NOTES
[83] V. I. Lenin is referring to the pamphlet,
The Autocracy and Strikes. The Memorandum of the Ministry of Finance on Permitting Strikes, published in 1902 in Geneva by the League of Russian Revolutionary Social-Democracy Abroad.
[p. 217]
[84] The Law of June 3 (15),
1886 ("Regulations on Supervision of the Enterprises of the Factory Industry and on Relations Between Factory Owners and Workers") was passed under the influence of the working-class movement in the Moscow, Vladimir, and Yaroslavl gubernias and, in particular, the famous Morozov strike of 1885. The chief feature of the Law of June 3, 1886, was the certain restriction it placed on the arbitrary right of factory owners to exact fines from the workers (hence it became known as the "Law on Fines"). Lenin gave a detailed analysis and criticism of this law in the pamphlet,
Explanation of the Law on Fines Imposed on Factory Workers (see present edition, Vol. 2, pp. 29-72).
The Law of June 2 (14), 1897 ("On the Duration and Distribution of Working Hours in Enterprises of the Factory Industry") introduced, for the first time in Russian history, legislative limitation of
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the working day for part of the workers in large-scale industry. Like the Law of June 3, 1886, it was passed under the influence of the working-class movement in the nineties of the nineteenth century, particularly the mass strikes of the St. Petersburg workers in 1895-96. V. I. Lenin's pamphlet,
The New Factory Law, gives an analysis and criticism of the Law of June 2, 1897 (see present edition, Vol. 2, pp. 267-315).
[p. 217]
[85] The Society of Mechanics (officially the Society for Mutual Aid of Workers Engaged in Mechanical Production) was formed in Moscow in May 1901 with the participation of the secret police. Its rules were confirmed by the Governor-General of Moscow on February 14, 1902. The formation of the Society was one of the attempts made to implant "police socialism, -- Zubatovism (see Note 62), in order to divert the workers from the revolutionary struggle. The demagogic flirting of the police with the workers and, in particular the attempts made by Zubatov agents, who controlled the Society of Mechanics, to assume the right to mediate in conflicts between employers and workers, evoked dissatisfaction among Moscow factory owners and protests from the Ministry of Finance, which reflected their interests. Under the impact of the growing working class movement, the role of the Society, like that of other Zubatov organisations, dwindled away after 1903.
[Note 62 -- Zubatov -- colonel of gendarmerie and chief of the Moscow Secret Police, on whose initiative a policy of "police socialism" was conducted in 1901-03. This consisted in the setting up of legal workers' organisations intended to divert the workers from the political struggle against the autocracy. Through these organisations Zubatov attempted to direct the working-class movement towards the achievement of purely economic aims, and it was suggested to the workers that the tsarist government was prepared to help improve their economic conditions.
The reactionary character of Zubatovism was unmasked by the revolutionary Social-Democrats, who made use of legal working-class organisations so as to draw the working masses into the struggle against the autocracy. As Lenin was to write later: the Zubatov movement oversteps its bounds and, started by the police in the interests of the police, in the interests of support for the autocracy, in the interests of corrupting the workers' political consciousness, this movement turns against the autocracy becomes an explosion of the proletarian class struggle" (see present edition, Vol. 8, "The St. Petersburg Strike").
Under the impact of the revolutionary movement in 1903, the tsar's government was forced to liquidate the Zubatov organisations.]
[p.
218]
[86] The reference is to the so-called "Hard Labour" Bill (Zuchthausvorlage
) introduced in the German Reichstag in 1899 on the insistence of the employers and Emperor Wilhelm II. The Bill imposed from one to five years of prison or a fine of up to 1,000 marks on anyone who "by violence, threats, insults or a declaration of dishonesty" helped workers take part in unions and agreements, in cited them to strike or tried to oppose strike-breaking. Under pressure from the working-class movement, the "Hard Labour" Bill was turned down in the Reichstag on November 20, 1899, by the votes of the Left parties and the Centre party.
[p. 223]
[87] Molchalin -- a character in Griboyedov's play,
Wit Works Woe, a careerist and lickspittle.
[p. 225]