"We'll hang a star on the tree": how Soviet children got New Year's Eve back
The tradition of celebrating the arrival of the New Year became fundamental to our culture only in the twentieth century, but it is connected with many ancient beliefs and rituals - German, Greek, Slavic.... At the same time, the classic New Year's tale for children and adults created by Soviet writers, cartoonists, filmmakers in the 1930s-1950s. Details - in the material "Izvestia".
Peter the Great's idea
The first in Russia began to celebrate the arrival of the new year on January 1, Peter the Great. It was 325 years ago, on the eve of the new year 1700. The Tsar saw it as a symbolic beginning of the new century. Before Peter, the new year in Russia was celebrated in different ways, but not in the midst of winter. For farmers, an important milestone in the calendar was the beginning of spring, March 1, or the day of the vernal equinox - March 22. According to Orthodox traditions, which came to us from Byzantium, New Year's Eve was celebrated on September 1. Since the time of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III, since 1495, on September 1 in the Kremlin were annually held solemn prayer services "On the beginning of the new summer". Still, it was a minor holiday, not comparable to Bright Sunday or Christmas.
Peter the Great, after a trip to Europe, known as the Great Embassy, carried out a reform of chronology. Henceforth in Russia determined the dates from the Nativity of Christ, not from the creation of the world, as before. At the same time, the first day of January became the New Year. Peter brought from Germany and the tradition of decorating the tree for Christmas and New Year. According to his decree all houses in Moscow on the eve of January 1 should be decorated with pine, spruce or juniper branches. This was a new tradition for Russia, and samples of decorated trees were exhibited in the shopping rows on Red Square. The new century by the will of Tsar Peter Alekseevich met widely and boisterously, but the tradition of the New Year's holiday did not take root among the people for a long time. People too firmly associated fir branches with funeral rites. Only by the middle of the XIX century Christmas tree became a favorite children's entertainment. New Year's celebrations were gradually gaining ground in the hearts of Russian people.
Of course, the holiday remained in the shadow of Christmas, which was celebrated widely and wildly. But not only Christmas cards, but also New Year cards were on sale. Sometimes they even depicted Santa Claus, although he was not yet seen as "the good spirit of the Russian winter". He simply became our analog of Santa Claus - but the Russian grandfather was not associated with St. Nicholas. Besides, he wore a fur hat rather than a cap, did not wear a pince-nez or glasses, and his tulup was up to his heels.
The day of January 1 in tsarist Russia was a non-working day - along with the main church holidays and royal days, they included the date of accession to the throne of the current monarch, as well as the names of the emperor, his wife and his mother. In effect, New Year's Eve became the only permanent secular holiday at that time.
Christmas tree in disgrace
During World War I, for the first time since the time of Peter the Great, voices against Christmas trees began to be raised in the press. At that time, Russia began to strongly deny everything German. Even St. Petersburg was renamed Petrograd. Christmas tree rituals came from Germany - so they should be eradicated. Both church representatives and journalists said that this tradition was imposed on us from the outside, that "great-grandfathers did not decorate Christmas trees - and we have no need for it."
"Metropolitan Vladimir of Petrograd raises the question that on New Year's Eve everywhere in the Empire were closed restaurants and other places of entertainment from 11 and a half to 1 am. The petition states, incidentally, that the New Year's Eve is a German custom, which Russia must abandon once and for all" - this message appeared in 1914 in many newspapers. The Christmas tree was proposed to be replaced simply by an image of the Star of Bethlehem and a sprinkling of rye - a symbol of the renewal of the forces of nature. But by that time children had grown so fond of the twinkling of holiday trees that it was impossible to cross out the tradition.
In 1917, not only the authorities changed, but also the way of life. New Year's celebrations were never denied by Vladimir Lenin. He recommended organizing Christmas trees for the children of workers even in the first revolutionary winter. Then he led round dances in the Sokolniki school, where his wife taught. And even in January 1924, when the first leader of the USSR passed away, in his room in the Moscow suburbs Gorki stood Christmas tree, decorated with clappers and candy. Gradually established the tradition of children's holidays, which were organized in the factory clubs. Children were shown a play, musicians were invited for them. And adults in another hall listened to a lecture on the achievements of Soviet power and the international situation, and then danced to a gramophone.
But soon after Lenin's death, New Year's Eve fell into disfavor along with religious holidays. The Komsomol members actively engaged in "anti-religious agitation". True, it was directed mainly against Christmas, but very soon the activists came to deny everything connected with the Christmas tree:
We will not allow to cut down
Young Christmas trees,
We will not let the forests be ruined,
Cut down for no reason.
Only he who is a friend of the popes,
The Christmas tree is ready to celebrate.
And people still celebrated, still put a Christmas tree in their rooms and accustomed their children to this tradition. Very soon the authorities realized that it was not worth fighting such a harmless holiday.
