The most important phenomenon in the social life of post-reform Russia was the formation and growth of a new class - the proletariat.

Even during the reform of 1861, at least 4 million peasants were dispossessed of land. In the future, the number of horseless yards, families deprived of their own equipment and completely abandoned their farms, steadily increased.

An artificial agrarian overpopulation was created. Millions of peasants were forced to leave the village in search of work. In part, they were absorbed by capitalized agriculture as farm laborers.

In the 80s of the XIX century. in European Russia there were at least 3.5 million agricultural workers. But in most cases the labor reserves accumulated as a result of the proletarianization of the countryside were channeled into industry. A significant part of the workers of the pre-reform period, ruined handicraftsmen, artisans and people from the urban petty bourgeoisie also joined the proletariat.

At the end of the XIX century. V. I. Lenin, on the basis of a detailed analysis of a number of sources, came to the conclusion that the proletarian strata of the population of Russia (excluding Finland) should include a total of at least 22 million people, of which actually hired workers employed in agriculture, factory , mining, railway transport, construction and forestry, as well as those employed at home, amount to about 10 million people.

The formation of the industrial proletariat in Russia took place in an environment of rapid development of the machine industry. In connection with this, the concentration of workers at large and largest enterprises in Russia was higher than in a number of the old capitalist countries of Europe.

By 1890, three-quarters of all workers employed in the factory and mining industry in Russia were concentrated in enterprises with 100 or more workers, and almost half in enterprises with 500 or more workers.

"Note" to receive goods from the factory store. 90s of the XIX century.

In the mining industry, the largest enterprises (with more than 1000 workers) accounted for 10% of all industrial enterprises in Russia, but concentrated 46% of the total number of workers.

The completion of the transition from manufacture to factory was thus the decisive milestone in the formation of the proletariat.

The old manufacturing worker, closely associated with small property, was replaced by a hereditary proletarian, for whom the sale of labor power became the only source of subsistence.

In the metalworking, machine-building industry already in the 80s. the absolute majority of the workers were proletarians, who often continued to be listed as peasants only on the basis of class. However, this process was delayed by the preservation of the remnants of serfdom.

A characteristic feature of the capitalist development of Russia - the rapid growth of factory centers located in rural areas, closer to sources of cheap labor - also made it difficult to break the connection with the land, even for regular workers (primarily in industries such as textiles, processing of agricultural raw materials). But this same phenomenon also had another side: it led to a close rapprochement between the peasant masses and the proletariat.

The formation of the industrial proletariat took place as an all-Russian process.

At the same time, the proletariat of Ukraine was formed from both the Ukrainian and the Russian population; the percentage of Russian workers in the ranks of the proletariat of the Baltic states, Belorussia, Transcaucasia, and Central Asia was also significant.

Thus was created and strengthened the objective basis for the rallying of the workers of different nationalities and for the development among them of the ideas of proletarian solidarity.

The intertwining of economic and political oppression made the position of the worker in Russia especially difficult. There were no legislative restrictions on the working day until, in the 1990s, the workers, by their struggle, forced tsarism to do so.

In the 1960s and 1980s, the working day was measured, as a rule, by 12-14 hours of hard work, and in many cases even exceeded 14 hours. On the Siberian gold mines, on the plantations of sugar factories, it continued "from dawn to evening."

Women and children worked as much as men. The real wages of the workers were much less than the nominal.

Entrepreneurs forced to buy products in the factory shop at extortionate prices, exacted high wages for a place in cramped and dirty barracks, levied fines, sometimes reaching half the earnings.

Any manifestation of workers' protest against unbearable working and living conditions was regarded by representatives of the tsarist administration as a "rebellion" and "disorder", always taking the side of the capitalists.

The rapid development of the factory industry, trade and transport in post-reform Russia led to major changes in the social image of the country. Along with the traditional classes - the nobility and the peasantry - new social strata are emerging - the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The gradual drawing of the Karelian region into the orbit of capitalist modernization also contributed to the formation of these new social forces here.

The predominant role of agriculture and peasant crafts, the relatively weak development of industry and the active growth of trade determined the peculiarities of the formation of the local bourgeoisie. For her, the main sources of capital accumulation were trade and trade and usury operations: buying up and reselling industrial products, delivery and sale of bakery products and industrial products at elevated prices, small loans, execution of government contracts. The intensive penetration into the most promising industries (lumbering, logging, mining) of big capital from the nearest business centers of the country - St. Petersburg and Arkhangelsk, and partly from abroad also had an effect. There was also an outflow of local capital to St. Petersburg and Finland (especially from the northern regions).

A part of the bourgeoisie of Karelia were the descendants of merchant families of the 18th - the first half of the 19th centuries. (Antonovs, Bazegskys, Bogatenkovs, Zakharievs, Pimenovs, Serebryakovs, etc.), who passed on their capital by inheritance. However, the majority of the bourgeois entrepreneurial elite came from an "unnamed" environment, mainly from wealthy peasants and, in rare cases, from philistines. So, for example, the founder and owner of the Keret sawmill, F. Savin, is a local peasant who made a fortune in buying up Murmansk fish and delivering it to Arkhangelsk and St. Petersburg. The owners of the largest shops in Petrozavodsk at the end of the 19th century. P. Ipatova, brothers Matvey and Mikhail Leimanov, F. Tikhonov emerged from among the inhabitants of suburban villages. V.E. Kuttuev, who became in the mid-1890s. the owner of the Kuitezh iron processing plant, back in the early 80s. was listed as a trading peasant in the Rypushkalsky volost. It was the people from the peasantry, along with activities in the trade and intermediary sphere, that became by the end of the 19th century. the Kiryanovs, Kiprushkins and Fershukovs from Ladva, the Afonina and Seliverstovs from the Ostrechinsky Volost, and the Korablevs from Shala.

The emerging bourgeoisie of the region included not only Russians, but also Karelians (the Kuttuevs from Olonets, the owner of the forest yard in Petrozavodsk A. Kalinin from the village of Ongamuksa of the Spasopreobrazhenskaya volost, a large buyer and trader P. Grigoriev-Terguev from the Rebolskaya volost, etc.), as well as representatives of other nationalities. Judging by the documents issued for the right to trade and crafts, the number of the big bourgeoisie in the region by the mid-1880s. can be determined at approximately 300-400 people 73 .

The process of formation of the proletariat took place mainly in two ways. In the oldest branch of the industry - state-owned metallurgy - the cadres of proletarians consisted mainly of hereditary artisans, who were freed from forced labor in 1861 and entered the factories for free employment, as well as from members of their families. For other branches of industry, including private metallurgy and sawmilling, the main source of recruitment for workers was the peasantry of the Olonets and some adjacent districts of the Arkhangelsk province. The situation of large-scale industrial production led to the gradual separation of yesterday's peasants from the land. According to factory inspection data, by 1898, 26% of workers in private enterprises in the Olonets province had neither houses nor land in the countryside. In addition, many workers only formally continued to be listed as holders of village allotments, but did not take a personal part in their processing.

The total number of permanent factory workers in Karelia over the four post-reform decades increased 2.3 times and by 1900 amounted to 3.5 thousand people. In the first place by the beginning of the 20th century. lumber industry came out. It employed 1.9 thousand people, including 1.5 thousand at the sawmills of Karelsky! Pomorie. About a thousand people worked in state-owned metallurgy (at the Aleksandrovsky plant and its branches in Konchezero and Valazma), and 0.6 thousand people worked in private metallurgy and at enterprises in other industries 74.

The relatively small detachment of the industrial proletarians of Karelia consisted mainly of Russians. Karelov among the permanent factory personnel even at the beginning of the 20th century. there were just over 200 people. This situation was largely due to the fact that the western regions of the region inhabited by Karelians were almost not affected by industrial development. Of the 23 factories that existed in Karelia by the beginning of the 20th century, 20 were located in areas with a predominantly Russian population - in Pomorye and Prionezhye.

Along with the industrial proletariat, a significant stratum of seasonal workers has developed in Karelia. In the late 1890s there were at least 45 thousand of them. The largest number of seasonal workers (about 35 thousand) worked in logging and rafting, up to 2 thousand were engaged in the procurement and delivery of fuel and raw materials for mining plants, and up to 8 thousand worked in marine industries, in shipping and on loading of goods in ports and marinas. Usually seasonal workers worked for hire for 2-6 months, and the rest of the time they were engaged in agriculture and peasant crafts. In their social makeup they were rural proletarians and semi-proletarians. In contrast to the permanent factory personnel, among the seasonal workers there were many people from Karelian volosts. In the late 1890s only at logging and rafting there were at least 10 thousand Karelian workers.

Under the conditions of the process of primitive capital accumulation in post-reform Russia and the preservation of many remnants of the feudal system, the position of the emerging proletariat was difficult. Its legal status remained uncertain. Natives of the village, even having worked for many years at industrial enterprises, were officially still considered peasants and were forced to pay salary fees at the place of their rural registration. The length of the working day in Russian industry was the longest in Europe, and wages were among the lowest. The state, which itself owned numerous state-owned enterprises, was slow to regulate relations between workers and employers, which opened the way for entrepreneurial arbitrariness. Some steps in this direction began to be taken by the authorities only from the beginning of the 1880s, but at the same time, the adoption of the main legislative acts on the labor issue (on the creation of a factory inspection - 1882, on fines - 1886, on the length of the working day -1897 d.) followed only a surge of spontaneous proletarian uprisings and was, in essence, of a forced nature. The creation of any workers' organizations, including those to defend professional and economic interests, was not allowed.

The working and living conditions of workers in Karelia, as in other outlying regions, were significantly worse in a number of important indicators than in the main industrial regions of Russia. In the 1870-80s. at the sawmills of the region, the duration of the working day was 12-14 hours, and sometimes reached 16 hours a day, although a 12-hour working day was considered the conventional norm in the country at that time. The law of July 2, 1897 established the working day at a large factory production at 11 hours 30 minutes, and on the eve of the holidays - 10 hours, however, at a number of sawmills in Karelia, as well as at the Uslan cardboard factory of Teifel, the 12-hour working day. Overtime work was widely used, which was allowed by a special government circular of March 14, 1898. N. Baryshnikov, a factory inspector of the Olonets province, in this regard, in a report for 1898, admitted that with the practice of overtime work, the inspection was "powerless to fight for the uncertainty of legislation" 75 .

