Answer in brief
Russia's Ministry of Education recommended autumn school holidays from 26 October to 3 November 2026 for schools that work by quarters. Because 4 November is a public holiday, pupils on these dates go back on 5 November. The dates are recommendations: each school approves its own calendar, and some trimester schools, such as two in Moscow, break from 24 October to 1 November.
Russian autumn break 2026: the ministry's dates for quarter schools
For most pupils, the question of Russia autumn school holidays 2026 has a short answer: 26 October to 3 November 2026. That is the period the Ministry of Education of Russia recommended on 8 July 2026 for grades 1 to 11 in schools that divide the year into quarters. Because 4 November is a public holiday, pupils on these dates return to lessons on Thursday 5 November.
The ministry's own page calls these dates recommended. A school may use the federal calendar schedule directly or draw up its own on that basis. The same notice gives dates for the whole 2026/27 year, which starts on 1 September 2026 and ends on 26 May 2027, and quotes Minister Sergei Kravtsov as saying that autumn, winter and spring holidays should last at least nine days. Schools on trimesters or on their own modular schedule are not bound to these dates, and the calendar approved by a child's school is the one that counts.
Who sets school holidays: Law 273-FZ and the federal calendar
Federal Law No. 273-FZ on Education in the Russian Federation, as amended on 4 August 2026 and published in the ConsultantPlus database, defines holidays as planned breaks in education for rest and other social purposes, set by education law and the academic calendar (article 34). Article 2 makes the calendar schedule part of an educational programme, and article 28 gives the school the job of developing and approving its programmes. The holidays, in other words, live in a school document rather than in a federal decree.
The federal rules sit in the federal educational programmes. For grades 5 to 9 the federal calendar schedule is section 168 of the programme for basic general education, approved by ministry order No. 370 of 18 May 2023; for primary school it is section 172 of order No. 372 of the same date. Their current wording comes from order No. 704 of 9 October 2024, in force since 1 September 2025: the school chooses quarters, trimesters or an individual schedule, any holiday lasts at least seven calendar days, and with quarters the autumn break lasts nine.
Two more rules explain the ministry's list. The year starts on 1 September and, since order No. 729 of 8 October 2025, ends no earlier than 26 May; for ninth grades the end follows the state exam timetable. A school's calendar must also reflect the views of those taking part in education, as well as regional and ethnocultural traditions.
Moscow and St Petersburg schools publish two different autumn calendars
In Moscow, calendars posted on the official sites of state schools show a different autumn week. School No. 338 published its approved 2026/27 schedule on 30 July 2026: autumn holidays from 24 October to 1 November, winter holidays from 31 December to 10 January, then breaks on 21–28 February and 3–11 April.
School No. 1561 lists the same four breaks for what it calls a hybrid mode in grades 1 to 11, with trimesters from 1 September to 30 November, from 1 December to 20 February and from 1 March to the end of May. Children there start the autumn rest two days before the ministry's dates and are back at their desks on Monday 2 November. Two schools are not the whole city, so Moscow parents are better served by their own school's page than by a headline.
In St Petersburg, the Committee on Education lists its documents on a page about schools, and as of 18 October 2026 the latest order on forming school calendars there is No. 801-r of 15 April 2022, written for 2022/23. Schools post their own 2026/27 calendars. Lyceum No. 590 in the Krasnoselsky district gives 26 October to 3 November and opens its second quarter on 5 November, while school No. 188 in the Krasnogvardeysky district writes 25 October to 3 November and counts ten days, the Sunday before included.
Tatarstan and Bashkortostan repeat the federal autumn dates
The Ministry of Education and Science of Tatarstan published a news item on 12 October 2026 repeating the federal recommendation: a break running from 26 October to 3 November 2026, followed by the extra day off on 4 November. The item, based on RIA Novosti, adds that schools may take the ministry's schedule or build their own on it. It sets no separate dates for the republic.
The Ministry of Education of Bashkortostan republished the federal recommendation in full on 8 July 2026, the day it appeared, and by 18 October 2026 its news feed had carried no other item about school holidays. In both republics, as everywhere, the dates that apply are those of the particular school, which may copy the federal list or depart from it within the programme's limits.
Quarters, trimesters and six-day weeks split one family's calendar
The federal programmes allow three ways to organise the year: quarters, trimesters or an individual schedule. Quarters bring nine-day autumn, winter and spring breaks, while the same section calls the most rational rhythm five to six weeks of study alternating with week-long holidays. Trimester calendars follow that rhythm more literally: the two Moscow schools add a late-February break and move the spring rest into April, and most of their grades study until 31 May. At lyceum No. 590, grades 1 to 9 study by quarters and grades 10 and 11 by half-years.
