Roots of Rebellion

Workers' Politics and Organizations in St. Petersburg and Moscow, 1900-1914

Victoria E. Bonnell

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780520364912
• eBook ISBN: 9780520322646
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Labour Economics
• Index: Economics

Roots of Rebellion: Workers' Politics and Organizations in St. Petersburg and Moscow, 1900–1914 by Victoria E. Bonnell is a landmark study of the forces that shaped the Russian labor movement in the years leading up to the First World War and the revolutions of the early twentieth century. Drawing on rich archival sources and comparative perspectives, Bonnell examines how workers in the two major industrial centers of the Russian Empire forged political identities, experimented with organizational forms, and entered into volatile relationships with employers, political parties, and the autocratic state.

The book traces the emergence of workers’ associations from artisanal guilds and mutual aid societies to trade unions, factory committees, and cooperatives. It situates these organizations within the broader struggles of 1905, the fraught attempts to institutionalize unions under the restrictive 1906 law, and the repressive years that followed. Special attention is paid to the factors that distinguished Russian workers from their Western European counterparts, including the simultaneous pursuit of individual and collective rights and the boldness with which Russian workers demanded control over factory life. By reconstructing the dynamics of class, craft, and revolutionary consciousness, Bonnell explains why Russian labor organizations ultimately became vehicles for radical change rather than reformist integration. **Roots of Rebellion** illuminates the social foundations of Russia’s revolutionary upheavals and offers a compelling analysis of how workers’ organizations shaped—and were shaped by—the contradictions of a society in transition. It is essential reading for scholars of labor history, social movements, and modern Russia.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1983.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents 1
• Tables
• Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Note on Dates and Transliteration
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• DEFINING THE WORKING CLASS
• WORKERS IN THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR
• WORKERS IN SALES-CLERICAL OCCUPATIONS
• WORKERS IN THE CONSTRUCTION, TRANSPORTATION, COMMUNICATION, AND SERVICE SECTORS
• THE FORMATION OF SOCIAL IDENTITIES
• SKILL AND THE WORKER’S SELF-IMAGE
• PATTERNS OF STRATIFICATION AND STATUS DIFFERENTIATION
• LIFE AT THE WORKPLACE
• LIFE OUTSIDE THE WORKPLACE
• Chapter 2
• ARTISANAL GUILDS AND MUTUAL AID SOCIETIES
• THE ZUBATOV EXPERIMENT IN MOSCOW
• THE GAPON AND USHAKOV ORGANIZATIONS IN ST. PETERSBURG
• FACTORY ORGANIZATIONS
• ILLEGAL UNIONS AND PARTIES ON THE EVE OF 1905
• Chapter 3
• THE FACTORY COMMITTEE MOVEMENT AND THE SHIDLOVSKII COMMISSION
• EMPLOYER AND STATE POLICIES TOWARD FACTORY COMMITTEES
• THE EMERGENCE OF TRADE UNIONS
• ROUTES TO UNIONIZATION
• THE SIZE AND COMPOSITION OF TRADE UNIONS
• ARTISANAL WORKERS AND THE TRADE UNIONS
• CRAFT UNIONISM AND FACTORY PATRIOTISM
• Chapter 4
• SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC POLICIES TOWARD THE TRADE UNIONS
• SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC SUPPORT IN THE TRADE UNIONS
• LIBERALS, SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONARIES, AND SYNDICALISTS IN THE TRADE UNIONS
• THE SPREAD OF SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC IDEAS
• TRADE UNIONS AND THE SOVIETS OF WORKERS DEPUTIES
• THE CENTRAL BUREAUS OF TRADE UNIONS
• TRADE UNIONS AND LABOR-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS
• Chapter 5
• THE LAW OF MARCH 4, 1906
• THE PROLIFERATION OF TRADE UNIONS
• PATTERNS OF UNIONIZATION: SKILL
• PATTERNS OF UNIONIZATION: THE WORKPLACE
• OTHER FACTORS AFFECTING UNIONIZATION
• CRAFT UNIONISM AND DISTRICT PATRIOTISM
• Chapter 6
• UNION DEMOCRACY AND PROBLEMS OF INTERNAL ORGANIZATION
• SOCIAL DEMOCRATS AND TRADE UNIONS
• TRADE UNIONS AND MUTUAL ASSISTANCE
• THE CULTURAL, EDUCATIONAL, AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES OF TRADE UNIONS
• TRADE UNION IDEOLOGY
• CONSOLIDATION OF THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT
• Chapter 7
• TRADE UNIONS AND THE STATE
• EMPLOYERS AND TRADE UNIONS
• TRADE UNION POLICIES TOWARD LABOR-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS
• LABOR-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS IN THE MOSCOW PRINTING TRADES
• LABOR-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS IN THE PETERSBURG PRINTING TRADES
• LABOR-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS IN THE PETERSBURG BAKING INDUSTRY
• TRADE UNIONS AND ELECTORAL POLITICS
• Chapter 8
• THE DECLINE OF TRADE UNIONS
• PATTERNS OF UNIONIZATION
• WORKERS CLUBS AND EDUCATIONAL SOCIETIES
• CONSUMER COOPERATIVES AND PRODUCTION ARTELS
• SOCIAL DEMOCRATS AND THE TRADE UNIONS
• UNION ACTIVITIES IN THE STOLYPIN YEARS
• Chapter 9
• PATTERNS OF UNIONIZATION
• PROFILE OF UNION MEMBERS
• THE GOVERNMENT AND ORGANIZED LABOR
• EMPLOYERS, TRADE UNIONS, AND INDUSTRIAL CONFLICTS
• Chapter 10
• BOLSHEVIK ASCENDANCY IN WORKERS’ ORGANIZATIONS
• SOCIAL DEMOCRATS AND CITYWIDE LABOR ORGANIZATIONS
• SOCIAL DEMOCRATS AND THE PRESS
• SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC LABOR LEADERS AND THE SECRET POLICE
• INTERPRETATIONS OF BOLSHEVIK ASCENDANCY
• THE RADICALIZATION OF LABOR: AN ANALYSIS
• Conclusion
• Appendix I
• Appendix II
• Appendix Ill
• Appendix IV
• Appendix V
• Selected Bibliography
• INDEX