who were pagans, ran counter to the generally accepted Christian one. After all, many Slavs, even having accepted the Christian faith, continued to remain pagans. They were faithful to their worldviews and did not accept chronology “from the Nativity of Christ.”

The chronology became a reflection of religion, which occupied and continues to occupy a dominant position in the state, in society, in the world. Christianity today is practiced by more than thirty percent of the world's population. It is not surprising that the Birth of Christ was chosen as its beginning. It has also become convenient to distinguish the past era from the new. Peter, having changed the chronology system in Rus', made it possible to coordinate all the activities of the country with the rest of the world. It is difficult to imagine that today there would be a gap between countries of more than five and a half thousand years! Also, a positive aspect of the chronology common to all is the convenience in studying history and other sciences.

Calculation errors. The story is fake.

- a number system for large periods of time, based on the periodicity of the visible movements of celestial bodies.

The most common solar calendar is based on the solar (tropical) year - the period of time between two successive passages of the center of the Sun through the vernal equinox.

A tropical year has approximately 365.2422 average solar days.

The solar calendar includes the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar and some others.

The modern calendar is called the Gregorian (new style), which was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 and replaced the Julian calendar (old style), which had been in use since the 45th century BC.

The Gregorian calendar is a further refinement of the Julian calendar.

In the Julian calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar, the average length of a year in an interval of four years was 365.25 days, which is 11 minutes 14 seconds longer than the tropical year. Over time, the onset seasonal phenomena According to the Julian calendar, they fell on earlier and earlier dates. Particularly strong discontent was caused by the constant shift in the date of Easter, associated with the spring equinox. In 325, the Council of Nicaea decreed a single date for Easter for all christian church.

© Public Domain

© Public Domain

In subsequent centuries, many proposals were made to improve the calendar. The proposals of the Neapolitan astronomer and physician Aloysius Lilius (Luigi Lilio Giraldi) and the Bavarian Jesuit Christopher Clavius ​​were approved by Pope Gregory XIII. On February 24, 1582, he issued a bull (message) introducing two important additions to the Julian calendar: 10 days were removed from the 1582 calendar - October 4 was immediately followed by October 15. This measure made it possible to preserve March 21 as the date of the vernal equinox. In addition, three out of every four century years were to be considered ordinary years and only those divisible by 400 were to be considered leap years.

1582 was the first year of the Gregorian calendar, called the new style.

The Gregorian calendar was introduced at different times in different countries. The first countries to switch to the new style in 1582 were Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, France, Holland and Luxembourg. Then in the 1580s it was introduced in Austria, Switzerland, and Hungary. In the 18th century, the Gregorian calendar began to be used in Germany, Norway, Denmark, Great Britain, Sweden and Finland, and in the 19th century - in Japan. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in China, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Greece, Turkey and Egypt.

In Rus', along with the adoption of Christianity (10th century), the Julian calendar was established. Since the new religion was borrowed from Byzantium, the years were counted according to the Constantinople era “from the creation of the world” (5508 BC). By decree of Peter I in 1700, the European chronology was introduced in Russia - “from the Nativity of Christ”.

December 19, 7208 from the creation of the world, when the reformation decree was issued, in Europe corresponded to December 29, 1699 from the Nativity of Christ according to the Gregorian calendar.

At the same time, the Julian calendar was preserved in Russia. The Gregorian calendar was introduced after October revolution 1917 - from February 14, 1918. The Russian Orthodox Church, preserving traditions, lives according to the Julian calendar.

The difference between the old and new styles is 11 days for the 18th century, 12 days for the 19th century, 13 days for the 20th and 21st centuries, 14 days for the 22nd century.

Although the Gregorian calendar is quite consistent with natural phenomena, it is also not completely accurate. The length of the year in the Gregorian calendar is 26 seconds longer than the tropical year and accumulates an error of 0.0003 days per year, which is three days per 10 thousand years. The Gregorian calendar also does not take into account the slowing rotation of the Earth, which lengthens the day by 0.6 seconds per 100 years.

The modern structure of the Gregorian calendar also does not fully meet the needs public life. Chief among its shortcomings is the variability of the number of days and weeks in months, quarters and half-years.

There are four main problems with the Gregorian calendar:

— Theoretically, the civil (calendar) year should have the same length as the astronomical (tropical) year. However, this is impossible, since the tropical year does not contain an integer number of days. Because of the need to add an extra day to the year from time to time, there are two types of years - ordinary and leap years. Since the year can begin on any day of the week, this gives seven types of ordinary years and seven types of leap years—for a total of 14 types of years. To fully reproduce them you need to wait 28 years.

— The length of the months varies: they can contain from 28 to 31 days, and this unevenness leads to certain difficulties in economic calculations and statistics.|

- Neither ordinary nor leap years do not contain an integer number of weeks. Semi-years, quarters and months also do not contain a whole and equal number of weeks.

— From week to week, from month to month and from year to year, the correspondence of dates and days of the week changes, so it is difficult to establish the moments of various events.

In 1954 and 1956, drafts of a new calendar were discussed at sessions of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), but the final resolution of the issue was postponed.

In Russia State Duma was proposing to return the country to the Julian calendar from January 1, 2008. Deputies Viktor Alksnis, Sergei Baburin, Irina Savelyeva and Alexander Fomenko proposed establishing a transition period from December 31, 2007, when, for 13 days, chronology will be carried out simultaneously according to the Julian and Gregorian calendars. In April 2008, the bill was rejected by a majority vote.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources