Revolutionary Tactics¶
Core Argument¶
In this chapter, the Bolsheviks’ revolutionary approach to the unemployed movement is contrasted directly with the Mensheviks’ conciliatory tactics, the latter seeking to dilute demands so as not to offend liberal allies in the Cadets and the City Duma. The Mensheviks opposed the election of factory representatives to the Unemployed Council and tried to prevent the unemployed delegation from entering the Duma, but a split in their ranks handed a majority to supporters of a more militant petition. On 12 April 1906, a delegation of thirty—half from the unemployed, half from the factories—presented themselves at the St. Petersburg City Duma. The revolutionary wave had not yet fully receded, and the Duma, fearing the masses, admitted the delegation. Inside the chamber, the unemployed representatives did not mince words: they issued demands, not requests, declaring that the Duma’s money rightfully belonged to them, that if work was not provided nothing remained but robbery, and that the unemployed were ready to grab the councillors by the throat. The councillors listened in silence, attempted to clear the hall, but the delegates refused to leave without an answer. Under direct mass pressure, the Duma conceded the main demands: shelter, rent assistance, and help redeeming belongings from pawn shops, particularly sewing machines and underwear.
The chapter argues that this generosity was not disinterested. A new strike wave, political rather than economic, was developing in St. Petersburg, and the unemployed participated actively, organising financial assistance for strikers in the Vyborg district. However, as the strike movement ebbed, the Black Hundreds and liberals recovered their nerve and systematically sabotaged the reforms. The Unemployed Council then presented a new list of demands: the eight-hour day, prohibition of overtime, a daily wage, sanitary conditions, employment to be given at the Council’s indication, and workers’ control over internal workshop affairs. The Bolsheviks agitated through their paper Volna (The Wave), exposing the Cadets and liberals. The Duma refused new grants, following instructions from the Ministry of the Interior to avoid concessions. The Unemployed Council, in a leaflet of 10 June 1906, denounced the Duma’s procrastination but warned against premature action, explicitly combating ultra-left elements—anarchists and Social Revolutionaries—who sought to exploit frustration with provocative and potentially disastrous actions. The Council succeeded in gaining further concessions through mass pressure, holding the class together during the blackest point of reaction. But these victories were short-lived. By the second half of 1907, reaction had the upper hand; most Bolsheviks and leaders of the Unemployed Council were arrested or forced underground. From prison in early 1908, Sergei Malishev learned that the tsarist government had finally closed the public works schemes, calling out light artillery before shutting the workshops on Kagarinsky Wharf.