V. I.

Lenin

Strikes in Russia [1]

In the majority of West-European countries, strike statistics were placed on a proper footing comparatively recently—some
ten or twenty years ago. In Russia there are strike statistics dating from
1895 only. The chief defect in our official statistics, apart from
understatement concerning the number of participants, is that they cover
only workers in enterprises subordinated to the Factory
Inspectorate. Railwaymen, metallurgical workers, tramway workers, workers
in trades subject to excise, etc., miners, building and rural workers are
not included in the statistics.

Here are summarised data for the entire period covered by Russian
strike statistics.

| Year | Number of strikes | Number of strikers |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Total | Percentage of all enterprises | Total | Percentage of all workers |
| 1895 | 68 | 0.4 | 31,195 | 2.0 |
| 1896 | 118 | 0.6 | 29,527 | 1.9 |
| 1897 | 145 | 0.7 | 59,870 | 4.0 |
| 1898 | 215 | 1.1 | 43,150 | 2.9 |
| 1899 | 189 | 1.0 | 57,498 | 3.8 |
| 1900 | 125 | 0.7 | 29,389 | 1.7 |
| 1901 | 164 | 1.0 | 32,218 | 1.9 |
| 1902 | 123 | 0.7 | 36,671 | 2.2 |
| 1903 | 550 | 3.2 | 86,832 | 5.1 |
| 1904 | 68 | 0.4 | 24,904 | 1.5 |
| 1905 | 13,995 | 93.2 | 2,863,173 | 163.8 |
| 1906 | 6,114 | 42.2 | 1,108,406 | 65.8 |
| 1907 | 3,573 | 23.8 | 740,074 | 41.9 |
| 1908 | 892 | 5.9 | 176,101 | 9.7 |
| 1909 | 340 | 2.3 | 64,166 | 3.5 |
| 1910 | 222 | 1.4 | 46,623 | 2.4 |
| 1911 | 466 | 2.8 | 105,110 | 5.1 |
| 1912 | 1,918 | ? | 683,361 | ? |

The extent to which these figures are understated may be judged, for
example, from the fact that such a cautious writer as Mr. Prokopovich cites
another figure for 1912— 683,000 strikers, but “according to
another estimate, 1,248,000 in factories, and in addition a further 215,000
in enterprises not under the Factory Inspectorate”, i.e.,
1,468,000 or almost a million and a half.

The number of economic strikes (from 1905) is as follows:

| Year | Number of strikes | Number of workers | Year | Number of strikes | Number of workers |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1905 | 4,388 | 1,051,209 | 1909 | 290 | 55,803 |
| 1906 | 2,545 | 457,721 | 1910 | 214 | 42,846 |
| 1907 | 973 | 200,004 | 1911 | 442 | 96,730 |
| 1908 | 428 | 83,407 | 1912 | 702 | 172,052 |

Thus the history of strikes in Russia may be divided into four
clear-cut periods (if we omit the eighties with their famous Morozov
strikes [2] , noted even by the reactionary publicist Katkov as the
emergence of the “labour question” in Russia):

| | | Average number of strikers per annum |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1st period (1895–1904), | pre-revolutionary . . | 43,000 |
| 2nd period (1903–07), | revolutionary . . . | 1,570,000 |
| 3rd period (1908–10), | counter-revolutionary | 96,000 |
| 4th period (1911–12), | present, beginning of revival . . . . . . | 394,000 |

In general, the average number of strikers a year in Russia over the
eighteen years was 345,400. In Germany the average for fourteen years
(1899-1912) was 229,500, and for Britain the average for twenty years
(1893-1912) was 344,200. To give a clear picture of the connection between
strikes in Russia and the country’s political history, we cite the figures
for 1905-07 in three-month periods ( quarters ):

| Years . . . . . . | 1905 | 1906 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Quarters . . . . . | I | II | III | IV | I | II | III | IV |
| Number of strikers (thousands) per quarter | Beginning of revolu- tion {BOX} | | | Revo- lution {BOX} | | First Duma {BOX} | | |
| Total . . . . . . | 810 | 481 | 294 | 1,277 | 269 | 479 | 296 | 63 |
| Economic . . . . | 411 | 190 | 143 | 275 | 73 | 222 | 125 | 37 |
| Political . . . . | 399 | 291 | 151 | 1,002 | 196 | 257 | 171 | 26 |

