Conclusion

Abstract

What conclusions can be drawn from this study of the labour movement in Russia? Firstly, and perhaps rather obviously, we can conclude that there was a labour movement in Russia during the years 1907–14. It hardly bears comparison with the traditional image of western labour movements nor, indeed, with the promise of the ‘years of freedom’, yet when all the necessary qualifications have been made about the majority of workers retaining their links with the countryside, being ‘backward’, and capable only of an unorganised peasant rebellion or ‘bunt’, it is clear that a relatively small group of workers, the young, the highly skilled, the second-generation workers, did see trade unionism as a method of defending their interests. The labour movement after the ‘years of freedom’ could never be led by an Orthodox priest like Gapon.