Rehabilitation of Santa Claus: Why the Bolsheviks reinstated the New Year celebration.

After the civil war on the territory of the former Russian Empire and the final victory of the Bolsheviks, Father Frost remained the central figure in the festive New Year celebration, accompanied by a Christmas tree and gifts in a sack: even in the late 19th century, children had "appointed" him for this role. Later, a "granddaughter" joined the giant in a red or silver coat with an obligatory white beard — the fairy-tale, distinctly Russian character Snegurochka.

"The celebration of Christmas was accompanied by various rituals, including the custom of decorating Christmas trees, which originated in early 17th century Germany. There, the tree was a symbol of the paradise tree with abundant fruits, and at Christmas, it represented paradise and the eternal life that one finds through the birth of Jesus Christ", wrote the Ukrainian writer and Kyiv researcher Vitaly Kovalinsky. However, the coexistence of Bolshevik power and Father Frost was quite short-lived. By the second half of the 1920s, he found himself in trouble amid an anti-religious propaganda wave.

Why? Because Father Frost, or Grandfather Frost, was associated not only with the New Year but also with the Christmas celebration. The real and long-standing prototype of Father Frost was one of the most revered Christian saints — Saint Nicholas, the Archbishop of Myra.

Before the revolutions of 1917, Christmas cards did not even mention the New Year holiday; Christians congratulated each other on the birth of Christ.

"Not only the holiday itself fell into disgrace, but also the Christmas tree, along with its main attribute — Father Frost, whom newspapers began to label as 'religious trash'", wrote the Ukrainian author and local historian Stanislav Tsalyk.

Rootless revolutionaries went further, calling the New Year a "priestly and counter-revolutionary holiday," thus merging religious and political factors. By 1928, the Christmas tree was officially banned.

Thus, "The Women's Magazine" (for December 1929) reported that "under the Christmas carols, capitalist governments are preparing a campaign against the USSR. All forces are mobilized against the construction of socialism: cannons, airplanes, tanks, and religion. For the socialist restructuring of society, a push, a labor impulse, and a striving for the future are needed. Priests and sectarian preachers skillfully play on the attachment to the past. Especially women — housewives are intoxicated by religious moonshine". Yet, people still secretly set up the forest beauty at home, tightly covering the windows.

By the way, the tradition of giving gifts to children in Europe was solidified in Western countries only in the 19th century, and in the Russian Empire even later — at the beginning of the last century. In the USA, there is its own version of Saint Nicholas — Santa Claus, tracing his "lineage" back to the Dutch Sinterklaas (in the 17th century, Dutch Calvinists established New Amsterdam, which was later renamed New York by the English).

… And quite unexpectedly, on December 28, 1935, a small article signed by the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine and the first secretary of the Kyiv regional committee Pavel Postyshev was published in "Pravda," the main party newspaper of the USSR. Its title became the first step toward the rehabilitation of the holiday and its attributes: "Let's organize a good Christmas tree for the children by the New Year."

Here are the most interesting quotes from Pavel Postyshev's article: "In the pre-revolutionary era, the bourgeoisie and bourgeois officials always organized a Christmas tree for their children on New Year's Eve. The children of workers looked enviously through the window at the tree shining with colorful lights, and at the children of the wealthy. Why are our schools, orphanages, nurseries, children's clubs, and palaces of pioneers depriving the children of the workers of this wonderful pleasure?... We must put an end to this unjust condemnation of the tree, which is a wonderful entertainment for children. Komsomol members and pioneer workers should organize collective Christmas trees for children by the New Year" (from the book by Vitaly Kovalinsky "Kyiv Chronicles").

Of course, organizing a Christmas tree on such short notice was challenging. For nearly another year, amidst horrifying repressions, which included Postyshev, the state was preparing for the final return of the New Year holiday.

At the republican level, in Ukraine, the first "shot" was fired on October 25, 1936, when the presidium of the Kyiv regional executive committee adopted a resolution "On the production of Christmas tree decorations and toys."

Both the New Year and Father Frost with Snegurochka, as well as the toys and the tree, were rehabilitated simultaneously… Attributes of the New Year celebration began to appear in the stores of the vast Soviet Union. Before the Bolshevik Revolution, people congratulated each other on the birth of Christ; now it was exclusively about the New Year. And the color of Father Frost's coat was only red. State Soviet propaganda began the "promotion" of the new-old holiday. Already at the meeting for the New Year of 1937, in the Moscow House of Unions, Snegurochka appeared alongside Father Frost.

The initiator of the creation of the new Soviet holiday — "New Year" — was still in charge in Kyiv during the 1937 meeting. The following year, he welcomed the New Year in Kuibyshev (modern Samara) as the first secretary of the regional committee of the VKP(b), where he continued to engage in mass searches for "enemies of the people." On February 22, 1938, Pavel Postyshev was arrested along with his wife, and a year later, they were executed as "enemies of the people" in Butyrka prison in Moscow.