Conclusion

Summary

The labour movements of Western Europe were dominated by skilled artisans for most of the nineteenth century. Trades, such as tailors, shoemakers, cabinet-makers, carpenters and the building trades, spearheaded the radical and labour movements. In contrast, the factory proletariat, which consisted to a large extent of women and children, was, with certain exceptions, badly organised and politically quiescent. Only in the last quarter of the nineteenth century did trade unionism begin to expand beyond the ranks of an elite of artisans and skilled factory craftsmen. The evolution of the Petrograd labour movement was far more telescoped that its counterparts in the countries of Western Europe. Although the number of strikes and informal labour organisations grew rapidly during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, it was not until the 1905 Revolution that a formal labour movement was inaugurated. Although artisans played an important part in creating trade unions and socialist organisations, by 1917 the labour movement of the Russian capital was based predominantly on workers in factory industry, workers employed in huge enterprises which were among the most modern in the world. Whilst this working class corresponded in some respects to the Marxian model of the modern working class, since it was employed in large-scale machine industry, in other respects, it was not yet a fully-developed proletariat. Within its ranks, urbanised, hereditary proletarians were still outnumbered by newcomers to industry, who retained strong ties to the countryside. The labour movement which was re-established in Petrograd after the February Revolution, therefore, had a hybrid character.