The level of wages in the industry of the region was somewhat lower than the national one. At the Alexander Plant, according to information for 1888-1890, the average monthly salary was an average of 14.2 rubles. per month. During the industrial boom of the 1890s. it grew and by 1900 reached 17.7 rubles. At the sawmills of the region by 1900, workers, according to factory inspections, received an average of 16 rubles, in steamship repair shops - 14 rubles, in cardboard, match and iron processing industries - 8.8 rubles. per month. At the same time, in Russia as a whole, the average monthly earnings of a worker, according to data for 1890, amounted to 15.6 rubles, and in 1900 - 17.2 rubles. (in metallurgy and metalworking - 28.2 rubles) 76 . At the same time, food prices in Karelia were higher than in most other regions of the country. The so-called "secondary exploitation" - the payment of wages not in cash, but in products and goods from factory shops at inflated prices - has also become more widespread here. There was a system of fines and deductions, which, even after the publication of the law on fines, could reach 1/3 of earnings.

Comparison of materials carried out in 1896-1897. factory inspector N. Baryshnikov to study the cost of food for 41 working families with data from the Zemstvo survey of peasant farms in the Olonets province for 1900-1902. shows that the norms of consumption of basic foodstuffs by workers were, as a rule, lower than the average level of consumption of local peasants. So, flour and cereals were consumed per eater in working families per month 43.2 pounds, in peasant families - 69.6 pounds, meat, respectively - 2 and 3.2 pounds, oil (animal and vegetable) - 0.8 and 1, 2 pounds. At the same time, compared to the peasants, the workers consumed noticeably more sugar (1.4 pounds versus 1), tea, coffee and chicory (0.52 pounds versus 0.23) 77, which indicates a partial replacement of hot meals in proletarian families by tea drinking. .

The most serious problem was the receipt of social benefits in case of temporary or permanent disability. Only at the Alexander Plant there was an auxiliary fund of the partnership (made up of contributions from workers), from which small pensions were assigned to those who were seriously injured, as well as to widows and orphans of workers who died at work (14-20 kopecks per month and 1-2 pounds of flour) 78 . At other enterprises, before the issuance of the law on June 2, 1903 "On the compensation of victims of accidents," a disabled worker could receive benefits only if he proved an "evil deed" or an omission on the part of the breeder. On this occasion, based on his practice, the factory inspector N. Baryshnikov wrote in the pages of the provincial newspaper with bitter irony that "already from the fact of entering an industrial institution, the worker's guilt follows in everything that is associated with being in this institution."

The living conditions of many working families were also unsatisfactory. In sawmills and private ironworks, most single and family workers lived in cramped barrack-type barracks or rented corners in private houses. The situation was somewhat better at the Aleksandrovsky plant, the bulk of the workers of which had their own small houses.

Particularly difficult was the situation of workers employed in logging, rafting and other seasonal industries, who were not subject to even the very limited laws on factory labor adopted in the 1380-1890s. Entrepreneurs recruited lumberjacks and rafters, as a rule, through agents-contractors from among the local wealthy peasants. Contractors enslaved fellow villagers by making deposits and forced them to agree to the most unfavorable conditions, and usually there were no written contracts for employment. The working day in the forest and on the rafting continued in any weather from early morning until late evening. Weekends and holidays are often not respected. Payment for heavy physical labor usually did not exceed 2-3 rubles. in Week. A significant part of the earnings immediately went to the repayment of the deposit. Seasonal workers had to live in huts, dugouts or hastily put together huts without wooden floors and ceilings. Such huts, as noted by the zemstvo doctor of the Pudozh district, had an area of ​​\u200b\u200bup to 8-9 square meters. meters, but they recruited 25-30 people for the night. Clothes and shoes were also dried here. The loggers' usual food was black bread and potatoes brought from home, as well as cereals, peas and tea purchased from contractors on account of their earnings. The rafting workers were completely on the master's grubs, which were often prepared from stale products. The result of extremely unfavorable working and living conditions of seasonal workers was a high incidence. According to zemstvo doctors, 20-30% of loggers were exposed to traumatic injuries and colds during the season, and among rafters this percentage was even higher 79 .

The condition of the forest workers caused serious concern even among the local provincial administration. It became the subject of a special consideration at the fishing commission of the Olonets provincial conference on the needs of the agricultural industry in 1902. The commission, headed by I. Lazuk, chairman of the Petrozavodsk district zemstvo council, proposed to prohibit "the existing method of calculating workers by timber merchants with goods instead of money" and spoke in favor of creating special sanitary-medical supervision, which would also supervise "the food and nutrition of the workers" 80 . The proposal was included in the reporting documents of the provincial meeting, but did not cause an effective reaction in the corridors of power in St. Petersburg.

The desire of workers to improve their situation led to labor conflicts with employers. In the last quarter of the XIX century. in Karelia, there were several spontaneous strikes on economic grounds. The first strike in the history of the region broke out in 1875 at the Aleksandrovsky plant in Petrozavodsk. It was caused by a sharp drop in wages due to the unjustified, in the opinion of the workers, rejection of a significant batch of products. On February 6, on behalf of the foundry workers, molders P. Polyakov and N. Sukhanov submitted a demand to the administration for the abolition of deductions. In response, the mining chief issued an order for the dismissal of Polyakov and Sukhanov. Foundry workers (about 100 people) went on strike, seeking the abolition of deductions and the reinstatement of dismissed comrades. However, the workers of other shops did not support them. Under the threat of general dismissal, the strikers resumed work on February 8 without success.

In 1878, 130 seasonal workers went on strike at the construction of the Povenets-Sumposad postal road, seeking the return of passports from entrepreneurs due to difficult working conditions and violation of contractual obligations. In the early 1890s hundreds of otkhodniks from the southern districts of Karelia took part in the strikes of seasonal workers on the reconstruction of the Mariinsky Canal. During 1890-1892. Strikes broke out repeatedly on the highway, during which workers protested against low wages, long working hours and poor quality food, and also demanded the issuance of paybooks 82 . Economic strikes were also registered in 1892 at the Kemsky sawmill, in 1897 at the Tulomozersky iron foundry of the Stal company, in 1901 at the Kovdsky sawmill. The strikes of the 1870s-1890s, despite their fragmentation and episodic nature, became an important stage in the development of the labor movement in the region.

emergence

The further development of the working class occurs with the dispossession of the peasants, the emergence of large-scale production and the invention of machines. From the 15th century, the process of dispossession of peasants (fencing) began in England, somewhat later similar processes take place in Germany and other countries of Western Europe, as a result of which many rural residents moved to cities, increasing the supply of labor there.

The craft guild system was gradually supplanted in the 16th-17th centuries by the domestic form of large-scale production - merchants, who concentrated the sale of handicraft products in their hands, gave the artisans money deposits, raw materials, tools in exchange for the obligation to transfer all manufactured products to them. So artisans turned into hired workers, producing goods at home on the orders of capitalist merchants. From the XVII-XVIII centuries. capitalists begin to establish manufactories using the labor of hired workers. But a significant number of small manufacturers in the manufacturing industry continued to work independently at home and sell products on the local market.

Workers fight for their rights

In France, Great Britain and other countries, already at the end of the 18th century, the desire of workers to form trade unions appeared. However, these associations were counteracted by legislation that prohibited all kinds of unions and gatherings of workers to pursue common interests under pain of criminal punishment (in France - the decision of the national assembly on June 17, 1791, in Great Britain - the prohibition of coalitions by the law of 1800, in Prussia - the decisions of the industrial charter 1845). Workers' unions began to organize secretly. At the end of the 18th and the first half of the 19th century, the dissatisfaction of the workers with their position led to numerous strikes and riots, accompanied by looting and destruction. The workers at that time considered machines and factories to be the cause of their impoverishment and turned their hatred against them. Such unrest includes, for example, the Luddite movement in Great Britain, the riots in France in the 30s and 40s, the riots in Silesia in 1844, and others.

The first organized labor movement can be considered Chartism in Great Britain in 1837-1848. The Chartists demanded that the workers be given the right to vote.

Gradually, the legislative prohibition of workers' organizations were abolished (Great Britain - 1825, France - 1864, Germany - 1867).

Back in 1840, an international secret “Union of the Just” was founded with a central body in London. Soon this union was renamed the "Union of Communists" and adopted as its program the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" published by Marx and Engels (1847). But this union did not last long and broke up in 1852. In 1864, the First International (International Association of Workers) was formed. In the second half of the 19th century, social democratic parties began to emerge to defend the interests of the workers.

The working class in the 20th century in the capitalist countries

In the developed capitalist countries, the working class achieved after the Second World War the introduction of universal suffrage, an 8-hour working day, recognition of the practice of collective agreements, and the adoption of more progressive social legislation.

The industrial working class continued to grow in size. Compared with the pre-war period, the gap between wages for skilled and unskilled labor has significantly decreased.

In the 1950s, the era of the scientific and technological revolution began in the most developed countries, as a result of which the industrial society is transformed into a post-industrial one. The structure of labor resources is changing: the share of physical labor is decreasing and the share of highly qualified and creative mental labor is growing.

The working class in the 20th century in the socialist countries

see also

Notes

Links

• //
• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

Literature

• History of the working class of Russia (1861-1900) M.: AN SSSR. Institute of History of the USSR, 1972. - 320 p.
• Hal Draper: Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution. Volume II: The Politics of Social Classes. Monthly Review Press 1979. ISBN 0-85345-439-6
• Chris Harman: Workers of the World - Die Arbeiterklasse im 21. Jahrhundert.Übersetzung aus dem Englischen von Thomas Walter. Edition aurora, Frankfurt am Main. ISBN 3-934536-08-5
• Marcel van der Linden: Plädoyer für eine historische Neubestimmung der Welt-Arbeiterklasse in: Sozial Geschichte, 20. Jahrgang, Nummer 3, 2005, S. 7-28

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Synonyms:

See what "Working class" is in other dictionaries:

Main manufactures. the strength of modern society, the main driving force of the historical. the process of transition from capitalism to socialism and communism. Under capitalism, a class of wage-workers, deprived of the means of production, living by selling their labor... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

- (working class) primarily manual workers and receiving wages for their work. This term is less capacious than the proletariat (proletariat) in Marx (Marx), i.e. who have nothing to sell but their labor force, because in modern ... ... Political science. Vocabulary.

