voskresnik

V4O1S1K5R1E1S1N1I1K5

noun

A Sunday designated for community volunteer work, such as cleaning the streets, after the October Revolution in Russia.

Scrabble 21

Meanings

voskresnik1

nounvoskresnik (plural voskresniks or voskresniki)

plural voskresniks · plural voskresniki · alternative Voskresnik

  1. historicalA Sunday designated for community volunteer work, such as cleaning the streets, after the October Revolution in Russia.

    It is necessary to use such forms of sponsorship help as subbotniki and voskresniki [work without pay donated to the state on weekends], more intensively and rationally.

    1980 September 12, A[ugusts] E[duardovich] Voss, translated by Joint Publications Research Service, “Voss on Latvian Economy, Brezhnev Phone Conversation”, in USSR Report: Political and Sociological Affairs (JPRS 76420), number 1063, Arlington, Va.: Foreign Broadcast Information Service, →OCLC, page 12
    2 more examples

    The activities of the committees also include the organization of unpaid work days (subbotniki and voskresniki) to build and repair schools, health care institutions, roads and other communal facilities.

    1986 June 23, A.P. Strogov, translated by Joint Publications Research Service, “Committees for the Defense of the Sandinist Revolution”, in USSR Report: International Affairs (JPRS-UIA-86-030), Arlington, Va.: Foreign Broadcast Information Service, →OCLC, page 103

    In the Soviet era it was common for working people to be sent on voluntary work sessions on Saturday and Sunday (subbotniki and voskresniki) to carry out community work.

    2016, Andrew Bromfield, Rose France, Anthony Hippisley, “The Diary of Misha Tikhomirov”, in Children of War: Diaries 1941–1945, Moscow: Argumenty i fakty, AIF Kind Heart Charitable Foundation, →ISBN, part 1 (Leningrad: The Siege), footnote 1, page 145
  2. historicalOne who took part in this work.

    During World War II, the KS and voskresniki (Sunday volunteers) are said to have inspired the war effort.

    2004, Steven Rosefielde, “Subbotnik”, in James R[obert] Millar, editor, Encyclopedia of Russian History, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan Reference USA, →ISBN, page 1492, column 1
    2 more examples

    It was young boys and girls in their teens, through their vast organization, the Komsomol, who initiated the movement of the Voskresniki, or voluntary Sunday workers, which was tried out for the first time on Sunday, August 16, 1941.

    1943 August, Madelin Blitzstein, “Youth Fights for Russia”, in Coburn Gilman, editor, Travel, volume 81, number 4, East Stroudsburg, Pa.: Robert M[edill] McBride & Company, page 11, column 1

    In one way and another, the people were now looking forward to a better future, to a renaissance of their city. They had earned it. It was this euphoria that brought the voskresniks in their thousands to help clear the parks and sort through the rubble, and which brought the crowds into the streets to cheer Samson on his way.

    2005, Christopher Morgan, Irina Orlova, “The Leningrad Affair”, in Saving the Tsar’s Palaces, Clifton upon Teme, Worcestershire: Polperro Heritage Press, →ISBN, page 99
  3. capitalizedoftenA member of a Russian sect of Sunday observers.

    The Subbotniki (Sabbatarians), for example, adhere to many Jewish observances and accept Jesus only as a prophet. In this, they differ from the predominant Voskresniki (Sunday observers).

    1981, Anton S[erge] Beliajeff, “Molokane”, in Joseph L[eon] Wieczynski, editor, The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History, volume 23 […], Gulf Breeze, Fla.: Academic International Press, →ISBN, page 23
    3 more examples

    The Molokane split into Subbotniki (Saturday-observers) and Voskresniki (Sunday-observers). […] Within the Voskresniki, a group following Maksim Popov, a peasant of Samara, organized a colony practicing primitive communism, which did not last long.

    1968, Donald W[arren] Treadgold, “The Peasant and Religion”, in Wayne S[piro] Vucinich, editor, The Peasant in Nineteenth-Century Russia, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 91–92

    The Dukhobors in turn gave rise to other sects whose members preserved in somewhat subdued form this radical spiritualism, including the Molokane (Milk Drinkers), Subbotniki (Saturday observers), Voskresniki (Sunday observers), and Pryguny (Jumpers).

    1997, Glennys Young, “Burnt by the Heavens”, in Power and the Sacred in Revolutionary Russia: Religious Activists in the Village, University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, →ISBN, footnote 54, page 90

    According to Ia. V. Abramov, the chronicler of the Sunday school movement, the ninth section, attended predominantly by “Sunday people” (voskresniki), became a de facto congress on Sunday schools and “clarified many matters to the participants, as well as united and energized them.”

    2009, Joseph Bradley, “Government and the Public Trust: The Russian Technical Society and Education for Industry”, in Voluntary Associations in Tsarist Russia: Science, Patriotism, and Civil Society, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, pages 198–199

Voskresnik2

nounVoskresnik (plural Voskresniks or Voskresniki)

plural Voskresniks · plural Voskresniki

  1. Alternative letter-case form of voskresnik.

Origin

  1. Russianвоскресе́нье“Sunday”
  2. Russianвоскре́сник
  3. Englishvoskresnik

From Russian воскре́сник (voskrésnik), from Russian воскресе́нье (voskresénʹje, “Sunday”) + -ник (-nik).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

voskresnik. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/voskresnik

MLA

“voskresnik.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/voskresnik. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “voskresnik,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/voskresnik.

Source: voskresnik on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.