Why and How Stalin Stole Christmas? New Year in USSR / Russia

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After coming to power in 1917, Bolsheviks tried to replace Christmas with a more appropriate secular holiday, but it didn’t work. And by 1928 they had banned Christmas entirely, December 25 and 31 were regular working days. Stalin stole Christmas from the Soviet people. But in December 1935 something interesting happened. Thanks to the First Secretary of the Kharkov Regional Committee of the Communist Party Pavel Postyshev, Soviet Whoville got their holiday tree back.
#stalin #ussr #christmas
Link to my video about the History of Soviet Atheism: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2TFqIRvapuJZ6c;
Religion under Gorbachev. Church & State in the USSR and Putin’s Russia - kzbin.info/www/bejne/pIeynH6mmLGWmJY
Atheist Propaganda in Soviet Schools - kzbin.info/www/bejne/ap-1YWuIYrOqnMU
Sources: Адоньева С. Б. История современной новогодней традиции // Мифология и повседневность : сборник. - СПб.: ИРЛИ РАН, 1999.
Александра Архипова - 12 вопросов о Деде Морозе: arzamas.academy/mag/1048-ded_moroz

[@religiologEng]

Thank you for your likes and comments! Link to my video about the History of Soviet Atheism: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2TFqIRvapuJZ6c; Religion under Gorbachev. Church & State in the USSR and Putin’s Russia - kzbin.info/www/bejne/pIeynH6mmLGWmJY

[@xibalbalon8668]

Reminds me of how in 30s Mexico, the government tried to replace both the Three Kings and Santa with Quetzalcoatl, in an attempt to both secularize and avoid Americanization

[@religiologEng]

thanks for sharing this! It's good to know

[@williandalsoto806]

I greatly enjoyed this video, happy holidays!

[@religiologEng]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@robertfreid2879]

Excellent video, Merry Christmas - or Happy Holidays! And man, I got to go to Eastern Europe for 'dem New Year's celebrations, New Year's Eve is my second favorite holiday! (after Christmas). Here in the US, it isn't as celebrated to the extent that it is in Russia and Eastern Europe, sadly...

[@religiologEng]

Thanks for sharing that, I hope you'll have a great New Year celebration both this year and in the future!

[@AleksoLaĈevalo999]

11:04 "It is time to put an end to this wonderful condemnation of the tree which is a joyful diversion for the children." Truly, a wonderful condemnation it was.

[@andreylyagu]

Awesome video. Just found out about your channel and instantly fell in love with it. Keep it up!

[@religiologEng]

Welcome aboard! Thank you so much for letting me know!

[@arrow1414]

Interestingly the German tradition of the Christmas Tree was imported to Great Britain by a German, Queen Victoria's husband and Prince Consort Albert.

[@religiologEng]

thank you for sharing this. Very interesting!

[@AjJohn-gb4iz]

Thank you again

[@religiologEng]

you are very welcome!

[@angelikaskoroszyn8495]

Godless evenings. Omg. It's great. I'm going to adopt it

[@religiologEng]

Have fun!

[@philosoffoma7432]

Good!

[@religiologEng]

Thanks, Alexander!

[@samuelmyers5084]

But online it says that they celebrated Christmas as new year in the soviet union as a public holiday

[@dftp]

Technically the Bolshevik's took power after 1922 since that is when they won and ended the Civil War. 1917 is when the revolution started, and at that point you couldn't really have argued that the Reds were in power. A minor inaccuracy but I thought it important to distinguish nevertheless.

[@religiologEng]

Thank you for reminding this! I mainly focus on the period between 1929 and 1936 though

[@darrynmurphy4764]

They controlled the industrial, political, and population centre of the ex-Russian empire, as well as various other territories, from 1917. The so called Sovdepia was larger than any other European state and had more people living under it than lived outside of it

[@dftp]

​@@darrynmurphy4764I know, that doesn't mean they were able yet to exert full control over the land and people. You also seem to be ignoring/forgetting the several Civil Wars inside the Civil War in Russia because certain Socialists and Communist who disagreed with the Bolsheviks also fought and rebelled for some time against both the Whites and Reds at the same time just like significant Anarchist forces (like the Makhnovtchina). Those were all defeated and consolidated by the Bolsheviks in time but I refuse to assert that the Bolsheviks had full control over the state, economy and people until the end of the war. Remember that this is one of the most complicated and tumultuous (civil) wars in all of history

[@sardoreshkuvatov1885]

It’s peculiar that you as a scholar bring the more emotional and negative approach to the matter that you avoid in your Russian channel. 😊

[@religiologEng]

are you sure about this? has you seen my video about Stalinism as religion where I build on Hanna Arendt's "Totalitarism" etc.

[@igorkhlebalin6030]

Stalin did not "steal" Christmas. Hi protected soviet children from dangerous religious superstitions.

[@religiologEng]

привет, Игорь, понимаю о чем ты. Тут важно знать американцев, - фраза "украл рождество" это огромная часть их культуры. Она ассоцируется с Гринчем который украл рождество и я играю на этой фразе чтобы привлечь внимание к ролику через фразу которая известна всем.

[@igorkhlebalin6030]

@@religiologEng Максим, добрый день! Отсылку я узнал: у тебя столько Гринчей в ролике... Хотя популярность именно этой сказки для меня всегда была загадкой: ну что в ней такого?

[@religiologEng]

@@igorkhlebalin6030 то что все могут быть добрыми и у каждой травмы есть причина.

[@igorkhlebalin6030]

@@religiologEng если брать сказки авторские, при этом относительно современные (с середины прошлого века), то у каждой второй мораль состоит примерно в этом же. Однако, такой популярности они не обретают.

[@dftp]

Listen buddy, I'm a Communist and even I recognise that Stalin's and the Bolshevik's rabid atheism was the worst policy they had. It's understandable that they were resentful towards the Orthodox church for repressing the Socialists and supporting the tsar, but they should've just limited the church's power or nationalised it instead of banning religion and faith altogether even for the people and individuals. Religion was and still is a very important anchor and source of inspiration for people especially back then. Religion and faith is not inherently bad or anti-proletarian, it's only used for evil when undemocratically institutionalised for example by the Orthodox or Catholic church. No Soviet child was protected from anything by taking away the Christmas festival from them and even I understand this as an atheist Communist myself.