Russia Joins Europe: Adopts Anno Domini Calendar

Peter the Great dragged Russia into the modern calendar by decree. The country abandoned the Byzantine Anno Mundi system, which counted years from the supposed creation of the world, and adopted the Anno Domini era used across Western Europe. Overnight the year jumped from 7208 to 1700. Peter didn't stop there. He moved New Year's from September 1 to January 1, ordered celebrations with fireworks and pine decorations, and fined nobles who showed up at court in traditional Russian dress instead of Western clothing. The man was remaking an entire empire one law at a time, from its calendar to its wardrobe. The calendar switch was part of a broader campaign of forced Westernization that included shaving beards, building a navy from scratch, and relocating the capital to a swamp on the Baltic coast that would become St. Petersburg. Nobles who resisted were taxed, imprisoned, or stripped of their estates. Russia's calendar still lagged eleven days behind Western Europe, however. The gap between the Julian and Gregorian systems was something Peter didn't bother closing. Sweden, Denmark, and the Protestant German states had already made the switch or were in the process. Catholic countries had adopted the Gregorian calendar over a century earlier. Russia held out until 1918, when the Bolsheviks finally aligned the country with the rest of Europe. Two hundred eighteen years to finish what Peter started. The January 1 New Year celebration he mandated, complete with mandatory tree decorations, became the precursor to Russia's modern New Year traditions, which remain the country's biggest holiday.