Abstract
The workers’ groups* — examples of responsible social democracy or ‘bourgeois Zubatovshchina’; instruments of social peace or organizational centre for revolution. These epithets and others equally contradictory have been used to describe the organs of worker representation sponsored by the VPKs. No other aspect of the committees has attracted so much attention from historians but remained as elusive as these groups of workers’ representatives.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
See, for example, M.T. Florinsky, The End of the Russian Empire (New York, 1961) pp. 163–5;
M. Ferro, La Revolution de 1917 (Paris, 1967) pp. 58–9; Katkov, Russia 1917 pp. 4756, 147–8, 317–20;
M. Liebman, The Russian Revolution, trans. A.J. Pomerans (London, 1970) pp. 87–8;
and J.L.H. Keep, The Russian Revolution: A Study in Mass Mobilization (New York, 1976) pp. 53–7, 557.
The term is used explicitly by Laverychev, Tsarizm i rabochii vopros p. 300, and I.P. Leiberov, ‘Petrogradskii proletariat v gody pervoi mirovoi voiny’, in Istoriia rabochikh Leningrada vol. I, p. 490. See also L.S. Gaponenko, Rabochii klass Rossii v 1917 godu (Moscow, 1970) pp. 129–36, and Borisov, Bor’ba bol’shevikov protiv voennopromyshlennykh komitetov, passim.
For Chelnokov’s view, see Burzhuaziia nakanune p. 34. See also B.B. Grave, K istorii klassovoi bor’by v Rossii v gody imperialisticheskoi voiny (Moscow and Leningrad, 1926) p. 139.
V. Skal’tsov, ‘K voprosu ob uchastii rabochikh v TsVPKe’, Voprosy Strakhovaniia, no. 7 (45) (1915) p. 3.
S.V. Tiutiukin, Voina, mir, revoliutsiia. Ideinaia bor’ba v rabochem dvizhenii Rossii, 1914–1917 gg. (Moscow, 1972) p. 206.
V.N. Zalezhskii, Is vospominanii podpol’-shehika (Khar’kov, 1931) p. 131. Zalezhskii admits that ‘the entire election campaign proceeded virtually freely and without mass arrests’.
Izvestiia zagranichnogo sekretariata OK R.S.D.R.P. no. 3, 5 Feb. 1916 quoted in B. Dvinov, Pervaia mirovaia voina i Rossiiskaia Sotsial-demokratiia (Inter-University Project on the History of the Menshevik Movement, no. 10, New York, 1962) p. 74.
Deklaratsiia’, quoted in ibid., pp. 74–5. See also A.A. Abramov, ‘Bor’ba bol’shevistskikh organizatsii protiv sotsial-shovinizma i tsentrizma v Rossii (1914-fev. 1917)’, Voprosy istorii KPSS, no. 11 (1963) pp. 52, 55.
Antivoennaia rabota bol’shevikov v gody pervoi mirovoi voiny, 1914–1917 gg.’, Istoricheskii Arkhiv, no. 5 (1961) pp. 85–8. The Petersburg Committee’s instructions are discussed in I.P. Leiberov, ‘O vozniknovenii revoliutsionnoi situatsii v Rossii v gody pervoi mirovoi voiny (iiul’-sent. 1915 g.)’, Istoriia SSSR, no. 6 (1964) pp. 50–1.
Doklad Ministru vnutrennykh del’ (25 Sept. 1915), TsGAOR, f. 102 (1915), d. 347, 11. 14–19. Shliapnikov wrote to Lenin on 30 November that ‘at several factories Mensheviks were elected but they were given Bolshevik instructions….There were also instances where Bolsheviks were given Menshevik instructions.’ He concluded that ’the attitude of the workers is not easy to make out’. Quoted in K.F. Sidorov, ’Rabochee dvizhenie v Rossii v gody imperialisticheskoi voiny, 1914–1917 gg.’, in Ocherki po istorii Oktiabr’skoi revoliutsii, ed. M.N. Pokrovskii, 2 vols (Moscow and Leningrad, 1927) vol. I, p. 409.
