Page:Sergei Ilich Kaplun - The Protection of Labor in Soviet Russia (1920).pdf/9



The position radically changed when the revolutionary proletariat overthrew the political, and what is still more important, the economic domination of the propertied classes, and in alliance with the poorest part of the peasantry took the power into its hands. Protection of labor instantly became one of the most important and serious aspects of Soviet work. The importance that was attached to protection of labor by the Soviet Government can be judged from the fact that on the 29th of October, 1917, four days after the proclamation of proletarian dictatorship, a decree was published on "the length and distribution of working time"; this decree instantly provided an introductory code of laws for the protection of labor, embodying all the old revolutionary demands of the working class, such as the eight hour working day, a number of measures in the field of protection of child and woman labor, and so forth.

Owing to the fact that our industry has been almost entirely nationalized by this time, and is administered by organs of proletarian dictatorship our protection of labor now takes place, not as formerly, in a struggle against the big employers, but on the contrary, in complete agreement and in close collaboration with the industrial organs. Our real achievements in protection of labor increase in proportion to the growth of the power of the Soviet Government and the improvement of its international, political and economic position. The Soviet Government's entire work on labor protection rests on the very effective creative activity of the masses of the workers. For this reason our state organs of