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UNEMPLOYED
COUNCILS IN
S L PETERSBURG
IN 1906
BY SERCEI MALYSHEV
B y SER G EI M A L Y SH E V
Copyrigh t, 193 I
W O R K ER S' LIB R A R Y PUBLISHERS
P.O.B. 148-STA. D. N E W YO R K
1
U N E M PL O Y E D CO UN CILS IN ST. PE T E R SB U R G
IN 1 9 0 6 .
M A SS UNEM PLO YM ENT OF 1905-1906 AND TH E ORGANIZATION
OF T H E COUNCIL.
Twenty-five years ago, in A pril, 1906, the first St. Petersburg
Soviet of W orkers’ Deputies and the Moscow armed uprising
were suppressed by the tsarist government. It was then th at
we, a group of Bolshevik workers and intelligentsia, at the
decision of the Bolshevik P arty organization, created a new
proletarian revolutionary organisation in St. Petersburg. "We
organized the locked-out masses of unemployed and established
a general staff for this army—the St. Petersburg Unemployed
Council. O u r party also tried to organize the unemployed in
other industrial centres, such as Moscow, Odessa, etc., but
these were short-lived : they were suppressed at the end of
1906. But in St. Petersburg, this organization of the unem
ployed fought the bourgeoisie and the government for more
than tw o years, and was only destroyed by the secret police
and gendarmes in 1908.
Twenty-five years ago, unemployment was artificially created
in tsarist Russia to teach the revolutionary workers a lesson.
A lockout was declared towards the end of October 190?, and
all factories and mills, both state and private, were closcd.
Thus the government and the bourgeoisie threw hundreds of
thousands of workers and tbeir families — in St. Petersburg,
Moscow, the Urals, Kharkov, Odessa, and other cities — into
the clutches of hunger and poverty. But the rulers of Russia
were not satisfied w ith this. They were always finding new
ways in which to punish the revolutionary proletariat. The
lockout was not enough. T he government organized gangs of
the so-called Black H undreds and incited them to attack the
workers' organizations and individual workers in their homes
with rifles and bombs.
Battles w ere fought in almost ail the districts of St. Peters
burg and in other cities as well. But these activities of the Black
H undreds only stimulated the workers to strengthen their
frganij^dons of self-defense, and the Black Hundreds were
severely repulsed.
The lockout which had been declared in St. Petersburg at
the end of October, 1905, continued until A pril, 1906. It
was directed by the rulers of Russia, and the principal leaders
of industry - Ryabushinsky, Gukasov, Nobel, Denisov, and
others. A nd naturally, this and the other means adopted to
fight the working classes and teach them a lesson was extra'
ordinarily well organized.
A t first, the Soviet of W orkers’ Deputies took the response
bility for the tens of thousands of workers throw n out on the
streets by the lockout. But as soon as the Unemployed Council
was organised it took charge of the movement, and registered
all the locked out workers. This registration revealed an
interesting fact— that 54 per cent, of the workers who had
been locked out were highly skilled workers, metal workers;
18 per cent, were joiners, carpenters, stone masons and of
other skilled occupations; and that only 2 1 per cent, were
common labourers. These figures showed that the capitalists
vented their w rath on those who fought in the front ranks of
the working class.
The Soviet of W orkers’ Deputies was faced at the beginning
of the lockout with the problem of finding some way in which
to help the unemployed who were hungry and poverty 'Stricken.
Those early months, October, November and December of 1905,
had to be devoted largely to questions concerning the unem
ployed, for, important as the political question was, hunger
was making itself felt with increasing force, even though it had
not broken the proletarian will to struggle. Questions on how
to help the unemployed were raised at almost every meeting
of the central revolutionary proletarian paper.
It was at the suggestion of the Bolshevik group of the Soviet
of W orkers’ Deputies that a commission of unemployed was
organized, which opened departments in all the working class
districts of St. Petersburg. Later the commission adopted the
resolution of the Soviet of W orkers' Deputies to deduct one
per cent, from the wages of all the workers at the factories.
mills, and other institutions, for the unemployed. T hey also
organised a voluntary collection a t all meetings and gatherings.
