To the Editors

The January/February issue, on page 16, incorrectly stated that Nikita Mikhalkov was an Oscar nominated director. In fact, his 1994 film, Burnt by the Sun, won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, the third time a Russian film has received an Oscar in this category. Previous winners were War and Peace and Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears.

To the Editors:

I love the Russian Calendar section where you are showing how the events of 1917 unfolded. But can you explain how you deal with dates, meaning the Gregorian and Julian Calendar issue?

Thanks,

Ralph Blooming

via email

Ralph:

Thanks for the query, this is something we must grapple with constantly.

By the time Soviet Russia adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1918, the Julian Calendar was running 13 days behind the Gregorian Calendar, so that, when it was January 31, 1918 in Russia, it was February 13 in the West. So, for Russia to make the leap to synchronize with the West, 13 days had to disappear. Thus, Russians went to sleep on January 31 and woke up on February 14.

Historians who write about Russia deal with this 13 day gap in a variety of ways, sometimes writing dates followed by a parenthetical: January 24 (new style), or by writing both dates: January 12/25, or even by changing all pre-1918 dates into “new style dates” by adding 13 days to them (or fewer, as the gap was smaller in earlier centuries).

Our policy is to try to avoid the “new style/old style” dichotomy and, as much as possible, state dates when things happened as the original date upon which they occurred, not on a modified version of this date. So, if someone was born on January 14, 1917, we indicate that date, not January 27.

Thus, the February Revolution began on February 22, 1917, and the October 25, 1917, not on March 7 and November 7, as per the Gregorian calendar.

Hope that makes things clearer. For more detail on Russia’s calendar challenges, visit our website.

– The Editors