The working class, the proletariat, the social group of an industrial society, including those employed in hired, mainly physical, labor. From the middle of the 19th century an industrial proletariat arose in Europe, trade unions and political parties were formed ... ... Modern Encyclopedia

Proletariat, a social group in an industrial society, including those employed in hired, mostly physical labor. From Ser. 19th century in Europe, an industrial proletariat arose, trade unions and political parties of the working class were formed. From the 2nd ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Formation of classes in capitalist society.

position of the proletariat.

Labor movements of the 70s. The first workers' unions.

Labor movements of the 80s and 90s Morozov strike.

Spread of Marxism in Russia.

After the reform of 1961, the decomposition of the estate system in Russia began. Instead of estates, classes are formed: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

Formation of the bourgeoisie . The process of formation of the bourgeoisie began even before the reform of 1861. Usually there was a resourceful peasant in the village who bought certain goods from the peasants, took them to the fair and bought them at a higher price. In the future, all this increased in scale, at a certain stage, capital is no longer invested in circulation, but in production. There were 4 main sources of the formation of the bourgeoisie:

"Capitalist" peasants, among them the Morozovs, Guchkovs, Gorelins, Burilins, Konovalovs.

pre-reform merchant class.

Wealthy townsfolk.

The bourgeois nobility, among them Putilov.

The national composition of the bourgeoisie was rather motley. Among the largest entrepreneurs are Tereshchenko (Ukraine), as well as the Baltic Germans, Jews. There were also many foreigners in Russia among entrepreneurs. Among St. Petersburg, Moscow foreigners - Bromley, Boujon, Erickson, Nobili.

The class division still remained. Entrepreneurs belonged to the merchant class. After the reform of 61, the third guild was removed, leaving only two. To get there, you must appear at the local government, declare your capital and pay the guild duty. There is a change in the socio-cultural image. The first generation of the bourgeoisie differed little from ordinary peasants or philistines, i.e. they were semi-literate men, in clothing, in life they resembled these estates. The second and third generations continued to imitate the nobility in appearance. They built luxurious mansions, bought expensive furniture, dishes, frisky horses. They began to receive higher education, traveled abroad. There is a gradual consolidation of the bourgeoisie. Representative organizations appear in the bourgeoisie (the union of oil industrialists in Baku, the union of entrepreneurs of metallurgists in the south of Russia), in the future the first monopolies will grow out of them.

The attitude of Russian society towards the bourgeoisie was rather negative. The play by Ostrovsky and other Russian classics depicts merchants in a bad light. The Kolupaevs and Razuvaevs are common names for merchants. This conventional wisdom is not entirely true. Among the bourgeoisie were the Tretyakov brothers, Bakhrushin (the founder of the theater museum in Moscow), Gorelin, Kurilin.

Formation of the proletariat. At the end of the 19th century in Russia there were 1.5 million workers. And the total number of wage laborers was 10 million. They included farm laborers, workers in transport, workers in small industry, laborers at the logging site. The composition of the proletariat is made up of men, but gradually women also began to be drawn into it. Entrepreneurs willingly accepted them, because. women were calmer, not so demanding (Burylin N.G. generally kept only women at the factory). There were also many teenagers in the factories. Sources of formation:

Ruined peasants. Gradually, a type of semi-worker, semi-peasant took shape. In the summer he worked in the community, in the fall he was employed at a factory (the process of withdrawal - “After the Pokrov”). Around Easter, this worker left the factory, returned to the field again.

Broken artisans. The hand weaver could compete with the manufactory. But this handicraftsman could no longer compete with the factory. The handicraftsman, having gone bankrupt, often went to the factory, which ruined him.

Workers' children. This is the smallest source, but the most qualified.

In the Soviet period, the situation of workers was assessed extremely negatively, it was said that they were exploited to the point of wear and tear.

Since the end of the 80s (perestroika) - the opposite has been true. Historians say that the workers lived very well, and if anyone did poorly, then they themselves were to blame.

There were strata within the working class. The first layer is the labor aristocracy (Putilovites). In St. Petersburg, they accounted for 10%. There were fewer of them in the provinces. This is a very narrow layer.

The second is the middle class of workers. These are mass workers. These are spinners, weavers, etc. The share of this layer was the largest - about 2/3 of all workers.

The third is the labor layer. These are workers who performed unskilled, hard and dirty work. They got paid for it. This layer was about ¼ of the peasants.

Working conditions and living conditions.

Working conditions. These are salary, working hours and sanitary conditions in the workplace.

Working hours in the 70s and 80s 13-14 hours a day. In 97. A law was passed that limited the working day to 11.5 hours. At the same time, it was indicated that there may be overtime work. An important indicator is how many days off a worker has per year. The worker did not have a vacation, as such. But there were more holidays than now. In addition to 52 Sundays, there were many religious holidays. There was also a big break for the workers at Easter. The work before Easter ended on Holy Week and began on St. Thomas Week (3 weeks in total). The salary then was not a rate, but piecework. And the workers, therefore, lost just a part of their wages. There were few workers over 40 years of age.

The salary. Then it was called a salary. The working aristocracy received 20-30 rubles a month, workers of the middle stratum - 10-15 rubles, unskilled workers - 5-10 rubles (70-80 years of the 19th century). The worker did not receive this salary in full. There were fines that were charged for being late and absenteeism, fines were also imposed on marriage. In Soviet historiography, it was said that sometimes fines reached half the salary - but this is not so. Long-term workers received paltry fines.

Sanitary and hygienic conditions. TB (safety) did not exist then. Therefore, accidents were frequent in factories. Especially in the mining industry. In the textile industry and engineering, such cases were rare. The crippled workers were fired and no pension was paid to them. The owner gave a salary to the worker and sent him to all 4 sides. The temperature in the workshops was very high. In summer it sometimes reached 40 or 50% heat. So they went almost naked. And in winter, on the contrary, they often got sick. There was little ventilation system then, because it was an expensive pleasure. Therefore, consumption and tuberculosis were widespread.

Living conditions. These are housing, food, clothing and footwear, as well as forms of leisure activities.

Housing. There were types:

Owner's housing provided by the owner of the enterprise. It existed only in large factories. For single workers, dormitories were built, called barracks. There were bunks, often in two tiers. Several dozen people lived in one room. There was no furniture, the worker kept all the property in a chest under the bed. There was a great abundance of insects. For family workers there were closets - a multi-storey hostel with corridors, along which there were rooms - pencil cases.

Free apartments. These are houses owned by local residents, where they allowed guests for a fee. The newcomers rented here not a house, a room, but only a corner. They let them in until the floor space was filled. They paid a ruble a month.

Own housing. This is the type characteristic of the labor aristocracy.

Nutrition. Types:

Artel food. Workers of the same profession united in grub artels. They included up to several dozen workers. They hired a cook. The owner allocated premises for such an artel. During the lunch break, the workers sat on the benches at the tables, the cook laid out food for them. Workers ate cabbage soup, several people from one bowl. The food was hearty, but it was forced, what is served is what you eat.

Tractor food. Each city had its own network of establishments where you could eat. These are taverns, buffets, eateries. The food here was also cheap. Minus - it was easy to get poisoned.

Home food. This was the preferred type. It was used by the labor aristocracy. The lunch break was then 2 hours.

Food cost. Laborers spent 70% of their salary on food. The average worker has 20-30%. There is Eidel's law - The higher the income level of a person, the less he spends on food.

Food assortment. Most of the workers ate bread and vegetables (black bread, cabbage, cucumbers, radishes). The working aristocracy ate meat in various forms on all fast days. The middle class of workers ate meat only on Sundays. And laborers indulged in meat only twice a year - at Christmas and Easter. At Easter, the traditional dish was a ham, at Christmas - a goose. They ate fish more often. These are mostly river fish, not sea fish.

Impact products are bread, sausage and vodka. Black bread cost 2 kopecks a pound, white bread - 5 kopecks per pound, sausage - started from 15 kopecks, and up to 40-50 kopecks. per pound, vodka - taken in buckets (12 liters) - 10 rubles, 40 kopecks - a bottle.

Most of the workers had used clothes and shoes. New clothes were worn only by working aristocrats. Mostly they wore a jacket, in winter - a coat with wadding, on their feet either boots or boots.

Leisure activities. Initially, it was not there, only if on Sunday. But gradually leisure began to appear.

Among the traditional forms of leisure: round dances, gatherings. Among the new forms of leisure: fisticuffs. The intelligentsia and the clergy tried to establish more civilized forms of leisure: religious and moral readings began to be held at the factories, doctors and priests spoke to the factory owners. They often made presentations with slides. Lectures were historical, geographical and natural sciences.

The condition of the majority of the workers was bad, this was the main reason for the labor movements.

Labor movements of the 70s The first workers' unions. There are 2 forms of workers' protest - unrest and strikes. Unrest is a primitive form of protest, reminiscent of a peasant revolt. They were accompanied by the destruction of industrial premises and breaking machines. Workers broke cars, smashed windows at the factory, they did not make any special demands, letting off steam, they dutifully returned to work.

From the 70s. strikes are becoming more and more popular. Strike and strike. Strike is a Russian word, and strike is an English word.

1870 - there was a strike at the Neva paper mill. Several hundred workers participated in it, the main demand was to raise wages. It was the first strike that excited the public. The public reacted sympathetically to the workers. The state also reacted to this: the conspirators were expelled from the city, administrative punishment.

In 1872 there was a strike at the Krenholm manufactory (Narva). Several thousand workers have already taken part in the strike. Among the strikers were both Russians and Estonians. This was the first performance in Russia, when the authorities had to release a military force - 2 regiments.