These and other measures brought into the Soviet of W orkers’
Deputies and its commissions some tens of thousands of rubles
;tnd made it possible for the commission of unemployed to take
some real steps to help the unemployed. A num ber of dining'
rooms w ere opened in the St. Petersburg districts. W orkers
w ith families were given suppers to take home while unm arried
workers ate in the dining-rooms. Besides, the commission of
unemployed gave financial relief to the workers and their
families: ?0 kopeks a day for each adult, and 15 and 10
kopeks for children. Liberal groups in St. Petersburg also
opened dining-rooms fo r the unemployed because elections to
the State D um a were then approaching and they w anted to
benefit politically by giving help to the unemployed.
In its political and economic struggle, the Soviet of W orkers’
Deputies turned its attention to the St. Petersburg C ity Duma.®
It passed the following resolution, which a special delegation
from the Soviet of W orkers’ Deputies was to present a t the
C ity D u m a :
1, T he D um a must take immediate measures to regulate
the supply of food to the num erous masses of workers.
2. It must assign buildings for meetings.
7>. It m ust cease bringing gendarmes, police, etc., into
buildings.
4. It m ust give an account of how the sum of 15,000
rubles, which it received for the workers of the Narvsky
district, was spent.
5. It m ust release sums of money from the public fund,
which it has at its disposal, for the needs of those fighting
for the freedom of the proletariat, and for the students
who w ent over to the side of the proletariat.
6 . It must take immediate measures to w ithdraw the
soldiers from the city w ater works and place the buildings
a t the disposal of the workers.
* C ity Council.
9
O n Octobcr 16, a t 2 p.m., w hen the delegation from the
Soviet of W orkers’ Deputies arrived at the City Duma, large
detachments of armed police met it in the building, and a
company of soldiers was on the staircase of the Duma. The
town councillors had been w arned by telephone of the proposed
visit of the delegation from the Soviet of W orkers' Deputies
and had not come to the session. Instead, a number of members
of the Committee of die Dum a received the delegation, heard
w hat they had to say, asked them to clear out, and then, in
their absence, decided to refuse all the demands.
A n d it could not have been otherwise. The mayor, die
members of the administration and the councillors of the City
D um a were all pow erful capitalists or their representatives—
lawyers, directors of factories and mills, landlords, judges and
other officials; the very ones who had locked out the workers.
STARVATIO N AMONG TH E UNEMPLOYED IN C R E A S E S.
In January, 1906, unemployment, w ant, and hunger grew
even more intense. The semi-legal commission of the unem
ployed worked feebly because it had no money. M oney had
almost stopped coming in. The locked-out workers had sold
their last belongings and were finally faced w ith starvation.
A fter the defeat of the uprising in Moscow and other cities
I had to leave Kostroma where the terrorism of the Black
H undreds and the armed forces had compelled the Kostroma
Soviet of W orkers’ Deputies to liquidate its activity and go
underground, and I— its president— was forced into hiding. O n
a locomotive, in a soiled jacket and cap, w ith a grimy face, I
was gotten out of Kostroma by some comrades — railroad
wrorkers. I determined to go to St. Petersburg where our
Bolshevik Party centre was situated, for it was essential to give
it a detailed report on everything. Besides, this proletarian
capital— St. Petersburg— was more suitable as a place to live
underground since I had worked in factories there and had
also carried on Bolshevik work underground. It would also
be easier for me to hide myself and get a night’s lodging from
the workers there than in any other city.
10
O n my arrival in St. Petersburg, I immediately presented
myself a t the p arty organisation headquarters, and after meeting
the p arty leaders, w ent to the V yborg district. T here I met
a good comrade, an underground Bolshevik worker, Simon
Loktev. He had also come to St, Petersburg from a district
of great revolutionary events only a week before and had
already succeeded in learning all the p arty news. H e told
me th a t our Bolshevik leaders had decided to give full support
to the unemployed movement which was then just beginning.
H e invited me th at same evening to a meeting of the deputies
from the district organizations of the unemployed, to be held
in the Lesny district. A member of the Party Committee,
Com rade ICairsky, was to speak at this meeting for the St.
Petersburg group of Bolsheviks. W e had some hours at our
disposal before the m eeting so we walked up and dow n the
Sampsonevsky Prospect as we compared notes on the past
events. W e w anted to go into a beer hall, but the state of
ou r finances and the fear of spies held us back. W e got into
a street car and w ent to the centre, to the Nevsky Prospect.
Passing along the Liteini, on the upper deck of the street car,
we watched the moving crowd— quite unlike the group we
joined later in Lesny. W e were hungry and would have liked
to go to Filippov’s for some food, b u t an examination of our
pockets convinced us that that was a pleasure we w ould have to
deny ourselves.
