Tsarist Labor Policy, 1881-1904

Russia experienced a revolution just forty five years after the Reforms in 1861, and the collapse of tsarist regime itself and the advent of the first socialist regime in a dozen of years after that. The working class played a pivotal role in the process. It is very surprising for the Russian workers to get a revolutionary class consciousness in so short a time. Many scholars have made efforts to clear up its causes, but there were few who definitely stressed the tsarist labor policy as one of the most important causes. This paper is an attempt to reveal the close relation between the tsarist labor policy and the class formation of Russian workers. The tsarist government pursued two contradictory goals; a rapid industrialization which means a capitalist development on the one hand, and a consolidation of the tsarist regime which was pseudo-feudalist in character on the other. Such a contradiction was wholly reflected on the labor policy. The ruling class in Russia never acknowledged the emergence of the working class as a new social force. The attitude seemed to be based on their view of the workers as 'serfs'. In effect, they had neither acknowledged them as a partner to talk with, nor allowed them the right to speak for themselves until they were compelled to do so in 1905. What made the situation worse was the rivalry within government itself, that is, between the ministries which were in charge of labor affairs, especially between the ministry of finance and the ministry of the interior