July 24 is the Day of Financial Workers in Ukraine, and the International Day of Self-Care is celebrated in the world. In the historical calendar, July 24 is a day that reflects the struggle for power, the discovery of new lands, attempts to establish control, divisions and symbolic gestures that changed the perception of the state, society and the person himself.
Day of financial workers
This is a professional holiday, which was established by the Decree of the President of Ukraine in 2021. Employees of the State Treasury Service, specialists of financial departments in ministries and communities, audit services, financial analysts, auditors, budget planners, as well as specialists in internal financial control and risk management are celebrating today. They are responsible for accounting, reporting, budget planning, cost control, tax collection and filling the budget.
After February 24, 2022, the entire financial system of Ukraine was under pressure. At the same time, treasury employees made daily payments for the front, hospitals and humanitarian services. Taxpayers worked on adapting the tax system to the conditions of martial law. Some services have moved most procedures online, which ensured continuity of work. Employees of financial departments on the ground transferred budget funds for defense, evacuation, and support for displaced persons. Without these people, even the basic functioning of the state would not exist.
Interesting facts
The Treasury still makes payments even from cities 10 km from the front line. In 2024-2025, employees of the State Treasury Service in Donetsk and Kharkiv regions will work in a “free hand” mode: they have the right to approve urgent expenses without standard verification procedures, so as not to stop the supply chain to the front. In Sloviansk, Chasovoy Yar, and Kupyansk, there are micro-units of 1-3 people serving up to 50 organizations.
In 2024, financiers of local self-government bodies were the first to notice “dead communities”. During the analysis of the reports, it was found that more than 120 OTGs in the front-line areas submitted reports without real confirmation of expenses, sometimes with forged seals. This became the basis for SBU investigations and field inspections. Many of these structures have not really functioned for more than a year, but have received subsidies.
In 2023-2024, state financial control specialists found the largest number of “dead” defense procurements in 10 years. Audits of the expenditures of the Ministry of Defense and military units in the rear regions (Volhynia, Rivne, Vinnytsia) revealed more than 1,700 cases of “procurement” that ended only in an act without supply. Part of it was revealed by financial audit workers, who work in parallel with volunteers to compare the volumes of real supplies.
In 2024, more than 50% of employees of regional financial offices worked at night or from shelters. Due to prolonged shelling of the infrastructure and problems with electricity, most budget payments in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, and Nikopol were made after 8:00 p.m. — during the period of reduced network load. Some workers had a variable schedule: 2 nights of work, 2 days of rest.
In 2025, the State Audit Service introduced “risk-scoring” for front-line spending for the first time. It is a transaction analysis model that automatically filters suspicious charges based on the criteria of amount, supplier type, and delivery delay. In the test mode, more than 800 transactions worth more than UAH 2.5 billion have already been identified, which require manual verification. For the first time, this algorithm was developed not by IT companies, but by state financial analysts from Odesa and Lviv regions.
More than 40% of Treasury employees in 2025 will be women aged 45+ with more than 20 years of experience. These people are a critically important “bone” of the system — they often stayed in cities after the evacuation of administrations, have access to secure keys, and know the system without textbooks. Many of them could not evacuate because of taking care of their parents, so they continue to work in conditions of regular attacks.
International Self Care Day
This day is a reminder of the ability to support yourself in everyday life, even in difficult circumstances. It was launched by the International Federation of Self-Care with the aim of making the concept of self-care a part of systemic health care, rather than an individual matter.
The date of this day was chosen because 24.07 symbolizes continuity — care should last 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The holiday is supported by the WHO, health ministries of many countries, and medical associations. It is not about cosmetics or the gym, but about a responsible attitude towards one’s own health: the ability to recognize symptoms, manage chronic conditions, prevent infections, adhere to the sleep and exercise regime, reduce stress and seek help in time. In countries with medical systems in crisis — such as wartime Ukraine — self-care has become not a choice but a means of survival.
Interesting facts
On 07/24/2023, WHO included the concept of self-care for the first time in the official global strategy for mental health. The document recognizes that self-help is not only about healthy people: it is a necessary skill for everyone, including patients with depression, PTSD, anxiety disorders. Self-care is called “the first line of defense of the psyche.”
During the full-scale war in Ukraine, self-care became one of the few stable practices for millions of people. According to the sociological survey Gradus (2024), 68% of Ukrainians regularly use mobile applications for tracking sleep, mood, physical activity or meditation. This is twice as much as in 2021.
