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The Politicization of Labor in 1905: The Case of Odessa Salesclerks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Robert Weinberg
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Extract

One remarkable feature of the 1905 Russian Revolution was the efflorescence of labor organizations that occurred throughout the urban regions of the empire. Many workers throughout the empire demonstrated their resolve to promote and defend their interests in an organized and rational manner, with the mass labor movement often cutting across craft and occupational divisions to bring all kinds of workers into joint economic and political action against both employer and autocracy. As 1905 progressed the political radicalization of urban workers inspired much of the opposition movement that nearly brought the government to its knees. As several United States historians have recently shown, in 1905 organized labor, particularly trade unions, entered the political arena as a potent force, with workers simultaneously demanding individual rights of citizenship and collective rights of association.

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Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , Fall 1990 , pp. 427 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1990

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References

1. See especially Victoria E., Bonnell, Roots of Rebellion: Workers’ Politics and Organizations in St. Petersburg and Moscow, 1900-1914 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983 Google Scholar; Laura Engelstein, Moscow, 1905: Working-Class Organizations and Political Conflict (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1982); Henry, Reichman, Railwaymen and Revolution: Russia, 1905 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987 Google Scholar; Abraham, Ascher, The Revolution of 1905: Russia in Disarray (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1988)Google Scholar; Gerald, Surh, 1905 in St. Petersburg: Labor, Society, and Revolution (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1989)Google Scholar.

2. Among the better known works are Antoshkin, D. V., Professional'noe dvizhenie v Rossii, 3rd ed. (Moscow, 1925)Google Scholar and Ocherk dvizheniia sluzhashchikh v Rossii (so vtoroi poloviny XlX-go veka) (Moscow, 1921); Sviatlovskii, V. V., Professional'noe dvizhenie v Rossii (St. Petersburg, 1907)Google Scholar and “Iz istorii kass i obshchestv vzaimopomoshchi rabochikh,” Arkhiv istorii truda v Rossii, vk. 4 (1922), 32-46; P. N. Kolokol'nikov and S. Rapaport, eds., 1905-1907 gg. vprofessional'nom dvizhenii: I i II Vserossiiskie konferentsii professional'nykh soiuzov (Moscow, 1925); P. N. Kolokol'nikov, Professional'noe dvizhenie v Rossii, vol. 1, Organizatsiia soiuzov (Petrograd, 1917); V. Grinevich, Professional'noe dvizhenie rabochikh v Rossii (St. Petersburg, 1908); Milonov, Iu., Kak voznikli professional'nye soiuzy v Rossii, 2nd ed. (Moscow, 1929)Google Scholar; Ainzaft, S. S., Pervyi etap professional'nogo dvizheniia v Rossii (1905-1907 gg.) (Moscow and Gomel, 1924)Google Scholar; Professional'noe dvizhenie v Rossii v 1905-1907 gg. (Moscow, 1925); S. N. Prokopovich, K rabochemu voprosu v Rossii (St. Petersburg, 1905); V. Iarotskii, “Tezisy doklady,” “Stenogramma diskussii,” R. Iakub, “K voprosu ob ‘istokakh’ professional'nogo dvizheniia v Rossii,” and S. Ainzaft, “Byli li kassy vzaimopomoshchi odnim iz istokov rossiiskogo professional'nogo dvizheniia,” all in Materialy po istorii professional'nogo dvizheniia v Rossii (Moscow, 1924) 2: 3-102. For a general discussion of the debate, see, S. N. Shchegolova, “Iz istoriografii profsoiuznogo dvizheniia v gody pervoi russkoi revoliutsii,” in Revoliutsiia 1905 -1907 godov v Rossii i prof soiuzy. (K 70letiiu pervoi russkoi burzhuaznodemokraticheskoi revoliutsii): Sbornik statei (Moscow, 1975), 118-143.

