Stepan Golosunov wrote:
1. Europe/Astrakhan, 1961 transition. That one appears to be void and looks like an artifact of Stalingrad -> Volgograd renaming.
Thanks for catching that no-op transition.
2. Europe/Samara, KUYT in 1991. Europe/Samara currently has KUYT between 1991-09-29 and 1991-10-20. But the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR about renaming Kuybyshev to Samara is dated 1991-01-25: http://pravo.gov.ru/proxy/ips/?docbody=&nd=102010448
Thanks for pointing out this abbreviation error. I am planning to remove these invented abbreviations at some point, but not before the next release, so let's fix this now.
3. Europe/Chisinau, 1990 transitions. While googling for Soviet era documents for Russian zones I found the act of the government of the Republic of Moldova Nr. 132 from 04.05.1990 http://lex.justice.md/index.php?action=view&view=doc&lang=2&id=298782 It says that since 1990-05-06 on the territory of the Moldavian SSR time would be calculated as the standard time of the second time belt plus one hour of the "summer" time. To implement that clocks would be adjusted one hour backwards at 1990-05-06 2:00. After that "summer" time would be cancelled last Sunday of September at 3:00 and reintroduced last Sunday of March at 2:00.
I believe that means UTC+0400 -> UTC+0300 transition at 1990-05-06 02:00 and that UTC+0300 -> UTC+0200 transition on 1990-09-30 was expected, while current Europe/Chisinau says UTC+0300 -> UTC+0200 at 1990-05-06 00:00 and no transitions on 1990-03-25 and 1990-09-30.
Thanks, this government document is a much better source than Shanks, and your interpretation sounds right.
4. Asia/Barnaul, 1995. Letter of Bank of Russia from 25.05.1995 http://www.bestpravo.ru/rossijskoje/lj-akty/y3a.htm suggests that Altai Republic transitioned to Moscow+3 on 1995-05-28. Currently Asia/Barnaul guesses it was on Moscow+3 since 1992-01-19.
http://regnum.ru/news/society/1957270.html has some historical data for Altai Krai: before 1957: west part on UTC+6, east on UTC+7 after 1957: UTC+7 since 1995: UTC+6 http://barnaul.rusplt.ru/index/pochemu_altajskij_kraj_okazalsja_v_neprivychn... confirms that and provides more details including 1995-05-28 transition date.
Thanks again; this looks definitive for a 1995-05-28 transition. No time-of-day is given for that transition so I guess we can assume midnight (00:00).
5. Tomsk, 2002. http://pravo.gov.ru/proxy/ips/?docbody=&nd=102075743 transitions Tomsk to the time of the fifth time belt at 2002-05-01 03:00. Tomsk currently is listed under Asia/Novosibirsk with transition to Moscow+3 on 1993-05-23.
Thanks, I'll change it to 2002-05-01 at 03:00.
6. Europe/Astrakhan, Europe/Volgograd, 1991-1992 UTC+0400. Wikipedia provides different guess for these dates but explicitly says it's a guess. Are there any sources?
Only Shanks, which is not reliable. The attached patch (which I've installed into the experimental version on GitHub <https://github.com/eggert/tz>) should cover the abovementioned remarks. I plan to look at the rest of your email later. Thanks for doing all this work!