In 1709 the calendar (the Julian calendar) was first printed in Russia, more than 127 years after the Gregorian calendar had been introduced in Europe.

The Gregorian calendar resulted from a perceived need to reform the method of calculating dates of Easter. Under the Julian calendar the dating of Easter had become standardized, using March 21 as the date of the equinox and the Metonic cycle as the basis for calculating lunar phases.

By the Thirteenth Century it was realized that the true equinox had regressed from March 21 to a date earlier in the month. As a result, Easter was drifting away from its springtime position and was losing its relation with the Jewish Passover. Over the next four centuries, scholars debated the "correct" time for celebrating Easter and the means of regulating this time calendrically. The Church made intermittent attempts to solve the Easter question, without reaching a consensus.

By the Sixteenth Century the equinox had shifted by ten days, and astronomical New Moons were occurring four days before ecclesiastical New Moons. Pope Gregory XIII convened a commission to consider reform of the calendar. The recommendations of Pope Gregory's calendar commission were instituted by the papal bull signed in 1582. Ten days were deleted from the calendar, so that October 4, 1582 was followed by October 15, 1582, thereby causing the vernal equinox of 1583 and subsequent years to occur about March 21, and a new table of New Moons and Full Moons was introduced for determining the date of Easter.

In the Nineteenth Century, because of the almost world-wide acceptance of the Gregorian calendar, the Russian Department of Foreign Affairs used the Gregorian style in its relations with foreign countries. The commercial and naval fleets too were obliged to reckon time according to the Western calendar, and finally sciences, such as astronomy, meteorology, etc., which had a world character, were compelled to follow the new system. All this caused considerable complication.

Traveling, Russian people would not only cross borders, but would also find themselves 13 days ahead in the calendar.

In 1829 the Department of Public Instruction recommended a revision of the calendar to the Academy of Science. The Academy proceeded to petition the government to accept the Gregorian calendar. Prince Lieven, in submitting the plan to Tsar Nicholas I, denounced it as "premature, unnecessary, and likely to produce upheavals, and bewilderment of mind and conscience among the people." He further declared "the advantage from a reform of this kind will be very small and immaterial, while the inconveniences and difficulties will be unavoidable and great." The Tsar, being apprehensive, wrote on the report: "The comments of Prince Lieven are accurate and just."

From thence onward frequent attempts were made to remove the ban, but to no avail. In 1918, after the Revolution, Lenin raised the question of calendar reform and, after an investigation of the subject, published a decree directing the adoption of the Gregorian style "for the purpose of being in harmony with all the civilized countries of the world."

The adoption of the Gregorian calendar necessitated a cancellation of 13 days, instead of ten days, because in the interval three centurial years had been counted as leap years. Although the government officially accepted the Gregorian calendar, the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church still clung to the earlier and more familiar Julian. This is the reason, for example, that the observance of Christmas, on December 25 in the Gregorian calendar, comes in the Julian calendar on January 7.