Note on Dates

Wellred

Core Argument

This brief prefatory note establishes the calendrical framework governing all dates in the text, a necessary technical clarification given the temporal disjuncture between revolutionary Russia and the wider world. Until 14 February 1918, the Russian Empire adhered to the Old Style (Julian) calendar, which by the twentieth century lagged thirteen days behind the New Style (Gregorian) calendar adopted in Western Europe and now standard internationally. The note specifies that all dates for events and publications occurring within Russia prior to that February 1918 cut-off are rendered in the Old Style, while all other dates—presumably those referencing Western developments or post-calendar-change Russian events—follow the Gregorian system. This dual-dating convention is not merely a matter of scholarly precision; it reflects the material fact that the Russian Revolution unfolded in a country whose official chronology was out of step with its capitalist rivals and allies, a symbolic lag that mirrored deeper structural backwardness. The Bolsheviks’ adoption of the Gregorian calendar in early 1918 was itself a measure of modernisation and integration, a small but telling instance of the new state’s drive to synchronise with global norms. For the reader, the note serves as a guard against anachronism: the February Revolution, for instance, occurred in late February Old Style but early March New Style, and the October Revolution likewise fell in November by Western reckoning. Without this clarification, the temporal coordinates of key events would be systematically misaligned. The note is terse and functional, offering no commentary on the political or cultural significance of calendar reform, but its presence signals that the text will treat chronology with the seriousness demanded by a period in which the very measurement of time became a terrain of revolutionary change.