On the Nature of the Russian Working Class

Abstract

Elucidation of the class struggle occupies an important place in historical research. However, in most cases, classes are regarded only as the subjects, not the objects, of history. What actually constituted social classes in the various phases of their history? An answer to this question presupposes a characterization of the nature of a class. We will make an attempt at such a characterization with regard to the Russian proletariat at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century.