Time Zones in Russia

Time Zones Currently Being Used in Russia

How Many Time Zones Are There in Russia?

With its 11 local times, Russia is one of the countries with the most time zones worldwide. While France and its dependencies stretch across 12 time zones, Russia holds another world record: 10 of the country's 11 time zones cover a contiguous landmass—only the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, wedged between Lithuania and Poland, breaks that pattern.

Russia has not observed Daylight Saving Time (DST) since it was abolished in 2011.

Time Zone History of Russia

Before time zones were introduced in Russia, each location in the country observed its own solar time. The first move to standardize time in Russia was in 1880, when Moscow Mean Time was introduced in and around Moscow. Based on the solar time at Moscow's longitude, it was 2 hours, 30 minutes, and 17 seconds ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which was then the world's time standard.

In other parts of the country, cities still observed their own solar time until 1919, when the country was officially divided into several time zones. The local time in each time zone was now determined on the basis of GMT.

Decree Time

In 1930, following a period with several time zone shifts, clocks in all time zones were uniformly turned forward by 1 hour, effectively establishing year-round DST across the Soviet Union. This measure, referred to as Decree Time, was intended to save energy.

During the 1980s, a growing number of regions abolished Decree Time, and in 1991, it was revoked across the entire country. However, it was soon reinstated in many areas. For example, the standard time in Moscow changed from UTC+3 to UTC+2 in 1991—only to be returned to UTC+3 in 1992. Decree Time also remains in force in some of the Soviet Union's former republics.

Recent Time Zone Changes

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia reshuffled its time zone boundaries a number of times. In 2011, both Decree Time and seasonal clock changes were officially abolished across the nation. Instead, Russia observed permanent DST—until 2014, when the country returned to year-round standard time.

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2025年1月9日木曜日