3. Sviatlovskii, “Iz istorii kass i obshchestv vzaimopomoshchi rabochikh,” 46.

4. See, for example, Rabochii klass v pervoi rossiiskoi revoliutsii 1905-1907 gg. (Moscow, 1981), 256-262; Istoriia prof soiuzov SSSR, 2nd ed. (Moscow, 1977), pt. 1: 16-30; Kratkaia istoriia rabochego dvizheniia Rossii (1861-1917 gody) (Moscow, 1962), 355; Ocherki istorii professional'nykh soiuzov Ukrainskoi SSR (Kiev, 1983), 14-24; Priimenko, A. I., Legal'nye organizatsii rabochikh iuga Rossii v period imperializma (1895 g.-fevral’ 1917 g.) (Kiev-Donetsk, 1977)Google Scholar. Even the most prominent and sophisticated Soviet historian of the prerevolutionary Russian workers’ movement scarcely mentions mutual aid societies in his most recent book: See Kir'ianov, Iu. I., Perekhod k massovoi politicheskoi bor'be: Rabochii klass nakanune pervoi rossiiskoi revoliutsii (Moscow, 1987), 17 and 173Google Scholar. One Soviet historian who does not view pre-1905 legal labor organizations with a jaundiced eye and sees their importance in laying the groundwork for trade unions is A. V. Ushakov, “K voprosu o pervykh professional'nykh ob “edineniiakh rabochikh v Rossii,” Rabochii klass i rabochee dvizhenie v Rossii v period imperializma (Moscow, 1978), 4-16.

5. Bonnell, of course, does not trace the 1905 explosion of union activity primarily to the heritage of mutual aid. Rather, she and other historians of the labor movement in 1905 emphasize that mutual aid and other previous labor associations helped pave the way for some of the workers’ organizations that emerged in that year. Roots of Rebellion: Workers’ Politics and Organizations in St. Petersburg and Moscow, 1900-1914, chap. 2 and passim. Laura Engelstein, Henry Reichman, and Tim McDaniel also devote attention to the connection between mutual aid societies (and other legal labor associations) and union formation in 1905 in their Autocracy, Captitalism, and Revolution in Russia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988). For other discussions of pre-1905 legal labor associations, see Gerald Surh, “Petersburg's First Mass Labor Organization: The Assembly of Russian Workers and Father Gapon,” Russian Review, 40 (July 1981): 241-262 (part 1) and (October 1981): 412-441 (part 2); Jeremiah, Schneiderman, Sergei Zubatov and Revolutionary Marxism: The Struggle for the Working Class in Tsarist Russia (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1970 and 1976)Google Scholar; Walter, Sablinsky, The Road to Bloody Sunday (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1976)Google Scholar.

6. Bonnell, , Roots of Rebellion, 80 Google Scholar.

7. Sviatlovskii, , Professional'noe dvizhenie v Rossii, 50 Google Scholar.

8. Gudvan, A. M., Prikazchichii vopros (Zhizn’ i trudprikazchikov (Odessa, 1905), 55–56 Google Scholar.

9. Approximately 33, 000 sales-clerical workers (shop assistants, bookkeepers, cashiers, clerks, and other office workers) worked in Odessa at the turn of the century, but we are concerned here with those employed in retail stores as shop assistants. The results of the survey can be found in Gudvan, A. M., Prikazchiki v Odesse (Odessa, 1903)Google Scholar. Between 1886 and 1901 the Factory Inspectorate had jurisdiction over workers in manufacturing enterprises ( “factories “) that employed fifteen or more workers or used enginedriven equipment; in 1901 the government changed the definition of a factory to include manufacturing enterprises with twenty or more workers regardless of the type of machinery used.

10. Information on the working and living conditions of Odessa salesclerks is taken from Gudvan, Prikazchiki v Odesse, passim; idem, Prikazchichii vopros (Zhizn’ i trud prikazchikov, passim, Ocherki po istorii dvizheniia sluzhashchikh v Rossii, part 1, Do revoliutsii 1905 goda (Moscow, 1905), passim. Selections from the last can be found in Victoria Bonnell, ed., The Russian Worker: Life and Labor under the Tsarist Regime (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 186-208. See also Voskhod, no. 6, 12 February 1904, 8-13.

11. Karmen, L. O., Zhizn’ odesskikh prikazchikov (Odessa, 1903)Google Scholar. These Dickensian horrors are supported by evidence furnished by Gudvan. See his Ocherki po istorii, chap. 6.

12. On the movement to standardize the workday of salesclerks through petitions, legislation, and voluntary compliance, see Gudvan, , Prikazchiki v Odesse, 47–55 Google Scholar; idem, Ocherki po istorii, 199-226; idem, Prikazchichii vopros, 14-20; Trudy pervago s “ezda predstavitelei obshchestv vspomozheniia chastnomu sluzhebnomu trudu (Nizhnii Novgorod, 1897), passim; Trudy vtorago s “ezda predstavitelei obshchestv vspomozheniia chastnomu sluzhebnomu trudu (Moscow, 1900), passim.

