New Year's Eve in Kremlin ...

The October Revolution in 1917 interrupted this Tsarist tradition of the Christmas tree and the midnight dinner on the eve of New Year in Russia and it was banned by the Bolsheviks, as they considered it a remnant of bourgeois tradition. The New Year's Eve became a regular working day. There were no presents either. No Christmas trees were on sale and cutting down fir trees in the wood was a crime. However, famous Russian author and playwright Mikhail Bulgakov was the first to remind Muscovites about the Christmas tree in the Tsarist Russia. At the beginning of the second act of his legendary play, ‘The Day of the Turbines,’ the audience saw on stage a live and fragrant Christmas tree decorated with garlands and candles and heard the cracking of the candles on the tree branches, reminding people of the wonderful times. Perhaps at that point, after seeing the tree on the stage, Joseph Stalin, who saw the play more than 15 times, decided to return Christmas trees to Russian homes and revived New Year's celebrations in 1937.