RUSSIA
1953
SUSTAINED
progress toward the international enactment of calendar reform
was reported at the Seventh Annual Meeting 15 January
1954 of The World Calendar
Association, International, held in the International Building,
New York City. Published highlights (JCR Vol. 24, April
1954) for RUSSIA:
The
first official expression of support for calendar reform from
the U.S.S.R. came in July at the Geneva meeting of the International
Standardization Organization. One of the subjects for discussion
at these sessions was The World Calendar, on which the principal
speaker was James Avery Joyce of London. Mr. Joyce's remarks,
dealing with reasons for placing calendar standardization
on the regular program of the I.S.O., were followed by an
approving speech from the Russian delegate, M. Igkourakov.
Indications that his attitude had official sanction appeared
a few days later in the Soviet newspapers Pravda
and Izvestia. There was further confirmation at the
United Nations in November, when the Russian delegates discussed
the matter informally with representatives of India, England
and the United States. . . . An American authority on Russian
affairs made this comment: "Russia is interested in calendar
reform for practical reasons of her own. Great stress is placed
by Soviet economics today upon improved planning and statistical
services, and in studying the problems of economic planning
the Russians have probably found calendar reform advantageous.
A combination of factors appears to have swung Russia into
the growing list of supporters of calendar reform. Whether
the Soviet will go beyond its present cautious endorsement
of study of The World Calendar proposal remains to be seen."
CONTACT
The World Calendar Association
HOME