Happy Something Day!

The orientation phase of the fellowship program ended, and I’ve entered the professional placement phase. As such, I’ve returned to work full time. Well, almost full time.

Stocks sold off for about 10 days while I was away. Since the Russian market has only gone up in the past 2 years, everyone here is calling it a “correction”. Certainly the return of some volatility, that’s for sure; but I beg your pardon – it’s not really a correction if it only lasts a week. NASDAQ 2000 to 2003 – now that’s a correction.

My first week on the job was interesting outside of the normal movements of a capital market, too. I showed up for work at 8:15 on Monday. Getting to work at that time would be perfect; I wouldn’t be late by very much, nor would I be early for that matter. My boss was in his office listening to music very loudly from his computer. He waved and said hello. That’s when I noticed that we were the only 2 people in the office. And we were until just before 9:30 when the rest of the company reports for work.

The investment staff gathers for the morning meeting at 10:30 and discusses the outlook for the day. Work goes until about 6:30, when most people begin to leave. Some operational people stay much later to process daily trades and reports, etc. By 7pm, the office is as empty and as dark as it is at 8:15.

I timed my return to work perfectly. I discovered that Friday is a holiday, and the office would be closed. So far, so good. But figuring out which holiday we’d be celebrating proved to be a little more difficult.

The Soviets celebrated the October (Bolshevik) Revolution on November 7th and 8th every year, giving everyone a 4-day weekend. In post-soviet Russia, however, the glorification of the establishment of Soviet rule became a much touchier subject. So one day was lopped off the holiday, and the other day moved to the previous Friday. Easy enough.

But figuring out what the holiday actually was supposed to be about was another thing, and something that has changed a few times since then. The first idea was to call it the National Day of Accord and Reconciliation. And in the immediate post-soviet environment of a still-strong Communist Party, the country was definitely in need of both accord and reconciliation.

That idea didn’t last too long, though, and neither did the communist threat in ensuing elections. Last year, the holiday was changed to People’s Unity Day. Ostensibly, the holiday celebrates the expulsion of the Polish forces that occupied Moscow in 1612 during what Russians call “the Time of Troubles.”

Frankly, in my view, the holiday is just the most recent incarnation of traditional Russian paranoia and nationalism. The church has glommed onto (and some say sponsored) this holiday as a victory of Orthodoxy over Catholicism. The right-wing makes loud noises about Russian greatness and how other countries need to be more respectful. The government observes all this happily, as it seems intent on developing a “surrounded-by-wolves” siege mentality.

Oh well. I had the day off all the same. It may be a new celebration of a victory 393 years ago that will hopefully obscure a victory 88 years ago, but it seems that in, Russia too, long weekends are universally popular regardless of the political ideas behind them.