In addition, strikes took place at the Putilov factory, at the textile factories of Ivanovo-Voznesenskaya Moscow, at the gold mines of Siberia, at the construction of railways.

Another important event was the Kazan demonstration. It was organized by the populists in 1876, the initiators were the peasants. The bulk were still workers. For the first time, a red banner was raised at this demonstration. The student Georgy Plekhanov delivered a speech there. The demonstration was dispersed by the police and shopkeepers.

The workers had a pull in the quest for unity. The first workers' unions appeared.

1. South Russian Union of Workers. (1875, Odessa). The founder of the union was the impoverished nobleman Yevgeny Zaslavsky. The remaining members of the union are ordinary workers. Branches of the union were later established in Chisinau. The union consisted of several circles of 5-6 workers in each. They were literate workers who read revolutionary books which they distributed to other workers. The backbone of the workers was 50 people. And also + 200 people who were supporters of this union. There was a charter and at the same time a program, which said that the ultimate goal was to get rid of capital through a revolutionary upheaval. Any worker can be a member of the union. This union did not last long. A provocateur wormed his way into the ranks of the union, he surrendered this union to the police, the leaders were arrested, the organization collapsed.

2. In 1878, the "Northern Union of Russian Workers" arose in St. Petersburg. The organization was led by two people. The first is Viktor Obnorsky, the second is Stepan Khalturin. The first traveled across Western Europe, knew well the work and life of Western workers. I knew that workers in the west live better. The union included about 200 activists and about 200 sympathizers. The Union was closely connected with the "Earth and Freedom". He adopted the structure of the organization from the Narodniks. Those. there was a central circle and branches on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. Land and Freedom allowed the union to use their printing house. This printing house printed the Appeal to the Russian Workers. In fact, it was the program of the union. The ultimate goal is to overthrow the landowners and the bourgeoisie, to give the land to the community, the factories to the workers. The immediate goal is the introduction of democratic freedoms in Russia, the prohibition of child labor, and the reduction of the working day.

In 1880, Obnorsky was arrested, and Khalturin went to Narodnaya Volya and organized the bombing of the Winter Palace.

Labor movements in the 1980s Morozov strike. In the first half of the 80s. in Russia there is a crisis of overproduction. This worsened the situation of the workers: dozens of factories were closed, the workers were thrown into the streets. At other enterprises, wages were cut, or the work week was reduced. This led to strikes.

The largest action was the Morozov strike. The Morozovs are the largest entrepreneurs in Russia. About 12 thousand people worked at the factory. This factory was owned by Timofey Savich Morozov, the manufacturer is an Old Believer. There was no middle class in Orekhovo-Zuevo, there were owners and workers.

In the first half of the 80s. Timofey reduced the workers' wages several times. The grub shop caused particular dissatisfaction. The workers were paid wages not in money, but in coupons in this shop. The prices of this shop were overpriced, and the goods were of poor quality. The clerks also shamelessly deceived the workers. Master Shorin also caused great discontent. The salary at the manufactory was not issued every month, but sometimes every 2 or 3 months.

The strike was not spontaneous, but prepared in advance. The main role was played by the worker Pyotr Moiseenko, who was not a local resident, he worked in St. Petersburg. Was familiar with Khalturin. Vasily Volkov became his assistant. Several times on the eve of the strike they gathered the workers several times under the guise of tea drinking. Appointed responsible for the workshops, agreed on all the little things.

January 1885 - Morozov strike. At the beginning of it, the workers first of all rushed to the food shop and smashed it. Master Shorin's apartment was destroyed. After that, the workers no longer allowed such anarchic actions, the strike began to be carried out calmly. The following requirements were put forward:

Give wages in cash, not coupons

Issue it regularly, twice a month

To issue a law that would limit the amount of fines!!! (political demand)

Morozov refused to comply with these demands. Troops were called. The Governor of Vladimir has arrived. Arrests were made among the workers, the conspirators were arrested. The strike is over.

In 1986 a trial of the Morozov strikers took place in Vladimir. They were charged with one hundred and one articles. At the trial, a picture of the harsh situation of the workers became clear, the Moscow lawyers also tried. As a result: the jury acquitted the perpetrators on all counts.

This strike for the first time publicly indicated the existence of a "labor question" in Russia. It's about the plight of the workers, how to improve it, the problem with the strike movement.

Under the influence of the strike, in 86 a law on fines was issued. In it, fines were limited (see the lecture Domestic policy of Alexander 3).

The influence of the Morozov strike was also reflected in the fact that in the second half of the 80s. labor movement increased dramatically. Before that there were 19 annual strikes, but now there are 32 strikes. The largest were in St. Petersburg, Moscow province, in the Yaroslavl large manufactory (YBM).

The significance of the Morozov strike is that it stimulated the working-class movement, it was the first not spontaneous, but a prepared movement, and the first political demand was put forward.

Labor movements in the 1990s The number of the proletariat increased sharply. This was facilitated by famine and crop failure in 1991. Tens of thousands of peasants went bankrupt and went to the city. Every year, not thousands, but tens of thousands of people went on strike.

Especially in 96-97. - a series of strikes in St. Petersburg - "Petersburg Industrial War". The impetus for this was the question of payment during the coronation days. On coronation days, the workers were allowed to go home. The workers demanded to pay for these days, the manufacturers refused, then the workers rebelled. The Putilov, Nevsky and Obukhov factories rebelled. The textile workers joined the metalworkers. The strikes made an impression on the authorities and society. The coronation days were paid to the workers.

Characteristic features of the labor movement at the end of the 19th century:

It was of an economic nature, the requirements were standard (increase salaries, reduce the working day, improve living conditions, etc.);

The strikes were mostly defensive, not offensive, with workers reacting to deteriorating working conditions;

The workers had no experience of labor conflicts, so they were often defeated;

Leaders, leaders of strikes, who possessed charisma, are being promoted among the workers.

Spread of Marxism in Russia. Marxism as a theory appeared in Western Europe in the middle of the 19th century. Marx wrote Capital, in three volumes, and The Communist Manifesto. The Russian public got acquainted with the works in the 60s. In 1972, the first volume of Capital was translated into Russian. But the public believed that Russia did not fit the work of Marx. Several Russian émigré revolutionaries were members of the First International, which was divided into several sections, and there was also a Russian section. Utin was at the head of the latter.

The first Russian Marxist organization arose in 83. Its founder was the head of the former "Black Redistribution", Plekhanov and his associates - Vera Zasulich, Axelrod, Deutsch, Ignatov. Plekhanov was born in the Tambov province in a family with revolutionary traditions. Plekhanov went to St. Petersburg to study and entered the Mining Institute. He was one of the leaders of the Land and Freedom. He spoke during the Kazan demonstration. After that, he went underground. Later he moved abroad. This group existed abroad, in Geneva. First of all, the group issued a document on the publication of the books "Library of Modern Socialism". The members of the group translated the works of Marx and Engels. Then they were printed and sent to Russia. Plekhanov also wrote original Marxist works, where Marxism adapted to Russian conditions, two works - Socialism and the Political Struggle and Our Differences.

Plekhanov clearly articulated the differences between Marxists and Narodniks:

The Narodniks asserted that Russia would bypass the stage of capitalism, while the Marxists said that Russia was already in the stage of capitalism;

The Narodniks considered the peasants to be the most revolutionary class, and the Marxists, that it was the proletariat.

In addition to such serious works, the group began to publish the "Working Library", books for ordinary workers. These were difficult brochures, written in simple language, published in large numbers.

The formation of the "Emancipation from Labor" group and its publishing activities first caused confusion among the remnants of the Narodniks, and then fury.

In addition to this group, Marxist organizations are springing up in Russia itself. At the very end of 1983, a circle arose in St. Petersburg, headed by Dmitry Blagoev. It was called: "Party of Russian Social Democrats". Literature came to them from abroad. This group printed 2 issues of the Rabochy newspaper. After Blagoev was arrested, the circle fell apart.

In the mid 80s. a new circle of social democrats arose, headed by Togissky.

It was called "Association of Petersburg craftsmen". It included both intellectuals and workers. When the leaders of the circle were arrested, the grass-roots circles of workers remained.

The third organization arose in 89 - Brusnev's circle. It was a larger organization. L.B. Krasin and F. Afanasiev were also members of it. Propaganda among the workers was carried out according to a special plan: the workers were first taught to read and write, then they were given information on history, natural science and the basics of political economy, and then the workers began to slip real Marxist literature.

At the turn of the 80-90s. mugs appear in the province. A special place is occupied by a circle in Kazan. It was led by N.E. Fedoseev (Lenin's teacher).

In the 80s. Marxism relatively little affected the Russian public. He seemed exotic to her. Mostly in the circles were the intelligentsia. V. Ulyanov joins the Marxist movement.

Ulyanov was born in 1880, a nobleman by birth. His father was a major official - the director of public schools in the Simbirsk province, with the rank of state councilor. When Lenin was 15, his father died. The whole family lived on a pension and Lenin did not work anywhere. When Vladimir was 17 years old, his older brother Alexander was caught in preparation for the assassination attempt on Alexander 3. Alexander was executed along with several people, this is one of the reasons Lenin entered the revolutionary path. When Lenin found out about this, he said: "We will go the other way."

In 1989 he graduated from the Simbirsk gymnasium with honors. Enters Kazan University and six months later he is expelled. After that, Vladimir joined the circle of N. Fedoseev. Lenin applied to St. Petersburg University for a law faculty, passed the exams as an external student. He received a degree in law. He goes to Samara and becomes a lawyer there. He undertook to defend the workers and peasants, but did not win a single case. After that, he did not work anywhere until 1917.

In the first half of the 90s. Marxism is capturing more and more people. In particular, Fedoseev organized a circle in Vladimir. In 1894, V. Ulyanov came to see him.

In 1892 a circle arose in Ivanovo. It was led by F. Kondratiev, a student of one of the St. Petersburg universities. The circle consisted mainly of workers, also N. Kudryashov and M. Bagaev.

Social-democratic circles are springing up on the national outskirts of Russia. The party Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) was known, it included Y. Markhlevsky, Rosa Luxenburg.

There is also among the Jewish workers - "Bund" (union).

