HIST 236 Lecture 11: Lecture 11 - Marxists and Working-Class Politics
19 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Russia's Working Class
Russia's working class grew steadily in size and became more militant
as industrialization accelerated in the 1880s and 1890s
-
Some historians have argued that Russia's working class was
distinctive because it maintained strong ties to the countryside and
because of peasants' traditional rebelliousness
-
Others argued it was the urban experience that radicalized them
-
Urban Living Conditions
Living conditions in the cities were horrible, exacerbated by the flood
of new arrivals from the countryside
Housing was dirty, crowded and scarce
○
The cost of living was high
○
-
When they were not working, workers spent their time carousing and
drinking
-
Social mobility for workers remained limited
-
Kids were living here too and were left to roam by themselves
-
They were not able to cook in this area so they were dependant on
factory food and kiosks
-
Workers are upset about economic grievances
Not making very much money and food is expensive
○
Married men spent 3-5% of their annual income on vodka
○
Single men spent 10% of their income on vodka
○
If you were a worker, it was very hard to do anything else
○
-
Working Conditions
Labour regulations were slow to develop and were inconsistently
applied
-
Child labour was banned but still widely used
-
Workers were unskilled/low-skilled and seen as undisciplined
unpopular disciplinary mechanisms like piece rates were adopted
Paid per widget
○
Make them work to produce a norm, get paid more if they
produce more than the norm (not paid per hour)
○
Deduct money from people's wages if they broke things or
produced bad work so their pay could be irregular
○
-
Workers were usually let go if they got sick or pregnant
Pushed into the most low paying and unskilled jobs
○
Paid about 1/4 less than men
○
-
Labour Unions and Strike Activity
Unions and strikes were illegal in Russia but happened frequently
amid poor working conditions and economic grievances
-
The government view efforts to organize workers with suspicion and
cracked down on unionizers and strike-leaders
-
Most strikes in the late 19th century were related to economic
grievances; they grew more political by the early 20th century
-
Russia's Socialists
Many socialists were not of working class origin but were members of
the elite or had benefited from the opportunity to go to university
Participated in student strikes
○
-
Marxist socialists encouraged the development of "consciousness" in
to proletariat
-
Some Russian socialists (especially with anarchist/populist tendencies)
thought the country could skip industrial capitalism and go straight to
agrarian socialism (Marx disagreed)
Marx thought the revolution was going to break out in Germany
or Britain
○
Thought that Russia could skip over the industrial phase - end
goal is agrarian socialism
○
-
Marxists
The first Russian Marxist group was "Emancipation of Labour"
founded by Georgy Plekhanov in Geneva
-
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was founded in Minsk in
1898
Raided by the Ohkrana and they are exiled, so they are doing
their activity abroad
○
This is a predecessor of the Communist party
○
-
The RSDLP had its own newspaper Iskra (the spark)
Vladimir Lenin was its managing director
The Spark is from a Pushkin poem
§
○
-
Vladimir Lenin
Lenin came from a wealthy, but liberal-minded family
His father was ennobled
○
His brother was hanged as a revolutionary as the Tsar's death
○
-
Lenin was arrested for participating in student protests as a youth
-
In the 1890s, he worked as a lawyer in St. Petersburg but continued
his revolutionary activities
-
Lenin was a key player in the "Bolshevik-Menshevik" split over the
issue of a party membership (he argued for a narrower and more
strict definition)
-
Emerges as an uncompromising and aggressive revolutionary
-
Advocates for developing a small, trained group of revolutionaries
-
Problem with having a non-hierarchical organization is that nothing
gets done
Lenin says they are going to train revolutionaries who distribute
propaganda
○
Lenin's faction within the communist party was the Bolsheviks
(minority) - the Mensheviks were the minority
○
-
Jewish Socialists
The Jewish Labour Bund was a secular Jewish socialist party that
sought to unite Jewish workers and cooperate with the RSDLP to
create a socialist Russia and win rights for Russia's Jews
-
The Bund was popular in the western borderlands
-
The Bund split with the RSDLP at its Second Congress in London, after
the Bund proposed to retain an autonomous position within the larger
socialist movement, a proposal that was rejected
Advocating for a specific approach to Jewish politics
○
-
Socialist Revolutionaries
Socialist revolutionaries integrated some Marxist ideas into their
platform and thought that a revolution was coming
-
They had a more expansive notion of toiler including both industrial
workers and peasants
There should be no more peasants by the time of the
revolution, they should be workers now
○
-
The Socialist Revolutionary Party (formed in 1902) brought together
various populist and anarchist groups that had been operating since
the 1880s
-
They remained committed to terror as a political tool
Behind many assassinations of Tsarist officials in the
1880s-1890s
○
"A socialist revolutionary without a bond, is not a socialist
revolutionary"
○
-
They believe that Russia's revolution is going to be a more agrarian
one
-
Redeemer - vladimir
Lecture 11 -Marxists and Working-Class Politics
Thursday, February 1, 2018
12:10 PM
Russia's Working Class
Russia's working class grew steadily in size and became more militant
as industrialization accelerated in the 1880s and 1890s
-
Some historians have argued that Russia's working class was
distinctive because it maintained strong ties to the countryside and
because of peasants' traditional rebelliousness
-
Others argued it was the urban experience that radicalized them
-
