Ալեքսանդրապոլ-Կարս երկաթգծի շինարարության բանվորների սոցիալական վիճակը

Abstract

The development of capitalist relations in the last quarter of the 19th century introduced significant changes in the social structure of Eastern Armenians. The disintegration and stratification of the peasantry created favorable conditions for the formation of a new productive force - the working class. The construction of the railway, which started in the region in the 90s of the XIX century, also played a big role in it. The so-called "construction of the century" created favorable conditions for the formation of the largest and most influential group of Eastern Armenian workers. Combining the archival documents and periodical press reports of the time allows us to assume that up to 10,000 people worked on the construction of the Tiflis-Alexandrapol-Kars railway. Despite their outnumbering, the railway workers lived and worked in the most challenging social conditions. Absolute disenfranchisement, low pay, the arbitrariness of employers, lack of social guarantees, and safety rules created favorable conditions for the activation of social movements. The mass demonstrations, sometimes spontaneous, yet more often organized, began in December 1896 and continued until World War I, keeping the authorities in a constant state of tension.