
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 22, 1991                   TAG: 9103220289
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Medium

SOVIET UNION DECIDES TO GO BACK IN TIME

Red-faced Soviet officials are admitting they haven't kept the correct time in more than six decades, blaming a mistake in the Stalin era when clocks should have been turned back an hour.

As a result, the officials are scrapping the Soviet version of daylight-saving time this summer. Clocks, however, will still "fall back" an hour in the autumn.

March 31 is when clocks usually are moved forward an hour for "summer time" in the Soviet Union, which has 11 time zones.

But the Cabinet of Ministers has decreed that the move won't be made for most of the Soviet Union - the huge Russian Federation, which includes Moscow; Armenia; Azerbaijan; Byelorussia; Turkmenia and the Ukraine.

The republics of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Moldavia, however, will follow their rebellious tradition and move their clocks ahead as before.

To confound the masses even more, Tadzhikistan, parts of Kazakstan and some other regions will actually set their clocks back an hour to better organize the hours of daylight.

As if the decree itself weren't puzzling enough, it appeared to have been stuck in a time warp. The Cabinet adopted it Feb. 4 but did not release it until Wednesday.

"Are We Going to Move Our Hands?" asked a headline in Moscow Pravda as it tried to explain the time troubles.

According to the newspaper Evening Moscow, the move was made to correct a 61-year-old mistake.

"In 1930, it was decided to introduce summer time and move the hands of clocks one hour ahead," Evening Moscow said. "In the passage of time, they did not announce winter time" in the fall of 1930.

For reasons that remain a mystery, summer time was not reintroduced in the spring of 1931, leaving the country with a single time year-round.

In 1981, it was decided to restore summer time. But it was begun in spring, rather than fall, giving the country two extra hours of sunlight during the summer months instead of the intended one.

"Since 1981, after the introduction of summer and winter time, the gap in genuine time increased by two hours and that fact caused inconvenience and complaints," the newspaper said.

Officials figured that the regular date to move clocks ahead was the best time to correct the imbalance.

"On March 31, one should not move the hands of the clock ahead, but go to bed as usual," the newspaper advised.

by CNB