13. See Bonnell, , Roots of Rebellion, 76–80 Google Scholar; Gudvan, , Ocherki po istorii dvizheniia sluzhashchikh v Rossii, 62–95 Google Scholar, and the works cited in note 2 above for a general treatment of mutual aid societies in pre-1905 Russia.

14. Bonnell, , Roots of Rebellion, 76 Google Scholar; Kolokol'nikov and Rapoport, eds., 1905-1907 gg. v profesional'nom dvizhenii, 126; Ocherk deiatel'nosti Odesskago obshchestva vzaimnago vspomoshchestvovaniia prikazchikov-evreev za 50 let (Odessa, 1913), 5; Iuzhno-russkii al'manakh (1897), 183.

15. Sviatlovskii, “Iz istorii kass i obshchestv vzaimopomoshchi rabochikh,” 38; Prokopovich, , K rabochemu voprosu, 19 Google Scholar; Otchet Odesskago obshchestva vzaimopomoshchi moriakov torgovago flota za 1904-1905 gody (Odessa, 1906), 19.

16. Kommercheskaia Rossiia, no. 43, 15 February 1905; Iskra, no. 55, 15 December 1903.

17. The historian Simon Dubnow and political activist Vladimir Jabotinskii also belonged to the Odessa Mutual Aid Society of Jewish Salesclerks.

18. Ocherk deiatelnosti Odesskago obshchestva vzaimnago vspomoshchestvovaniia prikazchikovevreev za 50 let, 12 and 14; Otchet pravleniia obshchestva vzaimnago vspomozheniia truzhenikov pechatnago dela g. Odessy za 1890-91 gody (Odessa, 1892), 6.

19. Sviatlovskii, “Iz istorii kass i obshchestv vzaimopomoshchi rabochikh,” 38.

20. Rabochee dvizhenie v Odesse (1894-1896 gody) (Geneva, 1903), 21.

21. Iskra, no. 55, 15 December 1903.

22. These data do not include Poland, the Baltic states, or Finland ( Gudvan, , Ocherki po istorii dvizheniia sluzhashchikh v Rossii, 70–71 Google Scholar).

23. Iuzhno-russkii al'manakh (1899), 68-69; Otchet pravleniia obshchestva vzaimnago vspomozheniia truzhenikov pechatnago dela g. Odessy za 1890-91 gody, 6.

24. For a general overview of the hevrah, see Isaac, Levitats, The Jewish Community in Russia, 1772-1844 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1943), 105–122 Google Scholar and passim; and idem, The Jewish Community in Russia, 1844-1917 (Jerusalem: Posner, 1981), 69-84; Sviatlovskii, “Iz istorii kass i obshchestv vzaimopomoshchi rabochikh,” 32-33; and idem, Professional'noe dvizhenie v Rossii, 23-25; Prokopovich, K rabochemu voprosu, 3-7; Sara, Rabinowitsch, Die Organizationen des judisches Proletariats in Russland (Karlsruhe, 1903)Google Scholar, passim.

25. Material in the following paragraphs is based on Ocherk deiatel'nosti Odesskago obshchestva vzaimnago vspomoshchestvovaniia prikazchikov-evreev za 50 let, 5-14; Obzor deiatel'nosti Odesskago obshchestva vzaimnago vspomoshchestvovaniia prikazchikov-evreev za 35 let (Odessa, 1898), 10-11; Odesskii vestnik, no. 30, 29 June 1863, 317-318.

26. Tarnopol, G. A., Ocherk ego deiateVnosti kak predsedatela, obshchestva vzaimnago vspomoshchestvovaniia prikazchikov-evreev g. Odessy (Odessa, 1890)Google Scholar.

27. There were 873 full members, 114 corresponding members, and 17 honorary ones. The precise number of members who were not salesclerks cannot be determined. Otchet pravleniia Odesskago obshchestva vzaimnago vspomoshchestvovaniia prikazchikov-evreev za 1904 (Odessa, 1905), 11-12.

28. Ocherk deiateinosti Odesskago obshchestva vzaimnago vspomoshchestvovaniia prikazchikovevreev za 50 let, 14.

29. Iuzhno-russkii al'manakh (1897), 183; Budushchnost', no. 13, 30 March 1901, 243-245; Voskhod, no. 20, 16 May 1902, 23-27; Otchet pravleniia Odesskago obshchestva vzaimnago vspomoshchestvovaniia prikazchikov-evreev za 1903 g. (Odessa, 1904), 24-27; Otchet pravleniia Odesskago obshchestva vzaimnago vspomoshchestvovaniia prikazchikov-evreev za 1904 g., 4.