Strolling along the Nevsky, we watched the well-fed, con
tented bourgeoisie. Some— of higher rank— rode in magnificent
carriages, w ith coats of arms and one or tw o splendid horses;
others, a lower estate — a bourgeois crowd — moved on foot
along the Nevsky, filling the centre of the city, along Sadovaya,
along the G ostin Row. They w ent into the stores filled with
goods, came out w ith armfuls of purchases, and youngsters,
laden w ith these purchases, dragged after them to their homes.
A ll th at there was in these stores, stands, and warehouses,
produced by the proletariat, was quite accessible to the bour
geoisie. W e also w ent several blocks up along the Nevsky
but we could only look into the Soloviev store. W e could not
11
go iii and buy even a quarter of a pound of sausage because
the m erchant Soloviev’s well-fed salesmen would not w ant to
sell such small portions, and further, the price of sausage did
not fit the size of our pockets.
T o relieve our feelings we swore roundly, linked arms, and
turned away from this smug Nevsky. W e w ent along narrow
alleys and finally, at Bassein Street, found a cheap restaurant
where the two of us filled up on some kind of tripe for two
kopeks.
TH E C IT Y DUMA F IN A N C E S S T R IK E S .
A N E W DELAY.
By this time we had reason to suspect th a t the D um a would
not carry out its decision of A pril 1 2 . A ll the Black H undreds
began to organise energetically against the Unemployed C oun
cil. The press, liberal as well as Black H undred, began to
criticise us severely and stir up feeling against the unemployed.
T he whole capitalist press took advantage of our refusal to
accept work on the artel-contract basis to attack the Bolsheviks,
and argued th at we, the Bolsheviks, w ere using this movement
of the unemployed for our political aims.
T he Unem ployed Council took every opportunity to expose
the insolent conduct of the capitalist, and particularly the C adet
press and their attem pt to defend the interests of the bourgeoisie
to such an extent th a t they w ere even ready to disrupt the
public work which had already been decided upon by the St.
Petersburg Duma.
But a num ber of papers were still w ith us and we also had
our Bolshevik paper V olna and another through which to carry
on the struggle. T hrough them, particularly through Volna,
we exposed the monstrous conduct of the C adet and liberal
press and succeeded somewhat in dispelling its effect.
Thus the whole of M ay passed. T he beginning of June
found the state of the organization of public w ork but slightly
changed and the problem unsolved. N othing was left for the
Unemployed Council, and its Executive Committee, but to
start, w ith the help of die Bolshevik P arty organization, an
active campaign in the factories, and to bring pressure to bear
through the masses of the workers on the government and on
the petty'bourgeois groups, and particularly on the C ity Duma.
Since our organization continued to grow stronger and was
able to bring continuous pressure to bear on the St. Petersburg
authorities, the D um a had to elect some additional tow n coun
cillors to the commission. O n M ay 29, it commissioned this
enlarged Executive Com m ittee on the organization and m anage
ment of public work to do whatever w ork there was on hand
in the city.
By this time we had come to the end of the money which
the City D um a had released for the maintenance of dining
rooms and fo r other forms of relief to the unemployed. But
die Dum a did not make fresh grants. Rum ours were current
that the M inistry of the Interior had sent instructions to the
C ity D um a not to make m any concessions to the unemployed.
T he situation grew very serious.
W e increased ou r pressure on the commission through the
press. W e adopted a num ber of other measures. W e began to
activize the movement of the unemployed.
lh e unemployed w ere in an extremely grave position. W re
forced the D um a commission to report to the C ity D um a on
how serious it was and to demand or “beg” funds in order
to keep die dining-rooms going throughout the summer. T he
group managing the dining-rooms estimated that 180,000 rubles
were needed for three months for 18,000 dinners daily at
1? kopeks a dinner. In addition, we made the commission go
to the Dum a to ask for money to help the unemployed pay
their ren t— 12,000 families for three months— 180,000 rubles.
W e demanded in all 360,000 rubles for the summer. T he
37
unem ployed commission drew up its report along these tines
and presented it to the Duma.
But the D um a did not intend to take it u p ; nor did it h u rry
to begin work. W e raised a row in the commission and de
m anded th a t a special meeting be convened. A special meeting
was held and through it we brought pressure to bear on the
D um a to assign money for the paym ent of relief and, chiefly,
to organise public work.
