THE RUSSIAN LEGISLATION’S DEVELOPMENT AND WORKERS’ STATUS IN THE LATE XIX CENTURY (BASED ON THE KAZAN PROVINCE)
S.G. Belov1, G.V. Matveev2, A.Y. Suslov3
1Kazan scientific center, Russian Academy of Sciences, 2/31, Lobachevsky str., Kazan, 420111, Russia
2University of management “TISBI”, 13, Mushtari str.,Kazan, 420012, Russia
3Kazan national research technological University, 68, K. Marx str., Kazan, 420015, Russia
Keywords: Российская империя, Казанская губерния, фабрично-заводская промышленность, рабочий класс, рабочее законодательство, трудовые отношения, правила внутреннего распорядка, Russian Empire, Kazan Province, factory industry, working class, labour legislation, labor relations, internal regulations, workers’ status, working conditions, living conditions
Abstract
Completing the industrial revolution and the first stage of industrialization in the Russian Empire led to growing number and social role of industrial workers, emerging “question of labour” and, as a consequence, the labour legislation by the late XIX century. Pre-revolutionary, Soviet, and modern scholars have actively studied various aspects of labour legislation regarding it as a part of the Great Liberal Reforms, or, as a means to exploit and oppress the working class. At the same time, its direct impact on the workers’ life and state was considered by reseachers sporadically, mainly for the most industrially developed regions (Central, North-West, etc.). The article objective is to study how the forming labour legislation was implemented into the practice in provincial regions with an average level of industrial development, by the example of Kazan Province. To achieve the goal, various sources and documents (reports, references, statistics) are involved including the internal regulations of nearly 30 factory enterprises in the province which have been sdudied considered and analyzed for the first time in historiography. The study showed that in the second half of the XIX century the state undertook large-scale reforming of the workers’ legislation. Its implementation in the Kazan Province faced a mixed and contradictory reaction of industrialists: most of them had a negative attitude to innovations, others were ahead of them. It led to forming the specific system of relations between workers and industrialists, which included both productive and non-productive ones. Workers acted as a passive object in this system which was characterized by a high level of paternalism, almost paramilitary discipline, which was due to the semimarginal social status and mentality of workers. At the same time, the development of the labour legislation positively, though slowly, influenced their lives.
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