In 1895, the "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class" arose in St. Petersburg. The leaders are V. Ulyanov and Y. Zederbaum (Martov), ​​who moved to St. Petersburg. The organization had 3 levels: the center was at the head of the union, below were workers' organizations on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, at the lowest level - circles in factories and plants. The Union moved from narrow propaganda to broad agitation. The union had its own illegal printing house that printed leaflets and proclamations. At one of the factories, unrest arose among the workers, dissatisfied with the reduction in wages. Through its circle, the union found out about this and printed leaflets - “What do the weavers demand?”. The leaflet provoked a workers' strike. The same situation was repeated at the Putilov plant. The union became so bold that it began to send such leaflets to the authorities. The authorities became concerned about this and began to look for the source. They managed to get to the leaders through their agents. In the late 90s. they grabbed the leaders.

This alliance was followed by other wrestling alliances. They arose in Moscow, Kyiv and Ivanovo-Voznesensk. In March 1998, the Minsk Congress of the RSDLP was held. In the future, this party changed its name several times. A minority of Social Democratic organizations were represented at the congress, the central region was practically not represented. There were 9 delegates in total at the congress. The program was not chosen, only the Central Committee was elected, but after the meeting the central committee was arrested. The problems were solved only at the second congress in 1903.

Vladimir Ulyanov was sentenced to 3 years of exile for his activities in the Petersburg Union, he was sent to eastern Siberia, to the village of Shushenskoye. Nadezhda Krupskaya, his wife and mother-in-law, came to see him there. Ulyanov wrote a number of works in exile. Among these works, a special place is occupied by "The Development of Capitalism in Russia", where he summarized the experience gained. He published many works under the pseudonym Nikolai Lenin, and then simply - Lenin.

At the beginning of 1900, Lenin's term ended, he could return to the European part of the country, but he was forbidden in the capitals and university cities. He chose the city of Pskov as his residence. Stayed here for several months. At the end of 1900, the authorities allowed him to go abroad. Lenin leaves for Germany and begins publishing the Social Democratic newspaper Iskra, together with Plekhanov. On the front page of every newspaper was the slogan: "A spark will kindle a flame."

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education

"Plekhanov Russian University of Economics"

Saratov Social and Economic Institute

COURSE WORK

Discipline "Economic history"

on the topic: " The position of the Russian proletariat in the 60-90s. 19th century "

Kasimov Kirill Andreevich

supervisor:

Efimova Elena Alekseevna

Saratov 2014

Contents

• Introduction
• 2. Impact of reforms in the second halfXIXcentury on the proletariat
• Conclusion
• Bibliography

Introduction

Before proceeding to the analysis of the position of the proletariat in Russia in the 60-90s. XIX century, it is necessary to analyze the state of the Russian state by the beginning of this period.

By this time, the Russian Empire occupied a vast area from the Baltic and the Vistula in the West to the Pacific Ocean in the East. The total area of ​​its territory exceeded 20 million sq. km. The population of this huge country, according to the 1812 revision census, was 41 million people. The bulk of the people lived in the European part in the "old" habitable territories. Siberia accounted for just over 3 million people. About 1 million people lived in the North Caucasus. Even with this uneven distribution, the country's population density was low. So, in the most populated areas it was 9 people per square verst, while in Europe at that time it fluctuated already at the level of 38-42 people per square kilometer.

Russia has always been a multi-confessional and multinational state, where, next to the most numerous Russian people professing Orthodoxy, there lived numerous other peoples who adhered to other religions. Often these peoples also had their own special ways of economic life, which created a certain diversity in economic relations.

Despite the huge successes in the development of manufacturing and trade achieved in the 18th century, the rather rapid growth in the number of cities and the increase in the number of their inhabitants, by the beginning of the 19th century. Russia still remained predominantly an agrarian country, the bulk of the population of which lived in the countryside.

How was the population of the country distributed among the main classes? 1.58% of the population were nobles, 1.10% clergy, 7.25% townspeople. Rural residents accounted for 82.55%. The remaining 7.52% of people belonged to various small social groups.

From the above statistics it is clear that the peasantry remained the most numerous class, which by the middle of the century numbered more than 30 million people. Of these, about 15 million were state peasants, 14 million were landlords, and about 1 million were householders. A special estate was the Cossacks, which numbered about 1.5 million people.

In connection with the development of industry and commodity-money relations, in general, the number of hired workers grew quite rapidly. The statistics for this category of the population are rather confusing, since they also included a part of the serf peasants-otkhodniks, however, according to far from complete data, most researchers determine this figure, taking into account seasonal workers of 400 thousand people. Moreover, this does not include assigned workers and peasants who worked in patrimonial manufactories. Of course, this is not enough compared to the many millions of peasants, but if we consider that by 1765 there were only about 40 thousand of them, i.e. in 40 years, the number of workers has grown 10 times.

Workers already accounted for 17.4% of the urban population, which numbered 2.3 million people. This indicated that the changes that were taking place in the economy were beginning to be reflected in the social structure of the population.

In terms of the level of development of industry, agriculture and trade, the country has already come close to the period of the industrial revolution.

However, in parallel with the positive trends in the economy, those alarming moments were gaining more and more strength, which indicated that the country was slowing down its development, which was growing behind the most economically advanced countries both in terms of quality and quantity. All this spoke of the deepening crisis of the feudal economy.

1. The emergence of the proletariat in the Russian Empire

1.1 Industrial revolution and industrialization

The industrial revolution is the transition from mono-factory production to production using machines.

The transition to machine labor makes it possible to significantly increase labor productivity and make production rates high. The reasons for the industrial revolution were: the development of trade, science, financial markets, the use of hired labor and the inefficiency of the use of forced labor.

In Russia, the industrial revolution began in the 1830s and continued until the 1880s. In the 1830s, stagnation was observed at large metallurgical enterprises, in which forced labor was mainly used. But in the cotton and textile industries, oriented to the vast domestic market and where the labor of civilian workers, that is, the first proletarians, was mainly used, a decline was observed. Which gave these industries the opportunity to be the first to start an industrial revolution in the Russian Empire through the purchase of foreign machine tools and machines.

Mechanization in the Russian Empire took place in various forms. Firstly, this is the replacement of manual labor on monofactories by machines, and secondly, completely new branches of capitalist industry were created. The industrial revolution was also facilitated by the extensive construction of railways in the Russian Empire. The development of infrastructure, roads, transport always contributes to the development of the economy, because the produced brand becomes easier to transport, and this, in turn, contributes to the enthusiasm of markets for goods, the strengthening of economic ties between regions.

Russian proletariat legislation law

The rapidly developing industry provided a large number of new jobs. At the same time, the appearance of cheap factory goods led to the ruin of small producers, and the ruined artisans became hired workers. But the main source of replenishment of the army of hired workers was the impoverished peasants who moved to the cities. So at the end of the 50s of the XIX century, only from seven provinces of the industrial Center, 887 thousand people went to work, which accounted for 26.5% of the male population of villages, while the highest percentage of otkhodniks was observed in the Moscow and Tver provinces - up to 43% of male workers . The Industrial Revolution disrupted the usual way of life in the Russian countryside and was disastrous for it. Rapid urbanization and the increase in hired workers have exacerbated social problems extremely. While the centers of factory production were relatively small, the city dweller could, in addition to earning money at the factory, cultivate the land in the Urals, the workers were even given special leave so that they could briefly work in the garden, but with the development of industry, such an opportunity for workers disappeared.

The industrial revolution inevitably led the country to a transition to a new formation, the country gradually ceased to be agrarian and became capitalist. This transition from one formation to another could not help changing the way of life of people and the whole country. New social classes emerged, such as the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.

1.2 Relations between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie

Marxists believed that the proletariat and the bourgeoisie were two opposing classes. That the bourgeoisie is an exploiting class that oppresses the proletarians. The formation of relations between these two classes in the Russian Empire began already at the beginning of the 19th century. When Russia was just preparing for the industrial revolution.

At the beginning, the proletarian class was formed mainly from civilian workers working in manufactories and the first factories. Subsequently, with the development of the industrial revolution, the proletariat began to form from different groups of the population, the most significant part was the peasants, as a rule, they became proletarians from the worst part, and impoverished artisans who were unable to compete with large factories poured into this class.

The bourgeoisie is understood as the class of capitalists, owners of the social means of production, providing wages to wage workers. The internal social structure of the bourgeoisie was initially differentiated both in terms of living standards, and in relation to the means of production, and in terms of political rights (tied to a property qualification).

Depending on where the capital was located, the bourgeoisie was divided into: rural bourgeoisie, industrial bourgeoisie, banking bourgeoisie, commercial bourgeoisie. The organic composition of capital in each of these spheres is different. Therefore, in the transition to the classification of the bourgeoisie according to the quantitative sign of the level of income, where they distinguish: big bourgeoisie, middle bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie

The scale of the use of hired labor is not a leading feature. This is, first of all, the level of income, which makes it possible to compare the sectoral groups of the bourgeoisie of one and the same country at a given moment in time. Nevertheless, a sharp line between these groups is not always easy to establish.

As we can see, these are two completely different opposing classes, but they are inextricably linked. At that time, poor countries depended on what kind of relations would develop between these classes.

In the absence of labor legislation, the bourgeoisie set its own rules in factories, and the workers could not do anything about it. The authorities simply don't care about them.

2. The impact of the reforms of the second half of the 19th century on the proletariat

2.1 The impact of the Peasant Reform on the proletariat

The peasant reform, or as it is also called, the abolition of serfdom began on February 19, 1861, with the publication of the manifesto of Emperor Alexander 2 on the abolition of serfdom. It was a very extensive and important reform for the Russian state. The emperor also understood its inevitability. The state was already in a different formation, the forces of production had gone far ahead in comparison with the relations of production. Society demanded changes, serfdom was disastrous, nothing more could be obtained from the peasant, not how to increase his labor productivity. Having no motivation other than punishment, a bonded, dependent person could not work more efficiently. Unfortunately, not everyone understood this because of this, the abolition of serfdom was strongly delayed, and this, in turn, had an extremely negative effect on the development of capitalism in our country.