| Year . . . . . . . . . . . . | 1907 |
| --- | --- |
| Quarters . . . . . . . . . . | I | II | III | IV |
| Number of strikers (thousands) per quarter | | Second Duma {BOX} | | |
| Total . . . . . . . . . . . . | 146 | 323 | 77 | 193 |
| Economic . . . . . . . . . . | 52 | 52 | 66 | 30 |
| Political . . . . . . . . . . | 94 | 271 | 11 | 163 |

The extent to which workers from various parts of Russia participated
in strikes may be seen from the following figures:

| Factory district | Number of factory workers (thousands) in 1905 | Number of strikers ( thousands ) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Total for 10 years (1895–1904) | Number in 1905 |
| St. Petersburg . . | 299 | 137 | 1,033 |
| Moscow . . . . . . . | 567 | 123 | 540 |
| Warsaw . . . . . . | 252 | 69 | 887 |
| 3 Southern regions | 543 | 102 | 403 |
| Totals . . . . . | 1,661 | 431 | 2,863 |

This table shows the relative backwardness of Moscow,, and still more
of the South, and the outstanding priority of St. Petersburg and its area
(including Riga), and also of Poland.

The strikers in the main branches of industry were distributed as
follows:

| Groups of industries | Total number of factory workers (thousands) in 1904 | Number of strikers ( thousands ) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Total for 10 years (1895–1904) | Number in 1905 |
| Metalworking . . . | 252 | 117 | 811 |
| Textile . . . . . . . | 708 | 237 | 1,296 |
| Printing, woodwork- ing, leather, chem- icals
. . . . . . . | 277 | 38 | 471 |
| Ceramics, food . . . | 454 | 39 | 285 |
| Totals | 1,691 | 431 | 2,863 |

This shows that the metalworkers are in the lead and the textile
workers are backward, the remaining workers being still more backward.

The strikes are grouped in accordance with their causes in the
following way (for 14 years, 1895-1908): political, 59.9 per cent of the
strikers; on wage issues, 24.3 per cent; on the issue of the working day,
10.9 per cent; labour conditions, 4.8 per cent.

In respect of the results of the strikes we get the following division
(if the number of strikers whose strikes ended in a compromise be divided
equally between “won” and “lost”):

| | Number participating in economic strikes ( thousands ) |
| --- | --- |
| Total for 10 year (1895 –1904) | % | 1905 | % | 1906 | % | 1907 | % | 1911 | % | 1912 | % |
| Won | 159 | 37.5 | 705 | 48.9 | 233 | 50.9 | 59 | 29.5 | 49 | 51 | 55 | 42 |
| Lost | 265 | 62.5 | 734 | 51.1 | 225 | 49.1 | 141 | 70.5 | 47 | 49 | 77 | 58 |
| Totals | 424 | 100 | 1,439 | 100 | 458 | 100 | 200 | 100 | 96 | 100 | 132 | 100 |

The figures for 1911 and 1912 are incomplete and are not fully
comparable with the preceding figures.

In conclusion we give brief data on the distribution of strikes
according to the size of the enterprise and according to the location of
the enterprise:

| Number of strikers per 100 in each
category : |
| --- |
| Category of enterprise | Total for 10 years— 1895–1904 | In 1905 |
| 20 workers or less . . . . | 2.7 | 47 |
| 21 to 50 workers . . . | 7.5 | 89.4 |
| 51 to 100 ” . . . | 9.4 | 108.9 |
| 101 to 500 ” . . . | 21.5 | 160.2 |
| 501 to 1,000 ” . . . | 49.9 | 163.8 |
| Over 1,000 ” . . . | 89.7 | 231.9 |
| Percentage of strikes |
| | in towns | outside towns |
| 1895–1904 . . | 75.1 | 24.9 |
| 1905 . . . . . | 85 | 15 |

The dominance of the workers of big industrial establishments in the
strike movement and the relative backwardness of rural factories are quite
clear from these figures.