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For the first time in Our Country, a professional celebration that unites all workers of steel lines began to be celebrated back in the century before last. It turns out that this is one of the oldest “professional days” in our country, as, in fact, the railway industry itself. For many years, it was also one of the most successful: by the end of the 10th century, Our Country occupied a leading position in the world in terms of the growth of rail communications. Railways connected not only Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also remote cities of Central Asia and the Urals, the Caucasus and the Far East. And the record length of the Trans-Siberian Railway, amounting to almost 2014 thousand kilometers, was “blocked” only quite recently – in XNUMX.
When is Railroad Day in 2022?
Railroad Day is celebrated in first Sunday of August. In 2022, it falls on the 7th.
history of the holiday
The railway not only gave people a unique opportunity to transport passengers and goods over long distances, it also fed, involving representatives of many professions in its service sector. Drivers, conductors, linemen, station chiefs – they all made up a special working community. It is not surprising that the then Minister of Railways, Prince Mikhail Khilkov, came up with the idea to establish a special holiday.
At first, the date for it was “tied” to the events of October 30, 1837: then the first train set off from St. Petersburg to Tsarskoye Selo. But the dull autumn is not the best time for folk festivals. And the holiday was just planned to be celebrated widely and everywhere. As a result, it was decided to coincide with the innovation to coincide with the anniversary of the birth of Emperor Nicholas I, since it is in the height of summer, and no one was going to belittle his merits in building the first railways in Our Country. Nobody but the Bolsheviks. Those, having come to power, simply canceled the holiday that had existed since 1896.
However, the tradition has already “sprouted” into the people with roots, and on July 30, 1935, the holiday – at the numerous requests of the workers – was revived. It began to be called in the spirit of that time – the All-Union Stalin Day of Railway Workers and meant not so much a celebration as “maximum labor efforts for the glory of the Motherland.” A few years later, the name of Stalin was removed from the name of the holiday. By a decree of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR of July 9, 1940, it was decided to postpone the celebration of the All-Union Railway Worker’s Day to the next day off (Sunday), and in the future to establish its celebration in that order.
Since the 80s of the last century, the professional holiday of railway transport workers has become known as the Railway Worker’s Day.
Who celebrates Railroad Day
In 2022, on August 7, congratulations on the occasion of the “professional day” will be accepted not only by the railway workers of Our Country, but also by Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Bulgaria. This holiday is truly international, because there are very few states in the world that do not have their own steel lines. Even the dwarf state of Vatican City has a national rail system, albeit the shortest in the world.
Today, in order for the structure of the railways to work without interruptions, it is necessary to involve the labor of a huge number of people. At the same time, their professions differ greatly in the nature of the work: some involve hard physical labor, others need an instant reaction, and others cannot do without deep technical knowledge. But all of them – dispatchers, engineers, conductors, repairmen, train compilers – August 7, 2022 – the heroes of the occasion, in their honor – congratulations and toasts. And if we take into account how many people daily resort to the services of railway transport, then, without any doubt, we are all related to this holiday.
Figures and Facts
1 passengers – so much on average are transported annually by trains in our country. If applied to each of the s, this is about 9 of our trips a year – starting from infancy and ending with a very old age.
From the capital of our Motherland – Moscow – a train departs along one of the longest routes in the world. Its passengers are on the road for more than 8 days, overcoming during this period 9 438 kilometers. We are talking, of course, about the Trans-Siberian Railway.
The total length of railways in Our Country is now 87 167 kilometers.
Holiday traditions
The approach to celebrating the Day of the Railwayman has, of course, changed over time. For example, in tsarist Our Country it was a day off in all branch institutions. Of course, no one canceled the movement of trains, but buffets, luggage offices and ticket offices did not work. But at large stations at the stations, thanksgiving prayers were served, and in the evenings they organized festivities there. A holiday trip was arranged for the road workers and their families. For only 50 kopecks, you could ride back and forth on a special train, while the program included an orchestra, tea drinking, treats for children and other pleasant components. A dinner with a concert was organized in the hall of the Pavlovsky railway station of the Tsarskoye Selo railway.
But the modern realities of the railway celebration are also very interesting. Since 2016, the Day of the Railwayman has been held in the format of various sports festivals. For example, in Moscow, on the territory of the Luzhniki sports complex, together with the Life Line charity fund for saving seriously ill children, a race is organized for employees of the industry and their families, all the funds raised from which are transferred to the needs of the fund’s wards. Also, students and teachers of specialized educational institutions take part in mass entertainment and sports events throughout Our Country.