The working class, that is, the proletariat, was formed extremely slowly, due to the fact that not only peasants were forced to work in agriculture, but also the oppressed workers in factories and factories from work was also extremely inefficient.

Factories and factories that used predominantly hired labor, such as textile factories, developed much faster, they increased turnover, their productivity grew, as did the income of these enterprises.

There was no serfdom in a significant part of the state: in the Asian, Far Eastern and Siberian regions, in the Caucasus, Transcaucasia and in the Cossack regions, and in Alaska in Finland. However, only one fourth of the population of the entire country lived in these territories. Most of the country was burdened with the heavy oppression of serfdom.

The first attempts to abolish serfdom were made by Paul I and his son Alexander I in 1797 and 1803 by signing the Manifesto on a three-day corvee to limit forced labor and the Decree on free cultivators, which spelled out the legal status of the peasants set free.

Alexander I approved the project of A.A. Arakcheev on the gradual elimination of serfdom by redeeming landlord peasants from their allotments with the treasury. But this project was not practically implemented.

According to the data, the proportion of serfs in the entire adult male population of the empire reached its highest value by the end of the reign of Peter I (55%). During the subsequent period of the XVIII century. was about 50%, and increased again by the beginning of the 19th century, reaching 57-58% in 1811-1817. For the first time, a significant reduction in this ratio occurred under Nicholas I. By the end of his reign, it was reduced to 35-45%. According to the 1857-1859 census, 23.1 million of the 62.5 million people living in the Russian Empire were serfs.

From this follows the conclusion that everything went towards the abolition of serfdom. Alexander 2, realizing this, began to develop a reform.

According to the reform, the maximum and minimum sizes of peasant allotments were established. Allotments could be reduced by special agreements between peasants and landlords, as well as upon receipt of a donation. If the peasants had smaller allotments in use, the landowner was obliged either to cut the missing land from the minimum size, or to reduce duties. Pruning took place only if the landowner was left with at least a third (in the steppe zones - half) of the land. For the highest shower allotment, a quitrent was set from 8 to 12 rubles. per year or corvee - 40 male and 30 female working days per year. If the allotment was larger than the highest, then the landowner cut off the "extra" land in his favor. If the allotment was less than the highest, then the duties decreased, but not proportionally.

As a result, the average size of the peasant allotment of the post-reform period was 3.3 acres per capita, which was less than before the reform. In the black earth provinces, the landowners cut off a fifth of their land from the peasants. The peasants of the Volga region suffered the greatest losses. In addition to cuts, other instruments of infringement of the rights of peasants were resettlement to barren lands, deprivation of pastures, forests, reservoirs, paddocks and other lands necessary for every peasant. Difficulties for the peasants were also represented by the striped land, forcing the peasants to rent land from the landowners, which went like wedges into the peasant allotments.

As a result, due to the reform carried out in this way, many peasants did not have the physical opportunity to feed themselves on a very meager plot of land, and at the same time they still had to pay money to the landowner. As a result, many peasants were forced to go to the city to earn money. Cities were not ready for such a massive influx of people, they became overcrowded, there was enough housing for everyone, things were even worse with work. There was clearly an oversupply in the labor market. It will detect this, the value of labor has fallen sharply, the owners of the factories did not spare their workers at all.

After the reform, a free market for hired labor was formed for people who do not have the means of production and live exclusively by selling their labor power.

The wage labor system became the basis for the development of the national economy in the empire. The rapid development of capitalism in the post-reform period multiplied the ranks of hired workers, turning them into a class in Russian society. The latter was inextricably linked with the industrial revolution that took place in the country in the 30-80s of the XIX century.

During the industrial revolution in Russia, a new social type of permanent workers emerged, concentrating on large enterprises in leading industrial centers. There was a formation of the working class, the basis of which was made up of permanent workers, deprived of the means of production, who broke off the connection with the land and their own economy and worked all year round in factories and plants.

The number of the proletariat in Russia from 1860 to 1890 (in million people) * is shown in Table 1.

Table 1

Laborers, day laborers, loaders, carters, diggers, forest workers, etc.
Workers in small, handicraft (urban and rural) industry
Construction
Agricultural
Workers in large capitalist enterprises
Including: factory, mining and mining transport (railroad workers and ship-working shipping companies)	0,49** 0,17 0,06

This table shows that the number of the proletariat in the 20 years after the abolition of serfdom almost doubled from 3.2 million people to 7.35 million people. The largest increase is observed in the agricultural sector, which, in my opinion, is due to the fact that the proletariat of that time was mainly formed by former serfs accustomed to working in this industry. In general, this table shows us how much the number of the proletariat began to increase after the abolition of serfdom.

Serfdom was the barrier that hindered the development of capitalist relations in our country, slowed down the formation of the working class.

2.2 The impact of the great reforms on the proletariat

After serfdom was abolished, a new social class of the proletariat was formed. A new legal framework for them was required, new laws. And the state began to reform the country, later this process was called the great reforms of the 60s.

And the first of them was the reform of local self-government, or as it is also called the Zemstvo reform.

On January 1, 1864, Emperor Alexander II approved the "Regulations on provincial and district zemstvo institutions." Proceeding from this situation, provincial and district zemstvo assemblies appeared in each province and in each county. These meetings, in turn, elected executive and administrative bodies - county and provincial zemstvo councils. Zemstvo assemblies and councils were elected for a term of three years. The provincial zemstvo assembly was elected by the members of the district assemblies. The chairman of the county council was approved in office by the governor, the chairman of the provincial council - by the minister of the interior

The provincial zemstvo assemblies were elected deputies (they were called "vowels") of the county zemstvo assemblies. The electoral system was drawn up in such a way as to ensure the actual predominance of the nobility in the zemstvo self-government bodies, although formally these bodies were all-class.

City reform - on the model of zemstvo institutions in 1870, class bodies of city self-government were created. In accordance with the "City Regulations" on June 16, 1870, city Dumas were elected in the cities for a period of 4 years, which in turn created executive and administrative bodies - city councils headed by the mayor.

The right to participate in elections to city Dumas was enjoyed only by payers of city taxes. All those who participated in the elections were divided into three electoral meetings: the first included the largest taxpayers, who paid a total of 1/3 of all city taxes; the second meeting was attended by smaller taxpayers who paid the second third of taxes; in the third meeting, all other small taxpayers who paid the remaining third of the total amount of taxes. Such a system of elections gave advantages in city dumas to the big bourgeoisie and the big nobility, who owned city manor houses. So, in Moscow, the first two curia, which elected 2/3 of the members of the city duma, accounted for only 13% of all voters. At the same time, it should be taken into account that the number of voters was small. It, for example, in St. Petersburg and Moscow at that time did not exceed 20-21 thousand people, i.e. 5% of the adult population of these cities. Taking into account that the leading role was assigned to the nobility both in zemstvo and city institutions, local self-government bodies were not created in those areas where there was no nobility, as, for example, in Siberia, or it was non-Russian by nationality (Poland, Lithuania, Right-bank Ukraine, western regions of Belarus, the Caucasus). And in the Russian provinces, the creation of zemstvo institutions dragged on for many decades and was completed only after the revolution of 1905-1907.

The competence of the City Duma included the following issues: the appointment of elected officials, the establishment of city fees, the addition of arrears, the establishment of rules on the management of city property, the acquisition of city real estate, and loans.

Judicial reform (1864) - the old pre-reform court was especially contrary to the needs of the country's bourgeois development. Firstly, the court was completely dependent on the administration, which interfered in the decisions of court cases, and was purely estate in nature (each estate had its own judicial bodies). Consequence. Indescribable red tape reigned in the courts (cases dragged on for many years), bribery and wild arbitrariness. All this caused general dissatisfaction with the existing judicial system.

On November 20, 1864, after consideration in the State Council, the tsar approved the judicial statutes. In total, four acts were put into effect:

1) Institutions of judicial institutions;

2) the Charter of criminal proceedings;

3) Charter of civil proceedings;

4) The Charter on the punishments imposed by justices of the peace.

The very order of legal proceedings was restructured on the basis of the following principles of equality of all before the law and the court, separation of the court from the administration and administration of justice only by the court, the creation of an all-class court, competitiveness, irremovability of judges and investigators, publicity, oral speech, immediacy, the right of the accused to defense, prosecutorial supervision , election (magistrates and jurors).

Judicial statutes provided for the creation of non-estate judicial institutions of two types - general courts and magistrates' courts.

Magistrates' Courts were established to hear petty criminal and civil cases. The verdict or decision of the magistrate could be appealed to the county congress of magistrates.

The system of general courts consisted of district courts and judicial chambers. The district court was the first instance of the system of general courts. There were 70 of them. Usually the judicial district coincided with the territory of the province. It was in the district court that the bulk of court cases, both criminal and civil, were considered.

Those criminal cases in which the defendants were threatened with punishments related to the deprivation or restriction of civil rights were considered with the participation of jurors.

The judicial chambers acted as the second instance in all criminal and civil cases. There were only 14 of them, each of them directed the activities of 8-10 district courts. At the same time, the judicial chamber considered, as the first instance, cases on charges of state, official and some other crimes. These cases were considered by the judicial chamber with the participation of class representatives. The Senate became the highest court, in which cassation departments were created. In addition, under the Senate in 1872, a Special Presence of the Senate was established to consider especially important political cases. Finally, cases of high officials and especially important cases could be considered in the Supreme Criminal Court.

The judicial reform was the most consistent bourgeois reform compared to others. But she also retained serious remnants of the feudal order. The separation of the court from the administration was inconsistent: the Senate, the country's highest judicial body, was also an administrative institution. Local courts were effectively controlled by the governors

Economic reform (1862-1868) - financial reform played a significant role in adapting the Russian state apparatus to the conditions of bourgeois development. Its essence was reduced to three main elements. The first of these is the streamlining of public finances. The fact is that before the reform, each department had both a budget and its own cash desk. Such an order did not ensure the accumulation of funds in the hands of the central government, and seriously hampered the accounting of expenses and incomes. There was practically no control over the spending of funds, which contributed to embezzlement and thrift.

