Russian time zones: (painfully slow) progress report

[Paul Eggert]

On 10/01/11 18:55, Arthur David Olson wrote:
> I'd hope to get better information on time history in Tomsk and Novobirsk
> (in particular if and when there were transitions from Moscow+4 to Moscow+3)
> before creating the new zone.

According to Shanks & Pottenger (2003), which of course is not always
reliable, the earlier history of Tomsk should look something like this:

Zone Asia/Tomsk          5:39:52 -      LMT     1919 Dec 22
                         6:00   -       TOMT    1930 Jun 21 # Tomsk Time
                         7:00   Russia  TOM%sT  1991 Mar 31 2:00s
                         6:00   Russia  TOM%sT  1992 Jan 19 2:00s
                         7:00   Russia  TOM%sT  1993 May 23 # say Shanks & P.
                         6:00   Russia  TOM%sT  ...

That is, it's like Novosibirsk, but switched to UTC+6
on December 22 1919 rather than on December 14 of that year.

I suspect the difference is due to when the
city in question came under Bolshevik control.
The fall of Tomsk to the Bolsheviks on December 20, 1919
marked the end of organized White Russian resistance in eastern
Siberia.  Perhaps Shanks & Pottenger assume it took the Bolsheviks
a couple of days to officially set the clocks.