In 2025, for the first time in Ukrainian schools, the self-care module was introduced in the course on the basics of health. It is taught from the 6th grade. Students are taught to identify signs of burnout, choose safe sources of information, form personal boundaries, and assess anxiety levels.
In 2023, Nigeria became the first African country to create a national strategy for the development of a self-care culture. The document is coordinated with the state health care system and provides for the creation of self-help first-aid kits, increasing digital literacy and training women in rural areas.
Self-care is often mistakenly confused with selfishness. According to a study by the American Psychological Association, 48% of adults believe that self-care is “indulgence” or “abandoning responsibilities.” However, WHO defines self-care as part of a responsible life, not as avoiding problems.
In 2025, the first “Self-Help Center” was opened in London – a space for people with mental difficulties, where you can get support without the involvement of a doctor. This is not a clinic, but a place where visitors learn self-soothing techniques, basic psychoeducation and body awareness.
In the Apple Health and Samsung Health applications, a separate Self-Care section appeared for the first time in 2025. It takes into account not only movement and sleep, but also emotional well-being, sense of meaning, anxiety and even the volume of daily communication. The idea is to reflect not “health” as an indicator, but “self-care” as a process.
Historical events on this day
1015 — The death of Prince Boris, son of Volodymyr the Great, became the first bloody episode in the dynastic struggle for the Kyiv throne. The brother was killed by Svyatopolk Okayanny, seeking sole power. Subsequently, Boris, together with his brother Hleb, was canonized as one of the first Russian saints – not for state services, but for martyrdom at the hands of his own people.
1198 — On the lands of modern Latvia, the Battle of Riga Mountain took place, in which the German crusaders won a victory over the Levites, a pagan tribe that inhabited the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. This victory marked the beginning of the gradual Christianization and colonization of the Baltic States.
1534 — French navigator Jacques Cartier reached the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. This was the first serious European step in exploring the territories that would later become the core of Canada. Cartier declared the lands to be the possession of France, without encountering resistance, but also without realizing that these shores already had their owners.
1623 — Hetman Mykhailo Doroshenko led a Cossack sea campaign to the Kerch Strait. It was not just a military raid, but a geopolitical warning to the Ottoman Empire: the Cossacks claimed to participate in the control of the Black Sea routes. The campaign demonstrated the real strength of the Cossack fleet.
1751 — The Senate of the Russian Empire issued a decree on the formal subordination of Kosh Zaporozhye Sich to Hetman Kirill Razumovsky. In fact, this step was not aimed at strengthening autonomy, but at the gradual destruction of the independence of the Cossack republic. The decree marked the beginning of a new stage of restrictions on Sichi’s rights by St. Petersburg.
1791 — In France, against the background of revolutionary tension, the moderate Jacobins deprived their more radical party members of their citizenship. It was the first internal party split to show that liberty, equality and fraternity often diverge even among like-minded people when it comes to power.
1911 — American archaeologist Hiram Bingham discovered the lost city of Machu Picchu, located on a mountain range in Peru. He was looking for Inca gold, but he found an architectural masterpiece at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters. Machu Picchu was not known to the Spanish, so it remained almost untouched.
1918 — Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky approved laws on general military conscription and criminal liability for price gouging and speculation. It was an attempt to stabilize a state that was being eroded by war, sabotage and shortages. Conscription was supposed to strengthen the army, and anti-secession measures were supposed to curb the rise in prices.
1923 — A peace treaty was signed in Lausanne, Switzerland, which finally fixed the modern borders of Turkey after the First World War. The Ottoman Empire finally disappeared, and a republic arose on its ruins. It was one of the few agreements of that time that did not end in a new conflict, but became the basis of long-term stability.
1950 — The first launch of a rocket took place at Cape Canaveral. It was a modified German Fau-2 imported after the war. It was from this moment that the American space project began. Cape Canaveral became a symbol of a new stage — a competition not for colonies, but for orbits.
1981 — The Italian authorities officially banned the activities of all Masonic lodges and secret societies. The reason was the scandals surrounding P2, an influential lodge linked to government officials, the military and the mafia. The ban was a reaction to the threat of a parallel state within the state.
1990 — For the first time in history, next to the red-blue flag of the Ukrainian SSR, a blue-yellow flag was raised in front of the Kyiv City Council building. It was not yet an official state act, but a symbol of the inevitability of change. People perceived this event as the beginning of a new era — political, mental, national.