The first element of the reform - the elimination of the financial independence of ministries and departments and the introduction of a single nationwide budget and a single nationwide cash desk - strengthened the firm order in spending funds. The state budget was now calculated by the Ministry of Finance.

The second element of the reform is the abolition of the state credit monopoly, which led to the creation of a wide network of commercial banks. The establishment, in addition to the State Bank, Peasant and Noble Banks, as well as a network of commercial banks, met the needs of capitalist development.

The third element of the reform is the change in the tax system. One of the main sources of income was "drink collection". He gave up to 40% of the revenue side of the budget. The state usually auctioned the right to sell vodka to tax-farmers, who contributed the entire amount to the budget, and then traded vodka at a monopoly price in their favor and made a lot of money. Wine farming caused the greatest hatred of the people. Since 1863, wine farms were abolished and free trade in vodka was introduced with the payment of excise duty to the treasury. The archaic salt tax has also been abolished. The poll tax, which was taken from the male census souls-peasants and philistines, was also abolished and replaced by a land tax for peasants and landowners and income tax for other taxpayers. Thus, the tax system also became all-class. But the main income was nevertheless given not by direct, but by indirect taxes, which fell with all their weight on the lower ranks of the people. The state also extracted considerable funds in the form of natural duties, which also extended to the peasants.

After carrying out such an extensive series of reforms necessary for bourgeois society. The proletariat acquired some rights. Russia was slowly becoming a capitalist country. Of course, there were still enough rights in the country there was no labor legislation, but the beginnings of a legal society were laid precisely thanks to the Great Reforms of the 60s, the social position of the proletariat began to improve.

3. Way of life and position of the proletariat in Russia at the beginning of the second half of the 19th century

Due to the absence of labor legislation and an overabundance of labor, the living conditions of the proletariat were extremely difficult. The breeders and manufacturers did not care about the workers at all. Barracks were built next to large factories, in which workers were settled; they had a minimum number of amenities, unsanitary conditions and viral diseases flourished. People settled in them at least 30 people per room. They ate in these rooms, slept in general, did everything in their free time from work. Often singles were settled in one barrack in a place with their families. Of the amenities and furniture in them were only wooden beds. There was always a stench in the room, the air was musty, there was practically no light in them.

Often, factories simply did not have barracks and people had to sleep at their workplaces in the workshops of the factory. Workers often fell ill with the most common occupational diseases: eye diseases, lung disease. Medical treatment was not provided to the sick, and severance pay due to illness was not given. People in any condition were required to work.

As a rule, until the 1880s, the hiring of workers for factory enterprises was practiced on the basis of a "verbal" or written contract for a period! for a year, most often "from Easter to Easter". Before the expiration of the established period, the workers' passports were taken to the office, and they were actually deprived of their liberty, not having the right to demand early payment. The arbitrariness of entrepreneurs was not limited to anything. The breeder, in turn, could fire the worker at any time. He also had the right to collect a fine from the workers at his discretion. The workers were not in any way protected from arbitrariness on the part of the authorities. The working day was extremely long, reaching up to 15 and sometimes up to 16 hours a day. The working week was 6 days, and sometimes the proletarians were forced to work on Sunday.

The work was hard, exhausting, it got to the point that the workers even died at the machines. For offenses, they could be subjected to corporal punishment, workers were sometimes beaten simply in order to force them to work or wake up those who fell asleep at the workplace.

The labor of women and children was widely practiced; it was paid lower than the labor of men, and they came to work almost as much as men. It was profitable for entrepreneurs to hire children and women to work, such a situation suited them and no moral and ethical standards were an obstacle for them.

The state made attempts to improve the situation, but as a rule they did not lead to anything, the position of the proletariat remained the same.

Not only the work of workers was regulated, but also their personal lives: in many enterprises, workers were forced to buy goods in a hardware store at inflated prices and of poorer quality; those who lived in the factory barracks were absent at certain times. The workers were not protected from bullying and insults from the owner and his henchmen. In Moscow, for example, until the early 90s of the XIX century. rods were used at the Karl Thiel and Co. factory.

The salary was meager, it was hardly enough to squeeze out. The workers were thin, emaciated, they had practically no strength left to work, let alone to somehow satisfy their needs.

Undoubtedly, this state of affairs could not but cause discontent among the proletariat, which already in the 60-70s began to manifest itself in the form of spontaneous

speeches. In the 60s, unrest was observed at the factories of the Urals and in the central provinces (the Maltsevsky plant in the Kaluga province, the Morozov factory in Orekhovo-Zuev, etc.). Only in 1861 there were 4 strikes and 12 unrest of industrial workers. The number of these protests grew rapidly (according to P.A. Khromov, over 200 strikes and 100 unrest were registered in the 1970s). The strikes at the Neva paper spinning mill (1870) and the Krenholm manufactory (1872), which took place in the immediate vicinity of the capital of the empire, acquired a special scope.

The growing discontent of the workers, and then the emergence of Russian social democracy, became an important phenomenon in the Russian social movement in post-reform Russia. With the increase in the number of the proletariat, during the industrial revolution, its organization and cohesion grew, which led to attempts to create the first workers' organizations. In May 1875 c.

Odessa, the "South Russian Union of Workers" arose, headed by E.O. Zaslavsky. The organization had its own charter, where the main goal was formulated - the overthrow of the political system that existed in the country through a violent coup. The organization was under the influence of populist ideology, which affected certain parts of the charter.

In December 1878, the "Northern Union of Russian Workers" was formed in San Petersburg, headed by V.P. Obnorsky and S.N. Khalturin, which included about 200 workers. The organization expressed its position in the appeal "To the Russian Workers", which clearly indicated the need for political struggle, the demand for political freedom, and called on the workers to unite. The appeal spoke of the need to abolish private ownership of land and establish communal land ownership, the creation of workers' associations to organize production. Already in January of the following year, the government made arrests of members of this organization. S.N. Khalturin managed to escape from the police and subsequently engaged in terrorism.

In 1880, the first issue of the workers' newspaper Rabochaya Zarya was published, but the printing house was destroyed, and the issue of the newspaper was confiscated, which actually meant the termination of the organization's activities.

The workers' organizations of the 1970s contributed to the growth of activity and solidarity of the Russian proletariat, introduced it to the experience and traditions of the international proletariat.

4. Development of labor legislation in Russia in the second half of the 19th century

4.1 The struggle of the proletariat for rights

One of the largest organized strikes of the proletarians in the Russian Empire was called the "Morozov strike" due to the fact that it took place at the large textile factory "Nikolskie manufactory", owned by a major Russian entrepreneur, philanthropist and generous philanthropist Savva Morozov. The strike began on January 7, 1885, at that time his father, Timofey Savvich, managed the factory. Terrible and cruel owner. He introduced a strict system of fines for the slightest violation or deviation from the established work schedule. The strike was suppressed by the government, but the court that followed revealed Morozov's terrible abuses against the workers. After that, he retired, and the management of the factory passed to his son Savva Timofeevich.

Savva Morozov hastened, first of all, to abolish his father's harsh measures. He eliminated the system of fines, and improved the working conditions of workers. The workers of the Morozov factories began to work in spacious and bright workshops with good ventilation. They lived in barracks equipped with steam heating, ventilation, separate kitchens, and laundries. In the factory hospital, workers received free medicines and treatment. Savva Morozov did not forget about education either. Savva Morozov paid extra for workers who studied at free advanced training courses for each school day. After completing the courses, the salary increased for all those who achieved success in their studies. Very soon, the Nikolskaya manufactory became the third most profitable production among all the factories and factories of the Russian Empire. Morozov products won awards at world exhibitions, received a huge number of diplomas and medals for excellent product quality, and even began to displace English products in Persia and China. Savva Morozov's net income was approximately 250 thousand rubles. per year, given, for example, that Prime Minister S. Witte received ten times less.

The organizers and leaders of the strike were the workers of the Nikolskaya manufactory P.A. Moiseenko and V.S. Volkov. About 8,000 of the 11,000 workers of the manufactory took part in the strike, that is, practically all the workers.

The reason for the strike was the industrial crisis of the early 1880s, which sharply worsened the situation of workers in the factory. The strike was also caused by the fact that the workers were reduced wages as much as 5 times in the period from 1882 to 1884. Fines imposed on the worker could reach almost half of the wages. These economic reasons prompted the workers to organize a strike.

The main demand of the workers was to increase their wages to the level of 1881, that is, to the crisis level. The workers also demanded a reduction in fines to 5% of wages. On January 11, they handed over to the Vladimir governor "Demands by common consent of the workers", in which they asked to establish state supervision and control over working conditions in factories and factories. And also legislatively adopt changes in the conditions of employment.

To suppress the strike, 5 hundred Cossacks and 3 infantry battalions were involved, under the personal leadership of the Vladimir governor who arrived in Orekhovo-Zuyevo. More than 500 workers were arrested. The strike was finally crushed on January 17 after a series of clashes between the strikers and government troops.

After the strike, 32 people were put on trial, but they were acquitted by a jury, due to the plight of the workers and violations by the management of the enterprise. The strikers were subjected to non-judicial punishment: about 800 workers were deported to their homeland under the supervision of the police, P.A. Moiseenko was exiled for 5 years to the Arkhangelsk province, V.S. Volkov - for 3 years in the Vologda province.

After the strike, wages were not raised, but the workers nevertheless achieved some results, they were reimbursed fines in the period from October 1, 1884 to 1885.

4.2 Acts 1882 and 1885 about child labor

The law of June 1, 1882 established a ban on the work of children under 12 years old, for children 12-15 years old limited the time of work to 8 hours a day (moreover, no more than 4 hours without a break) and prohibited night work (from 9 pm to 5 am) and Sunday work, and also prohibited the use of child labor in hazardous industries. Business owners were required to "enable" children who did not have a certificate of completion from at least a one-class public school or an equivalent educational institution to attend schools for at least 3 hours a day or 18 hours a week.

