The working class of Tula in late nineteenth century Russia, 1880-1900

Abstract

This work is a socio-historical study of the Tula working class between 1880 and 1900. It adds a further regional dimension to the burgeoning scholarship of social historical studies of the worker question within Russian historiography and because of the importance of the labour working class during this period of concentrated industrialisation and worker politicisation, this study seeks to provide a portrait of Tula worker society. The investigation will initially focus on the historiography of the Russian working class, its historians and theories of social change. The industrial history of Tula and the surrounding province is presented, which highlights the role played by foreign entrepreneurs in Tula's early industrial development. Secondly, Tula workers themselves are examined together with their background and what motivated their journey to Tula. The composition of a Tula working class family is analysed, the social and economic ramifications of living in Tula are explored and material is presented on family life, on marriage, and on patterns of residence and household composition. The issue of the permanency of worker ties to Tula is investigated as is that of an hereditary proletariat. Finally, material is presented on cooperatives, mutual aid societies and the incidence of worker unrest. How these developments and events influenced or hindered Tula workers' capacity for collective action and class consciousness is also explored. The study concludes with a summary of the issues raised, in terms of an examination of the interaction between the forces of innovation and tradition, of continuity and discontinuity, in Russian society.