The Russian Worker

Life and Labor Under the Tsarist Regime

Victoria E. Bonnell

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780520050594
• eBook ISBN: 9780520342415
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Eastern European History
• Index: History

Here, for the first time in English translation, are contemporary accounts of working-class life during the final decades of the Russian Empire. Written by workers and other close observers of their milieu, these five selections recreate the world of Russian labor during a period of rapid industrialization and social change, a world far more complex and varied than has often been assumed.

The accounts in The Russian Worker explore the daily experiences, social relations, and aspirations of factory, artisanal, and sales-clerical workers, both in and outside the place of employment. Through the eyes of contemporaries we see the routine, the organization of work, and authority relations on the shop floor as well as conditions that workers encountered in providing for food and lodging and their experiences in the areas of religion, recreation, cultural activities, family ties, and links with the countryside.

With its vivid and detailed descriptions of working-class life, The Russian Worker provides new material on such important topics as the formation of workers' social identities, the position of women, patterns of stratification, and workers' concepts of status differentiation. An introductory essay by Victoria Bonnell places the selections in an historical context and examines some of the central issues in the study of Russian labor. The collection will be of value not only to specialists in the Russian field, but also to historians, sociologists, economists, and others with an interest in the sociology of work, and the history of working women.


Here, for the first time in English translation, are contemporary accounts of working-class life during the final decades of the Russian Empire. Written by workers and other close observers of their milieu, these five selections recreate the world of Russ

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part One: Metalworkers
• I S. I. Kanatchikov From the Story of My Life†
• IN THE ARTEL2
• IN THE PATTERN SHOP
• THE BEGINNING OF MY WANDERINGS FROM
• I AM AN ADULT
• AT THE MYTISHCHENSK FACTORY
• WORKING FOR A ‘GRATER ‘117
• P. Timofeev What the Factory Worker Lives By INTRODUCTION
• STRATIFICATION ON THE SHOP FLOOR
• UNSKILLED WORKERS
• SKILLED WORKERS AND THE VILLAGE
• LOOKING FOR WORK
• FIRST DAY ON THE JOB
• THE ELDER
• THE FOREMAN
• PAYDAY IN A SMALL FACTORY
• Part Two: Textile Workers
• III E P. Pavlov Ten Years of Experience
• INTRODUCTION
• THE WORLD OF THE TEXTILE MILL
• WORKERS’ HOUSING
• A VISIT BY THE FACTORY INSPECTOR
• A MEETING BETWEEN THE FACTORY INSPECTOR AND THE DIRECTOR
• ON FACTORY BOREDOM AND THE QUESTION OF READING
• Part Three: Artisanal Workers
• IV E. A. Oliunina The Tailoring Trade in Moscow and the Villages of Moscow and Riazan Provinces: Material on the History of the Domestic Industry in Russia
• A TYPICAL GARMENT WORKER
• WORK TIME
• WAGES
• FOOD AND CLOTHING
• SANITARY CONDITIONS
• LIVING CONDITIONS
• CHILD LABOR
• Part Four: Sales-Clerical Workers
• V A. M. Gudvan Essays on the History of the Movement of Sales-Clerical Workers in Russia ASPIRATIONS OF SALESCLERKS
• APPRENTICES
• FEMALE LABOR
• WORK TIME
• WAGES
• LIVING CONDITIONS
• CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
• Selected Bibliography