Urban Living Conditions
Living conditions in the cities were horrible, exacerbated by the flood
of new arrivals from the countryside
Housing was dirty, crowded and scarce
○
The cost of living was high
○
-
When they were not working, workers spent their time carousing and
drinking
-
Social mobility for workers remained limited
-
Kids were living here too and were left to roam by themselves
-
They were not able to cook in this area so they were dependant on
factory food and kiosks
-
Workers are upset about economic grievances
Not making very much money and food is expensive
○
Married men spent 3-5% of their annual income on vodka
○
Single men spent 10% of their income on vodka
○
If you were a worker, it was very hard to do anything else
○
-
Working Conditions
Labour regulations were slow to develop and were inconsistently
applied
-
Child labour was banned but still widely used
-
Workers were unskilled/low-skilled and seen as undisciplined
unpopular disciplinary mechanisms like piece rates were adopted
Paid per widget
○
Make them work to produce a norm, get paid more if they
produce more than the norm (not paid per hour)
○
Deduct money from people's wages if they broke things or
produced bad work so their pay could be irregular
○
-
Workers were usually let go if they got sick or pregnant
Pushed into the most low paying and unskilled jobs
○
Paid about 1/4 less than men
○
-
Labour Unions and Strike Activity
Unions and strikes were illegal in Russia but happened frequently
amid poor working conditions and economic grievances
-
The government view efforts to organize workers with suspicion and
cracked down on unionizers and strike-leaders
-
Most strikes in the late 19th century were related to economic
grievances; they grew more political by the early 20th century
-
Russia's Socialists
Many socialists were not of working class origin but were members of
the elite or had benefited from the opportunity to go to university
Participated in student strikes
○
-
Marxist socialists encouraged the development of "consciousness" in
to proletariat
-
Some Russian socialists (especially with anarchist/populist tendencies)
thought the country could skip industrial capitalism and go straight to
agrarian socialism (Marx disagreed)
Marx thought the revolution was going to break out in Germany
or Britain
○
Thought that Russia could skip over the industrial phase - end
goal is agrarian socialism
○
-
Marxists
The first Russian Marxist group was "Emancipation of Labour"
founded by Georgy Plekhanov in Geneva
-
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was founded in Minsk in
1898
Raided by the Ohkrana and they are exiled, so they are doing
their activity abroad
○
This is a predecessor of the Communist party
○
-
The RSDLP had its own newspaper Iskra (the spark)
Vladimir Lenin was its managing director
The Spark is from a Pushkin poem
§
○
-
Vladimir Lenin
Lenin came from a wealthy, but liberal-minded family
His father was ennobled
○
His brother was hanged as a revolutionary as the Tsar's death
○
-
Lenin was arrested for participating in student protests as a youth
-
In the 1890s, he worked as a lawyer in St. Petersburg but continued
his revolutionary activities
-
Lenin was a key player in the "Bolshevik-Menshevik" split over the
issue of a party membership (he argued for a narrower and more
strict definition)
-
Emerges as an uncompromising and aggressive revolutionary
-
Advocates for developing a small, trained group of revolutionaries
-
Problem with having a non-hierarchical organization is that nothing
gets done
Lenin says they are going to train revolutionaries who distribute
propaganda
○
Lenin's faction within the communist party was the Bolsheviks
(minority) - the Mensheviks were the minority
○
-
Jewish Socialists
The Jewish Labour Bund was a secular Jewish socialist party that
sought to unite Jewish workers and cooperate with the RSDLP to
create a socialist Russia and win rights for Russia's Jews
-
The Bund was popular in the western borderlands
-
The Bund split with the RSDLP at its Second Congress in London, after
the Bund proposed to retain an autonomous position within the larger
socialist movement, a proposal that was rejected
Advocating for a specific approach to Jewish politics
○
-
Socialist Revolutionaries
Socialist revolutionaries integrated some Marxist ideas into their
platform and thought that a revolution was coming
-
They had a more expansive notion of toiler including both industrial
workers and peasants
There should be no more peasants by the time of the
revolution, they should be workers now
○
-
The Socialist Revolutionary Party (formed in 1902) brought together
various populist and anarchist groups that had been operating since
the 1880s
-
They remained committed to terror as a political tool
Behind many assassinations of Tsarist officials in the
1880s-1890s
○
"A socialist revolutionary without a bond, is not a socialist
revolutionary"
○
-
They believe that Russia's revolution is going to be a more agrarian
one
-
Redeemer - vladimir
Lecture 11 -Marxists and Working-Class Politics
Thursday, February 1, 2018 12:10 PM
Document Summary
Russia"s working class grew steadily in size and became more militant as industrialization accelerated in the 1880s and 1890s. Some historians have argued that russia"s working class was distinctive because it maintained strong ties to the countryside and because of peasants" traditional rebelliousness. Others argued it was the urban experience that radicalized them. Living conditions in the cities were horrible, exacerbated by the flood of new arrivals from the countryside. When they were not working, workers spent their time carousing and drinking. Kids were living here too and were left to roam by themselves. They were not able to cook in this area so they were dependant on factory food and kiosks. Not making very much money and food is expensive. Married men spent 3-5% of their annual income on vodka. Single men spent 10% of their income on vodka. If you were a worker, it was very hard to do anything else.
