Labour conflicts at Russian industrial enterprises in 1914-1917 (based on materials from the provinces of the Central Industrial Region)

Abstract

Labour conflicts at Russian industrial enterprises during World War I were traditionally considered in historiography to be the part of the protest movement of workers with a predominance of a political component, in an inextricable connection with the revolutionary events of 1917. The expansion of the information potential of the source base allows rising new questions and checking the theses on based not on aggregated data and not on the example of individual conflicts, but on the basis of a wide range of data presented in the “strike by strike” format. The article examines the dynamics of the strike movement of workers during World War I (from July 1914 to February 1917), as well as the nature of the demands put forward and the results of these conflicts, based on materials from the provinces of the Central Industrial Region of Russia. In addition, the issue of the degree of importance of the political component in the strike movement of workers in the period under review is considered. The study made it possible to conclude that the strikes of workers at the enterprises of the Central Industrial Region during the war years included mainly labour conflicts, in the course of which the economic demands put forward by the workers became priority. An increase in the number of political uprisings occurred in late 1916 – early 1917, when, against the background of growing food shortages and deteriorating inflation, economic demands began to be addressed to local and central authorities.