Workers' organizations in the Russian metal industry, February 1917-August 1918: a study in the history and sociology of the Labour movement in the Russian revolution

Flenley, Paul Stephen (1983). Workers' organizations in the Russian metal industry, February 1917-August 1918: a study in the history and sociology of the Labour movement in the Russian revolution. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

Workers’ organisations in the metal industry developed in response to the needs and predicament of workers in that industry from instruments for the representation of workers interests to management and for dealing with immediate problems affecting the continuity of production into organs for the regulation of production as a whole and for the organisation of new institutions of the management and control of the economy in late 1917 and through 1918. In this development the role of the factory committees was paramount. Real workers’ power over industry was developed by them and right up to the Summer of 1918 the Metalworkers' Union and the state organs of economic management had to work through them. In contrast to the factory committees the Metalworkers' Union was always vulnerable, lacking the direct affinity with the needs of the shop-floor and the presence on that shop-floor to make itself as effective. Its first raison d'etre came with the construction of a system of industrial relations to settle wages conflicts between workers and employers. However, the source of such conflicts lay too deep in the circumstances of the expansion of the metal industry during the war to be reconciled fully by the above system. As the economic crisis worsened the Union also concerned itself with the maintenance of production. Moreover, as the seizure of power by the Soviets and the extension of workers' control precipitated the closure of enterprises by employers the consequent nationalisation of industry presented both the Union and the factory committees with the practical problems of the management of industry. This and the general need of the new state to rely on the help of both organisations in the construction of new organs of nationwide economic management in the face of economic collapse and the shortage of managerial cadres forced the merger of the two organisations into one new industrial union.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):