Page:Sergei Ilich Kaplun - The Protection of Labor in Soviet Russia (1920).pdf/5



The Soviet Government, the government of the workers and the poorest peasants, was the first seriously to raise in Russia the question of social protection of labor.

Under the Czarist Government, which was the embodiment of the whip and the fist, all the instructions and wishes of the landlord class and big manufacturers were faithfully carried out. Naturally enough, factory legislation was in a more backward state than in any other part of the world. In accordance with the Law of 1897, the working day officially was 11½ hours, while in reality the workman was compelled to work far longer than that; this was due to the great amount of overtime—compulsory and "uncompulsory", the latter only on paper;—in actual life extreme destitution and the complete absence of rights of the workers compelled them fully to submit to all the proposals of the manufacturers. Children were permitted to go to work even at the age of 12; according to the law of 1882 youngsters up to the age of 15 were forbidden to be engaged at night work, whilst during the day their labor was not to exceed 8 hours.

Even these inadequate laws, however, soon appeared to be too great a compromise in the eyes of the "European gendarme", and subsequently Czarism gave to the manufacturers a great number of loop-holes and means to evade the law. The first step in this direction was the permission of uninterrupted 6 hour work instead of the former 4 hours work for children. When working two shifts children