Finally, tow ards the end of M ay, the tow n councillors u n
conditionally refused to take any responsibility for the work
and dem anded th a t we find some way of doing this w ork by
w hich we w ould be responsible for it. A n d on M ay 29, the
Dum a, a fter hearing the unemployed commission’s report and
the tow n councillors’ decision on it, passed a num ber of resolu
tions which, on the face of it, seemed acceptable. These were
as follows :
1 . T o reaffirm the right of the executive commission
to give all the w ork which had been already contracted
for, or for which the D um a’s permission was not needed,
to the unemployed.
2. T o propose to the city council and the executive
commission th a t only w ork which the commission on the
organisation of public w ork does not think it can carry
on itself be given o u t on contract in the future.
B ut soon we learned th at this decision affected only repair
w ork, and the organisation of public work, even a fter this
excellent resolution had been adopted, got no farther.
Days and weeks passed. G eneral weekly meetings of the
unemployed, and especially of the w orkers in the factories and
the mills, w ere held to discuss the situation, and resolutions
w ere passed censoring the disgraceful conduct of the C ity D um a
in regard to the unemployed. T h e D um a was bent on delay
ing and nullifying all efforts to get this w ork done.
T h e executive commission grew so bold th a t it even decided
n o t to invite the representatives of the U nem ployed Council to
the meetings.
38
T he Unemployed Council at its meeting on M ay 31, 1906,
decided to bring m atters to a head. A resolution was passed,
calling for a joint m eeting of the executive commission, the
representatives of the Unem ployed Council of the union of
engineers, and of the central bureau of the trade unions.
This resolution was transm itted to the executive commission
but, at the insistence of the Black H undreds, it ignored it.
A gain a general city meeting of the Unem ployed Council was
called. A gain it was decided to demand that the executive
commission say w hether it w ould carry on the public w ork
or not. But the unem ploym ent commission ignored these reso
lutions and decisions of the proletariat.
T he unemployed grew im patient and indignation was
aroused. T he districts began to demand th a t the Council take
more effective steps to force the Dum a and the executive com
mission to act. T he Unem ployed Council tried to prevent
individual groups of unemployed from making any provocative
moves, a t the same time doing everything it could to bring
pressure to bear on the C ity Duma. T he spirit prevailing in
the districts was such th a t the Unem ployed Council had to
distribute leaflets to all the w orkers of St. Petersburg, urging
them to keep calm. This was on June 1 0 , 1906. In this leaflet
the Council said :
“The Unem ployed Council does not hide from the
masses th a t the D um a is only procrastinating, is only
playing w ith the unemployed and has no intention w hat
ever of keeping its promises. B ut the Council has not
broken its contact w ith the D um a because to do th at would
mean to play into the hands of those who w ant to provoke
the workers to prem ature action. T his is exactly w hat
the enemies of the working class, thirsting for proletariat
blood, are w aiting for.
' “A t present, the provocation of the unemployed has
increased to the highest degree. T he M inister for the
Interior has given special orders to the D um a and the
tow n councillors not to make concessions to the unem
ployed. Its aim is quite clear-—-to provoke the unemployed
39
to prem ature action at the time w hen the employed com
rades are not ready to help them , and the D um a, of
course, does readily w hat the M inistry w ants it to do.
However, we shall not allow ourselves to be provoked by
the Duma. V /e know too well th at the sight of the
w orkers’ blood does not frighten our enemies but makes
them rejoice. W e know this too well to take thoughtless
action which would enable those who w a n t our blood to
rub their hands and say : lO u r ruse was successful. T he
w orkers will not forget this lesson quickly, will not recup
erate quickly, will not renew their organization speedily.’
“W e shall not give the provocateurs this pleasure.
N othing drastic is to be done as long as the Unemployed
Council does not call on us to do so.
“ This must be the first rule to be observed by all the
unemployed. But the Unem ployed Council, realising the
seriousness of the situation, will not fail to take this step
w hen the time comes and will take it only in close con
junction w ith the working masses.”
W h e n this d raft of the leaflet was read in the Unem ployed
Council, some sections of the Council, of a m ore anarchist,
social-revolutionary spirit, were dissatisfied; they did not think
it resolute enough. T here was a split. T hey demanded th at
the Council take more resolute steps, force the D um a, etc.,
etc. But the dust raised by the anarchist sociahrevolutionaries
was swept aw ay when a vote was taken.
ORGANIZATION OF WORK.