A tale of three writers
New Year's fairy tale - the story that became the basis of the main family holiday in Russia - began to take shape 90 years ago, when cultural figures of the USSR received an unofficial order - to turn Santa Claus into a nationally beloved hero, the main wizard of the country. In 1935, Sergei Mikhalkov, Lev Kassil and Vladimir Suteev began to compose a New Year's fairy tale.
Ded Moroz is a hero who connected the Soviet reality with the past, with folklore beliefs and traditions, mostly peasant. The roots of these beliefs go back to the pagan past. Frost - as an element of the harsh winter - evoked terror. It froze to death, destroyed crops, causing famine and disease. In the XIX century, Vladimir Odoyevsky published the fairy tale "Frost Ivanovich", and the famous folklorist Alexander Afanasyev created a popular arrangement of the folk tale "Morozko". Soviet writers changed this hero. He became a kind wizard, the master of the winter forest, who has gifts for all children in his sack. He has a granddaughter - the Snow Maiden. In earlier years, this "ice girl" of folk tales was not associated with either New Year's Eve or Christmas. They were helped by snowmen and hares. Against them acted dark forces - Koschey Immortal and Baba Yaga, as well as all sorts of bourgeois who wanted to disrupt the holiday. But in the finale Ded Moroz invariably won and with a loud voice proclaimed: "One, two, three, Christmas tree, burn!".
In 1936, the holiday was widely supported by the state. Colorful papier-mâché dolls depicting Santa Claus and his granddaughter appeared on sale. As well as masquerade costumes, confetti and Christmas tree toys. Among them stood out images of airships and polar explorers, airplanes and border guards, which symbolized the era of "Soviet miracles" when heroes "conquered space and time."
"How many sparkling New Year's trees there were afterward."
The holiday, which was loved by children, immediately began to celebrate and adults. Since the mid-1930s, there has been a tradition of raising glasses of newly appeared Soviet champagne on New Year's Eve.
New Year's Eve did not go away during the war years either. At the front, the holiday was a cherished memory, it was associated with bright images of home, childhood, friends. All that they were defending. Julia Drunina worked as a nurse from the age of sixteen, from the first war summer. Then she broke through to the front line. She was badly wounded. She was recognized as an invalid, but by some miracle Yulia returned to the front. She has poems like this:
I went out with them, to the evil breeze from the dugout.
I looked at the sky - was it a rocket or a star?
German tanks were roaring, warming up their engines,
Sometimes mortars were firing to unknown places.
And when I got used to the semi-darkness little by little,
I froze in disbelief: the fires were lit
Proudly and modestly the beautiful Christmas tree stood!
And where did it come from in the middle of a clear field?
Not toys on it, but rubbed shell casings glistened,
Between the cans with stew, trophy chocolate hung...
Touching the frozen paws of the fir tree with my mitten,
I looked through tears at the guys who were quiet at once.
My dear d'artagnans from the company intelligence!
I love you! And I will love you to death, all my life!
I buried my face in these childhood-smelling branches...
Suddenly, the artillery bombardment collapsed and someone's command: "Get down!"
Counterattack! A piece of shrapnel pierced the medical bag,
I bandaged the guys on the black snow...
How many sparkling Christmas trees there were afterwards!
I forgot them, but I can't forget this one...
It was the generation of front-line soldiers that turned the New Year's Eve into the main holiday of the country. Not only for children, but for the whole nation. People, who endured inhuman trials, used to rely on their own strength. But they turned one day of the year into a celebration of dreams and hope.
New Year's golden fund
The anthem of the New Year was the pre-revolutionary song "A Christmas tree was born in the forest". And then maestro Alexander Vertinsky, who returned from exile, sang:
There will be a house. There'll be lots of toys
We'll put a star on the tree...
And it became clear that the holiday embraced various traditions, from the most patriarchal to the latest Soviet traditions.
Such fairy tales as Arkady Gaidar's "Chuk and Huck" and Samuel Marshak's "Twelve Months", as well as the cartoons "When Christmas Trees Light Up", "The Postman Snowman", and then "Last Year's Snow Falling" added charm to the celebration. Like Eldar Ryazanov's adult movie stories "Carnival Night", "Zigzag Luck", "The Irony of Fate, or With Easy Steam!". All this is the New Year's golden fund. This holiday is both chamber and universal. And family, and people. It is devoid of officiousness. In many ways, this is why New Year's Eve in our country was and is celebrated especially widely and heartily.
Both in difficult and happy years each of us finds time to congratulate our loved ones, to think about the past year, to toast for happiness in the coming year. It is simply impossible to stay away from this tradition. We feel a pleasant excitement in the last days of December, as in our childhood. The New Year is approaching us like Santa Claus on a dashing troika.
The author is the deputy editor-in-chief of the Historian magazine