The fullest accounts of the meeting are in A.G. Shliapnikov, Kanun semnadtsatogo goda: Vospominaniia i dokumenty o rabochem dvizhenii i revoliutsionnom podpol’e za 1914–1916 gg. (Moscow, 1923) pp. 112–35; and ‘Doklad Ministru vnutrennykh del’ (30 Nov. 1915), TsGAOR, f. 102 (1915), d. 347, 11. 133–46.
Russkie Vedomosti no. 261, 13 Nov. 1915, p. 4 and Izv. MVPKa no. 8 Nov. 1915, pp. 43–4. Returns from other cities are scarce and provide little basis for comparison. In Kiev, where a workers’ group was elected, 62.8 per cent of those eligible cast votes. In Khar’kov, where the boycottists proved victorious, only 35 per cent voted, while it was reported that less than half of Nikolaev’s workers (not all of whom were eligible) participated in the election which resulted in three representatives being sent to the War-Industries Committee. See Izv. TsVPKa, no. 159, 18 Oct. 1916, p. 3 and V.L. Kharitonov, ‘Bor’ba bol’shevikov Ukrainy za boikot voenno-promyshlennykh komitetov’, Nauchnye doklady vyshei shkoly istoricheskoi nauki no. 4 (1958) pp. 63–6.
Nizhegorodskii gubernskii nachal’nik direk toru D.P.’, TsGAOR, f. 102 (1915), d. 347 prilozhenie, 1. 53; Izv. MVPKa, no. 17–18, Mar. 1916, p. 170; Ia. Bazanov, ‘Sem’ mesiatsev partiinoi raboty v Khar’kove’, Proletarskaia revoliutsiia, no. 9 (1922) pp. 91–4, 122;
S.D. Chkhartishvili, ‘Bor’ba bol’shevikov zakavkaz’ia protiv imperialisticheskoi voiny’, in Pervaia mirovaia voina, ed. A.L. Sidorov (Moscow, 1968) p. 318.
The votes were 69–21 in Moscow, 172–16 in Kiev, 45–25 in Samara, and 52–31 in Omsk. Sources are respectively Izv. MVPKa, no. 8, Nov. 1915, p. 43; Kharitonov, ‘Bor’ba bol’shevikov Ukrainy’, p. 63; N.F. Panov, ’Moia rabota v Samare’, Krasnaia byl’, no. 1 (1922) pp. 5, 8; TsGAOR, f. 102 (1915) d. 347 prilozhenie, 1. 207.
T. Dan, The Origins of Bolshevism trans. J. Carmichael (New York, 1970) p. 397; for Zinoviev’s characterization, see ‘Vpolzli v legal’nost’ ’, Sotsial Demokrat no. 50 (1916)
quoted in K. Kareev, ‘Rabochaia pechat’ i voenno-promyshlennye komitety’, Krasnaia Zetopis’, no. 21 (1926) p. 150.
See ‘K istorii Gvozdevshchiny’, ed. I. A. Menitskii, KA no. 67 (1934) pp. 28–92. The fourth issue was heavily censored by the central committee and the fifth was produced by the workers’ group independently.
Ibid. Also A. Kats, ‘Bor’ba s bezrabotitsei v gody voiny’, Materialy po istorii professional’nogo dvizheniia v Rossii, no. 3 (1925) pp. 79–83.
G.G. Kasarov, ‘Bor’ba proletariata protiv “rabochei gruppy” Moskovskogo Oblastnogo voenno-promyshlennogo komiteta’, Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta, seriia ix: Tstoriia no. 3 (1974) p. 43.
See Bolshevik statement quoted in F. Romanov, ‘Voennopromyshlennye komitety i boikot ikh bol’shevikami’, Profsoiuzy SSSR no. 6 (1940) p. 54.
By March 1905 some 30 to 40 enterprises in Russia had elected factory elders. See A.F. Vovchik, Politika tsarizma po rabochemu voprosu v predrevoliutsionnyi period, 1895–1904 (L’vov, 1964) p. 212.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1983 Lewis H. Siegelbaum
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Siegelbaum, L.H. (1983). The Labour Question — the Workers’ Groups of the War-Industries Committees. In: The Politics of Industrial Mobilization in Russia, 1914–17. St Antony’s/Macmillan Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17316-7_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17316-7_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-17318-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-17316-7
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)