Initially, it was intended to extend the law on the work of children to all industrial establishments, but the Council of State considered it more cautious for the first time to limit its scope to factories. The law was supposed to come into force on May 1, 1883, but at the request of Moscow manufacturers, its introduction was postponed until May 1, 1884, and for another two years, by permission of the Minister of Finance, the work of children 10-12 years old was allowed "if necessary" and night work (no more than 4 hours) for children aged 12-15. At the same time, an institute of factory inspection was founded to monitor the implementation of the law and a chief inspector (E.N. Andreev) and two district inspectors were appointed, in Moscow (Professor I.I. Yanzhul) and in Vladimir (Doctor P.A. Peskov), engaged at first in the study of factory life. Following this, a law was issued on June 12, 1884 on the schooling of children, and the first change was made in the law in 1882, which allowed children to work six hours continuously instead of eight hours, four hours with a break. At the same time, the composition of the inspection was increased to nine districts with ten assistants. Although the supervision of the inspectorate extended only to the European part of the Russian Empire, nevertheless, the insufficiency of its composition forced the use of excise inspectors, who were entrusted with supervision at factories that paid excise taxes.

Laws 1882 and 1885 had the meaning of temporary rules; the Minister of Finance was given the right to submit final proposals to the Council of State after two and three years. This period was extended until 1890. The bill introduced in 1890 by the Minister of Finance I.A. Vyshnegradsky somewhat weakened the significance of the original laws. From now on, juvenile workers could, "when the nature of the industry makes it necessary," engage in work for 9 hours in two shifts of 4.5 hours. In the glass industry, it was even allowed to put juveniles on 6 hours of night work. The statutory night time has in certain cases been reduced to between 10 pm and 4 am. This law ("On changing the regulations on the work of minors, adolescents and females in factories, factories and manufactories and on the extension of the rules on the work and education of minors to craft institutions") was adopted by the State Council and approved by the highest on April 24, 1890.

4.3 Conditions of Employment Act 1886

The introduction of the laws just mentioned coincided with the industrial crisis, and since there were no rules regulating the mutual relations between employers and workers in Russian legislation, this crisis affected the workers especially hard. The extraordinary diversity of the orders established in the factories, which gave wide scope for arbitrariness, led to major unrest in the factories of the Vladimir and Moscow provinces, which required the intervention of military force.

Shortly thereafter, a law was issued on June 3, 1886. It consisted of two parts: general rules for hiring, extending to the entire Russian Empire, and "special rules on the supervision of factories in the factory industry and on the mutual relations of manufacturers and workers", which are part of the development of the said rules, partly new resolutions directly related to the newly formed supervisory bodies - the provincial and metropolitan presences in matters of factory legislation.

The law of 1886 established the procedure for hiring and firing workers: each worker was given a standard paybook during the week, and the acceptance of it by the worker was considered an act of concluding an employment contract on the conditions set forth in the book. A number of important aspects of the relationship between the administration of enterprises and workers were regulated. In particular, it was forbidden to pay workers with conventional signs, bread, goods and other items (except coupons), as well as to take interest from workers for money lent to them. It was forbidden to charge workers for medical assistance, lighting workshops and the use of production tools. The activities of food shops were streamlined to supply workers with the most important products: the factory inspection limited the range of goods and approved prices. It was allowed to collect fines from workers only "for faulty work", "for absenteeism" and for "violation of order"; the essence of these reasons was explained and the maximum fines were established. The total amount of fines for calculation could not exceed a third of the worker's earnings. The transfer of penalty money into profit was prohibited, a special penalty capital was drawn up, which could only be spent on benefits to workers. The liability of manufacturers for violation of the rules (fines or legal proceedings) was established. The factory inspectorate was entrusted with the tasks of monitoring compliance with all rules governing labor relations, considering workers' complaints and resolving conflicts, as well as reviewing and approving taxes, time sheets, schedules and internal regulations in factories and plants.

For mining plants and industries (mining), which are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture and State Property, the rules governing the time and duration of work and the law of 1886 were extended in 1892, first in the European part of the Russian Empire, and then everywhere. For mining, the institutions for factory legislation were replaced by institutions for mining affairs under six mining departments; the duties of senior inspectors were assigned to the heads of mining departments, the duties of district inspectors were assigned to district mining engineers.

4.4 Limitation of Working Hours Act 1897

Only on June 2, 1897, after a long discussion, the law "On the duration and distribution of working time in the establishments of the factory industry" was adopted.

This law provided for the introduction of restrictions on the working day until 11 and a half hours, and in the case of work at night, as well as on Saturdays and before holidays, up to 10 hours. The law also forbade working on Sundays and established 14 obligatory holidays. By "mutual agreement" the workers could work on a Sunday instead of a weekday. At the same time, in addition to the working hours established by this law, overtime work could also be introduced under a special contract. The law came into force on January 1, 1898, was immediately extended to 60 provinces of European Russia and covered all industrial establishments and mining, private and state-owned (although in practice a shorter working day was already established at state-owned factories) .

Conclusion

The formation of the proletariat class in Russia was slow and not always successful, the working class had to stubbornly and for a long time win freedom from oppression, normal working conditions, medical care, and everything that we now consider the norm, we take for granted. The workers of the second half of the 19th century did not have anything like this, but they did not give up, did not give up, continued to work and at the same time tried to defend their rights, form social movements, organize strikes and strikes. With each new year, their fate became better, every year they won, albeit not significant indulgences, but very significant for themselves. After all, every step taken towards equality cannot but remain unnoticed.

People like Sava Morozov, A.I. Herzen, N.G. Chernyshevsky was concerned about the fate of a simple Russian worker who never ate enough, who sometimes had to sleep at his machine tool, who had nothing to wear and nothing to feed his children. Each of them tried to help these people in their own way. For example, Sava Morozov helped the workers directly, improving working conditions in their factories and plants. A.I. Although Herzen was far from the people due to the fact that he lived in London, he never forgot about their difficulties and tried to support them with a word, publishing the Kolokol magazine.

The workers had to go a long and hard way to the turn of the century, but in the 20th century an even more brutal struggle for their rights awaited them, the people would go through 3 revolutions and a civil war, and even after that their life would be far from ideal. Let's go back to the end of the 19th century, and so what was the proletariat able to achieve by the end of the century, and what was its position.

Let's start in order the most significant reform of the 19th century, undoubtedly, is the abolition of serfdom, this reform significantly increased the number of workers in the Russian Empire. The next in chronological order are the great reforms of the 60s, as a result of these reforms, the workers had the opportunity to defend their rights in court, to participate in the management of their city through zemstvo meetings. Also now they could receive education thanks to the reform of education. The reforms have improved the country in general, and therefore the life of citizens has become better.

But let's not forget about children, because as we know in the Russian Empire, the labor of children was used everywhere, they had to work almost on an equal basis with the rest, and their labor was much cheaper, so it was profitable to hire them. Only on June 1, 1882, a law was passed prohibiting the labor of children under 12 years of age. And for children under 15, the working day was set to no more than 8 hours. Although the conditions of child labor have become much better, they still remained monstrous for our understanding, it is difficult for us to even imagine how a 12-year-old child, dirty and half-dressed, will carry baskets with spare parts that were slightly smaller than himself. By the way, breeders and manufacturers were very opposed to the adoption of this law, which once again proves the difference between modern society and the society of people who lived in the second half of the 19th century.

Another problem that workers in the Russian Empire constantly had to deal with was hiring. It was extremely difficult to find jobs with little fry normal working conditions, and when a worker found her, the main condition for hiring was that the contract, as a rule, was concluded for a year and for all this time the worker's passport was taken to the office. And for the whole year, he was like a slave, because he couldn’t leave the factory anywhere, and the breeder, on the contrary, had almost complete freedom of action, he could fire and fine workers at his discretion. Only on June 3, 1886, the situation partially improved. Legislatively, the conditions of employment were the same for all workers, and now a state body has been formed to exercise control over plants and factories, it has received the name provincial and metropolitan presences for factory legislation.

Another problem was a very long working day at some factories, it reached 16 hours, and the working week was 6 days, and sometimes they worked on Sundays. But on June 2, 1897, the workers were still able to achieve a reduction in the working day to 11 and a half hours, which, in other respects, was exactly a lot.

In conclusion, I would like to note that despite all the difficulties, the life of the workers improved, but unfortunately too slowly. We all know what the dissatisfaction of the workers with their lives has resulted in. This should be a lesson for milestones, because humanity has already made this mistake so many times that it would be extremely stupid to repeat it again. I would like to complete my work with the words of Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky "History is not a teacher, but an educator, a mentor of life; it does not teach anything, but only punishes for ignorance of the lessons."

Bibliography

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2. Baryshnikov M.N. History of the Russian business world: A guide for university students. - M., 1989.

3. Belousov D. Two peasant reforms: 1861 and 1907. The Economist - 1992. - No. 12 - p. 73-81.

4. Blagikh V.B. Count Witte's convertible ruble: Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences. - 1994. - No. 5 - p. 67-82.

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6. Witte S.Yu. Selected Memoirs: 1849-1911. - M.: Thought, 1994.

7. Witte S.Yu. National Economics and Friedrich List: (1889 ed.). Questions of Economics. - 1995-№4 - p. 89-98.

8. World history. In 12 vols. - M., 1965-1981.

9. Zaichkin G.P., Pochkaev I.S. Russian History: From Catherine the Great to Alexander II. - M., 1996.

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12. Karavaeva A.D. the role of the state in the development of entrepreneurship in Russia until 1917. Questions of Economics. - 1996. - No. 9. - P.23-32.

13. Klyuchevsky S.A. Works in 9 vols. - M., 1979-1990.

14. Kornilov D.I. History of Russia in the 19th century. - M., 1989.

15. Nechaev V.V. Coins of Russia. - Omsk, 1998.

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17. Pavlov S.Yu. History of the Russian political economy, A guide for universities. - M.: Aspet - Press, 1997.

18. Platonov A.A. Economy of Russian civilization. - M., 1996.

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20. Pushkareva I., Stepanov A. "Golden" ruble in the monetary system of Russia in 1889-1917. Questions of Economics. - 1993-No. 4 - pp. 224-238.

21. Sirotkin V. Count Witte - a civilized industrializer of the country, Svobodnaya mysl-1991 - No. 18-p.73-82; EVO On the activities of Witte in the economic development of Russia. - 1993-No. 9 - pp. 234-246.

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