Soviet public holidays organization in Altai in the 1930s.

The article discusses the process of organizing public holidays in Altai in the 1930s. A qualitatively new period of the Soviet holiday system development began from the 1920s and in the course of 1930-s. It is in the 1930s when its gradual unification and standardization took place based on the previous decade experience. Holidays organization mechanism acquires distinct forms; its work was organized sufficiently well. The author notes that, having based on the previous decade experience, public holidays organization in the 1930s started with establishing special committees that were responsible for preparing and conducting a particular celebration. Committees were formed on different levels: All-Soviet Union (a central committee), oblast, city and district. The central committee coordinated the holidays preparation and established particular All-Soviet Union standards. Regional committees, according to archival documents, consisted of representatives of party and Soviet organizations, Komsomol, trade unions, enterprises and institutions. The committee heads were personally responsible for the politically correct decor of the holidays and festive events content. On the eve of the holiday dates, regional committees sent their workers to districts with special control trips to check the observance of the general holiday standards. Based on archival documents and materials of the periodical press, the author comes to a conclusion that to organize and hold a celebration was costly and, primarily, time consuming. In comparison with the 1920s, when holidays preparation generally started a week before the organized event, in the 1930s it was three or four weeks before the event. Before public holidays, the socioeconomic country development results were summed up that proved that a Soviet person's life was becoming better year after year, the state's power was growing and changes in all society spheres were taking place. In the periodical press, articles were published that stressed the more beneficial position of the Soviet workers in comparison with foreign workers. Pupils and youth prepared for national holidays as it was in the previous period. People at schools strove to academic progress and discipline improvement. Pupils were actively engaged in festive columns decor. As the press noted, the state strove to create appropriate conditions for holidays conduct, in particular, to provide population with food and manufacturing products. On the celebration eve, authorities' decrees were issued to organize trade in order to provide population with all necessary things for holidays. On holiday and pre-holiday days, kolkhozes, sovkhozes and enterprises made enhanced labor commitments. Public holidays ideological content showed accelerated tempos of economic and cultural development striving to prove the socioeconomic indices difference between the USSR and western capitalist countries. In the end, the author concludes that the holiday instance network was called not to create holidays original plans but to conduct unified and standard celebrations. The functioning of the same or analogous schemes turned public holidays organization into routine.

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