1991 — In Baturin, a memorial tablet was opened in memory of Hetman Ivan Mazepa, a figure long disgraced by Soviet historiography. The commemoration of Mazepa signaled a return to history without censorship, with the restoration of those names that had been erased from national memory for decades.
Alexandre Dumas the elder’s birthday
On July 24, 1802, one of the most popular writers in world literature, Alexandre Dumas the Elder, was born. His biography is no less fascinating than the novels he wrote. The most famous works of the writer “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “The Three Musketeers” have become classics of adventure literature, but behind the mask of the successful author is a person with a completely unusual origin story.
Dumas’ grandfather was a French aristocrat who lost everything and ended up in Haiti. There he had children by a black slave woman, whom he later sold along with two of their three children. He left only the oldest – the one who would later become a general of revolutionary France and receive the nicknames “Black Devil” and “Angel of Death”. It was the writer’s father. Strong, strict, cruel, but adored by his son. When he died, little Alexander, according to eyewitnesses, grabbed a gun and shouted that he would go to heaven to kill the God who took his father from him.
Dumas himself was never ashamed of his origin. When he was accused of having black blood in his veins, he calmly answered: “My father was a mulatto, my grandmother was a negro, and my ancestors were monkeys. My bloodline begins where yours ends.” And he gave himself an attitude: “When I realized that my skin is dark, I decided to live as if it were white.”
His life was like an adventure novel: constant travels, many love affairs, gambling, loud fame, huge fees – and at the same time endless work. Dumas constantly dictated: in bed, while dressing, in a carriage, at receptions. His biographer André Maurois wrote that it is impossible to calculate exactly how many works he produced – it is known only that more than 400 novels, 75 plays and at least 300 volumes of collected works were published in 1860.
Dumas was the first in the world to openly work with “literary negroes” – people who helped him write. He had two permanent co-authors, many secretaries and a special team that collected materials for stories. He did not hide it and did not consider it humiliating: the adventure factory was working at full capacity.
In recent years, Dumas lived in France, gave public lectures, edited a magazine, and wrote a culinary encyclopedia called “The Great Culinary Dictionary.” Died in his sleep. His son, also a writer, said then: “He died the same way he lived – without noticing it.”
Rehabilitation and legalization of the rank of “officer”
On July 24, 1943, the rank of “officer” was actually rehabilitated and legalized in the Soviet Union. On this day, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted the Decree “On the procedure for assigning military ranks to servicemen of the Red Army”, according to which the middle and senior command and command staff – from junior lieutenant to colonel inclusive – officially began to be called officers.
This decree changed the previous classification, which divided military personnel into rank-and-file, junior command and command staff, and command and command staff. Instead, a new structure was introduced: privates, sergeants, officers and generals. The decree also determined the procedure for assigning ranks, establishing clear requirements for length of service, level of education and personal merit. The list of authorities authorized to assign ranks was approved, and the distinction between command, chief and junior chief staff was streamlined.
An officer is a person who holds a position in the power structures, a military man, specially trained for a service of a special nature. They are being trained to “sacrifice blood and life” “for the common good”. There were cases when officers, going to the enemy’s trenches, opposed the requirement to take off their epaulettes, as was appropriate when entering the enemy’s rear. One of them said: “Why take off the shoulder straps? If you have to die, then die as an officer.”
The first report on the creation of an atomic bomb in the USA
On July 24, 1945, at the Potsdam Conference, US President Harry Truman informed Joseph Stalin about the presence of a new type of weapon in America – an extremely destructive force. This was the first public allusion to the creation of an atomic bomb, although the statement itself did not give any technical details. Winston Churchill carefully watched Stalin’s reaction, lingering in the doorway specifically for this, but the Soviet leader reacted coldly and restrained: he thanked and showed no emotion. The Western Allies decided that Stalin simply did not understand what was being said.
In fact, everything was different. Immediately after the meeting, Stalin sent an urgent telegram to Ihor Kurchatov with an order to speed up work on the Soviet nuclear project. Even then, the Soviet leadership had detailed information about the American nuclear program. According to the testimony of Lieutenant General Pavel Sudoplatov, Soviet intelligence received key information about the progress of the creation of an atomic bomb in the United States as early as March 1945. In April, those materials were handed over to Kurchatov, and among them were the detailed technical specifications of the explosive device. Moreover, only 12 days after the assembly of the first American atomic bomb in Los Alamos, the USSR already had a detailed description of its internal structure.
