Bolsheviks and Metal Workers on the Eve of the First World War

Abstract

How much influence did the Bolsheviks have over the Russian labour movement on the eve of the First World War? The question is important. If the Bolshevik influence was small, it can, and has been argued that the post 1905 'constitutional' regime in Russia was working. The labour movement was turning towards Western reformism and eschewing revolutionary struggle. But for the war, Russia would have evolved into a Western constitutional monarchy. Conversely, if the labour movement was already under Bolshevik control as early as 1913-14, revolution in Russia would appear to have been inevitable, war or no war. The debate is old and familiar, yet the question of how reformist or Bolshevik the labour movement was in 1914 has not been adequately resolved. Writing in Slavic Review in 1964, Professor L. Haimson made it clear that Russia experienced a wave of industrial unrest during the years immediately preceding the war. This 'upturn' in the workers' movement coincided with a 'swing to the left'. The Bolsheviks were apparently able to win back the ground lost after the defeat of the 1905 Revolution. Although reduced to a minuscule group of emigres between 1909-11, by 1914 they had won control of the labour movement. In 1914 all the major trade unions were under their influence.1 Professor Schapiro, on the other hand, gives a very different picture of the Bolsheviks in 1914. The underground committees had collapsed, there was no money, the circulation of Pravda had fallen off under the impact of the split in the Social Democratic Duma group. Later in the year, the leader of the Bolsheviks in the Duma was revealed as a provocateur; in short, the Bolsheviks were at their lowest ebb. Lenin had overplayed his hand.2 How can the Bolsheviks be at their lowest ebb, yet control the