The length of the school week matters just as much. At the same lyceum, grades 1 to 7 have a five-day week and grades 8 to 11 a six-day week, and the first quarter runs until Sunday 25 October. A younger child there starts the break after lessons on Friday 23 October, while for an older sibling Saturday 24 October is still a school day. Two children in one family can thus get autumn holidays of different length under the same dates on the school's page.
How the 4 November holiday stretches the autumn break in 2026
National Unity Day, 4 November, falls on a Wednesday in 2026. The government's decree No. 1466 of 24 September 2025 on moving days off lists 4 November as the only autumn day of rest, and the production calendar on the Moscow city portal mos.ru marks 3 November as a shortened working day.
For a child on a five-day week, the break and the holiday add up to twelve days in a row without lessons, from Saturday 24 October to Wednesday 4 November. Working parents get only 4 November off, so seven working days of the break need childcare or leave. In the Moscow trimester calendars children return on Monday 2 November, study for two days, rest on Wednesday and come back on Thursday.
Winter, spring and first-grade holidays in the 2026/27 school year
The ministry's list covers the rest of the year for quarter schools: winter holidays from 31 December 2026 to 10 January 2027, spring holidays from 27 March to 4 April 2027 and summer from 27 May to 31 August 2027. The winter break matches the national New Year rest, since the government's decree No. 1187 of 17 September 2026 moves days off so that adults rest for 11 days over exactly that period.
First graders get an extra week, from 15 to 21 February 2027 on the ministry's list. The primary-school programme places it in the middle of the third quarter and, under quarters, gives it nine calendar days, which is why some schools count the weekend before: school No. 456 in St Petersburg lists 13 to 21 February 2027. The 2027 decree makes 21, 22 and 23 February non-working days, so that week runs into a long weekend for the whole country.
Where to confirm your school's autumn dates and what is still unknown
The reference point is the school's approved calendar, usually posted on its official site next to the curriculum. The electronic diary repeats the same periods, and regional ministries announce region-wide changes in their news. When two sources disagree, the question to ask is which document the school itself has approved.
Dates can still move. The federal programme lets schools in territories hit by an emergency add holidays between September and May and shift study into the summer months. Regions have lengthened breaks before: on 21 October 2020 the St Petersburg Committee on Education issued order No. 1958-r extending the autumn holidays in the city's state schools. Whether anything similar happens in 2026 cannot be known in advance.
As of 18 October 2026, the St Petersburg committee's page shows no city-wide calendar order for 2026/27, and Tatarstan and Bashkortostan have repeated the federal dates without regional ones. Anyone who searched for Russia autumn school holidays 2026 now has the federal answer; the final one sits with the school. The ministry's recommendations for 2027/28 are not out yet; this year's came on 8 July.
Practical checklist
- Open your school's official site and find the approved 2026/27 calendar, not a news summary of it.
- Check whether the school works by quarters or trimesters and which grades study six days a week.
- Mark the last lesson before the break and the first day back, 5 November on the ministry's dates.
- Arrange childcare for the working days of the break: for adults only 4 November is a public holiday.
- Add the winter break of 31 December to 10 January and, for a first grader, the February week.
Questions and answers
How many days off do Russian pupils get in the 2026 autumn break?
On the ministry's dates the break itself is nine calendar days, from Monday 26 October to Tuesday 3 November. Together with the weekend of 24 and 25 October and the public holiday on 4 November, a pupil on a five-day week has twelve consecutive days without lessons.
When do Russian pupils go back to school after the 2026 autumn break?
Schools that follow the ministry's list resume lessons on Thursday 5 November 2026, the day after National Unity Day. Schools with the trimester calendar of 24 October to 1 November, such as Moscow schools No. 338 and No. 1561, bring pupils back on Monday 2 November.
Must every Russian school follow the ministry's 2026 holiday dates?
No. The ministry presents them as recommended dates. Under the federal programmes the school sets its own regime by quarters, trimesters or an individual schedule, and its approved calendar is what applies, provided that each holiday lasts at least seven calendar days.
Which other school holidays are planned in Russia for 2026/27?
The ministry recommends a winter break from 31 December 2026 to 10 January 2027, a spring break from 27 March to 4 April 2027 and summer from 27 May to 31 August 2027. First graders also get an extra week, from 15 to 21 February 2027.
Do Tatarstan, Bashkortostan and St Petersburg set their own autumn break?
By 18 October 2026 the ministries of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan had republished the federal dates without separate regional ones. In St Petersburg the school calendars of lyceum No. 590 and school No. 188 give 26 and 25 October respectively as the start, and both end the break on 3 November.