30. Information on these events and developments is extremely scarce, and memoir literature and published documents reveal little. Ocherk deiatel'nosti Odesskago obshchestva vzaimnago vspomoshchestvovaniiaprikazchikov-evreev za 50 let, 14; Gudvan, , Ocherkipo istorii dvizheniia sluzhashchikh vRossii, 87–95, 202-204, and 207-208Google Scholar; I. Lupinskii, “Soiuz prikazchikov Odessy (1905-1907 g.),” in Professional'noe dvizhenie sluzhashchikh Ukrainy (1905-1907 gg.), ed. I. S. Stepanskii (Kharkov, 1927), 65-67, 76 and 85-90; Otchet pravleniia Odesskago obshchestva vzaimnago vspomoshchestvovaniia prikazchikov-evreev za 1903, 15.

31. Kommercheskaia Rossiia, no. 69, 14 March 1905.

32. Kommercheskaia Rossiia, no. 55, 27 February 1905.

33. Information about the activities of the OMASJS and salesclerks is hard to obtain because sources are unavailable. Reference to the actions and statements of salesclerks at meetings and assemblies would provide a rich view of the dynamics of grass roots organizing and mobilizing during 1905, but materials for such a discussion do not exist. We must depend on the letters and articles published in Kommercheskaia Rossiia to gauge the attitudes, sentiments, and opinions of Odessa salesclerks in 1905. While some would argue that the reporting in the liberal-leaning paper is biased and selective, the articles and letters do cover a broad spectrum of positions and outlooks. Moreover, the actions of salesclerks during 1905 bear out the conclusions drawn from the articles and letters in the paper.

34. Kommercheskaia Rossiia, nos. 11, 13 January 1905; 14, 16 January 1905; and 17, 19 January 1905. See also Kommercheskaia Rossiia, no. 12, 14 January 1905, and no. 56, 1 March 1905, Odesskie novosti, no. 6917, 20 April 1906.

35. Kommerchskaia Rossiia, nos. 14, 16 January 1905; 109, 5 May 1905; and 130, 31 May 1905.

36. Ibid., no. 13, 15 January 1905; Ocherk deiatel'nosti Odesskago obshchestva vzaimnago vspomoshchestvovaniia prikazchikov-evreev za 50 let, 15; Lupinskii, , “Soiuz prikazchikov Odessy,” 74; Odesskie novosti, no. 6934, 21 May 1906 Google Scholar.

37. Kommercheskaia Rossiia, nos. 63, 8 March 1905, and 68, 13 March 1905.

38. Ibid., no. 84, 30 March 1905.

39. Ibid., nos. 61, 6 March 1905, and 66, 11 March 1905.

40. Ibid., nos. 58, 3 March 1905; 63, 8 March 1905; 71, 16 March 1905; 84, 30 March 1905; and 102, 26 April 1905. See also the letter from an unemployed salesclerk who stresses that shop assistants must unite with other workers and struggle to liberate themselves from the “oppression of exploitation” since they, like all proletarians, sell their labor (ibid., no. 126, 25 May 1905).

41. Lupinskii, “Soiuz prikazchikov Odessy,” 74; Bonnell, , Roots of Rebellion, 161 Google Scholar.

42. luzhnoe obozrenie, no. 2802, 10 April 1905.

43. Kommercheskaia Rossiia, nos. 156, 13 July 1905; 160, 17 July 1905; and 172, 31 July 1905. Gudvan, in Ocherkipo istorii dvizheniia sluzhashchikh v Rossii, 85-86, makes a similar point.

44. luzhnoe obozrenie, no. 2785, 23 March 1905.

45. Kommercheskaia Rossiia, no. 82, 28 March 1905.

46. They were referring to the imperial ukase and rescript that declared that Russians had the right to send the tsar proposals “for improving the public well-being” and expressed the government's intention to convene a national representative assembly enjoying consultative powers in the legislative process. For information on the ukase and rescript, Harcave, see Sidney, The Russian Revolution of 1905 (London: Collier-Macmillan, 1970), 129–130 Google Scholar, and Abraham, Ascher, The Revolution of 1905: Russia in Disarray (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1988), 112–113 Google Scholar.

47. Voskhod, no. 22, 2 June 1905, 20; Iuzhnye zapiski, no. 24, 12 June 1905, 28-30; Iuzhnoe obozrenie, no. 2822, 3 May 1905.

48. Kommercheskaia Rossiia, no. 74, 19 March 1905.

49. Otchet pravleniia obshchestva vzaimnago vspomozhenia prikazchikov g. Odessy za 1905-1906 gody (Odessa, 1907), 83-90; luzhnye zapiski, no. 24, 12 June 1905.

50. Some confusion exists regarding the organization's name. Some accounts refer to it as a union; others call it a mutual aid society. Since it was renamed a union in late 1905, it probably more closely resembled a mutual aid society than a trade union when it was formed. See luzhnoe obozrenie, no. 2813, 23 April 1905; Kommercheskaia Rossiia, nos. 97, 21 April 1905, and 98, 22 April 1905; Kontorshchik, no. 1, 5 January 1906; Golosprikazchika, no. 2, 23 April 1906, 9; Odesskie novosti, no. 6626, 23 April 1905.

51. Monthly dues to the new organization were 25 kopecks, with an initiation fee of 2 rubles. The OMASJS had a 5 ruble membership fee and monthly dues of about 1 ruble. See Kommercheskaia Rossiia, no. 11, 13 January 1905; luzhnoe obozrenie, no. 2813, 23 April 1905.

52. Golos prikazchika, no. 2, 23 April 1906, 9.

53. Odesskie novosti, no. 6626, 23 April 1905.

54. Golos prikazchika, no. 2, 23 April 1906, 9-10; luzhnoe obozrenie, no. 2810, 20 April 1905; Kommercheskaia Rossiia, nos. 97, 21 April 1905, and 98, 22 April 1905; Kontorshchik, no. 1, 5 January 1906, 9; Odesskie novosti, no. 6626, 23 April 1905; Zhizn’ prikazchikov, no. 3, 16 December 1906.

55. luzhnoe obozrenie, no. 2813, 23 April 1905; Kommercheskaia Rossiia, no. 98, 22 April 1905.

56. The charter of the Union of Salesclerks can be found in Kommercheskaia Rossiia, no. 261, 25 November 1905. It is reprinted in Lupinskii, “Soiuz prikazchikov Odessy,” 91-92. The quotation is from Kommercheskaia Rossiia, no. 254, 17 November 1905; for other accounts of the formation of the union, see Kommercheskaia Rossiia, nos. 247, 9 November 1905; 249, 11 November 1905; 250, 12 November 1903; 257, 20 November 1905; 259, 23 November 1905; 261, 25 November 1905; 262, 26 November 1905; and 264, 29 November 1905; luzhnoe obozrenie, no. 2975, 24 November 1905; M. Dzhervis, “Professional'noe dvizhenie v Odesse v 1905 godu,” Vestnik truda, no. 6(55) (1925), 258-259.

57. Bonnell, , Roots of Rebellion, 136 Google Scholar.

58. “Osvobozhdenie truda “: Sbornik statei po rabochemu voprosu (Odessa, 1907), 113-116; Rabochee delo, no. 1, 15 August 1906, 15-16; Bonnell, , Roots of Rebellion, 136 Google Scholar; Lupinskii, “Soiuz prikazchikov Odessy,” 69-72.

59. Lupinskii, “Soiuz prikazchikov Odessy,” 70, 74-75, and 92; Protokoly 3-go vserossiiskago s “ezda obshchestv vspomozheniia chastnomu sluzhebnomu trudu i drugikh odnorodnykh po idee i tseli (Moscow, 1906), viii-xi, 6-7 and 177-179. Zhizn’ prikazchikov, no. 3, 16 December 1906, reports that the liquidation occurred in the summer of 1906, but Lupinskii ( “Soiuz prikazchikov Odessy,” 75, citing archival documents) states that the decision to liquidate did not occur until mid-1907.

60. Lupinskii, “Soiuz prikazchikov Odessy,” 67, 70, and 75-84.

61. Neidhardt had been dismissed as city governor soon after the October pogrom and no longer lived in Odessa in December ﹛Iuzhnoe obozrenie, no. 2990, 19 December 1905).

62. Ocherk deiatel'nosti Odesskago obshchestva vzaimnago vspomoshchestvovaniia prikazchikovevreev za 50 let, 18 and 30; Otchetpravleniia obshchestva prikazchikov-evreev za 1907 g. (Odessa, 1908), vi-vii; Iuzhnoe obozrenie, nos. 3099, 16 May 1906; 3102, 19 May 1906; 3103, 20 May 1906; 3104, 21 May 1906; and 3105, 24 May 1906; Odesskie novosti, nos. 6934, 21 May 1906; and 7062, 24 October 1906.