scholarly journals Employment issue in the journals of the Special Council on State Defense (1915-1917)

Author(s):  
Irina Shilnikova ◽  
Georgii Georgievich Kasarov

Soviet historiography features a thesis that in the course of struggle against industrial strikes in Russia during the World War I, the government applied solely repressive measures, including armed suppression of worker strikes, prosecution, imprisonment, and conscription. The reports of proceedings of Special Council on State Defense, which was composed of the representatives of key ministries, State Soviet, State Duma, as well as entrepreneurial circles and nongovernmental organizations, allowed the government representatives to more objectively understand the essence of the “employment issue” in the conditions of protracted war and possible methods of its solution, including prevention of strikes, especially at the enterprises involved in execution of defense orders. The article presents the analysis of the content of discussions and decisions on the employment issue adopted within the framework of Special Council for ensuring steady operation of factories and preventing downtime as a result of strikes and quitting of employees. It is worth noting that a considerable part of political and military figures, major industrialists supported peaceful methods of solution the employment issue, such as negotiation process, seeking compromises, creation of reconciliation chambers and other specific authorities. However, the absence of an agreement and interaction between different departments impeded the development and implementation of prompt and effective measures to address the employment issue.

The Associated Electrical Industries Ltd. comprises a group of independent companies concerned with the manufacture of prime movers, generators, power-transmission equipment and practically every kind of electricity-consuming device. The two largest of the group of companies are the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co. Ltd. at Trafford Park, Manchester, and the British Thomson-Houston Co. Ltd. at Rugby. While there are research facilities in each of the companies of the group, research has until recently been concentrated very largely in the laboratories of the two main companies, the laboratories being separate autonomous bodies independently directed. Both these laboratories have been developed since World War I and both played no insignificant part in the last war. Accounts of each are being presented by Mr Churcher and Mr Davies. I should like to make brief mention of one matter about which there is frequent misunderstanding. It is often said that industry takes the best men from the universities, but my experience has shown that this traffic is in fact two-way. It is true that our companies take hundreds of young graduate engineers from universities all over the world, and of these a good selection is recruited to the research departments; but from our laboratories have also gone very many trained scientists into a large number of university positions, over a score into professorial chairs and senior positions throughout the government scientific services. It is my profound conviction that this flow in both directions is most desirable and should be encouraged as much as possible.


2019 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 119-134
Author(s):  
Michał Gałędek

The purpose of this article is to analyze the ideological basis of concepts that underpinned the establishment of the Codification Commission by virtue of the Act of 3 June 1919 and to assess its position within the system of authorities of the Second Republic of Poland. The author has found that the issues around shaping the relations of the Codification Commission with the Government and the Sejm have been covered in literature of the subject in a one-sided manner. Authors who have devoted their attention to the issue of autonomy of the Codification Commission formulated their evaluations based on the interpretation of the regulations in the drafts of the Act that established the Commission, as well as on their subsequent application that enabled the restriction of this autonomy. They did not, however, sufficiently account for the ideological declarations, thus in fact rejecting the deputies’ assertions of their striving to ensure “complete autonomy and self-sufficiency” of the Codification Commission, and the Government’s affirmations that it did not aim to “subject” the Commission to its control. Meanwhile, the author’s intention is to show that there was a widespread consensus at the time, especially at the Sejm, which sovereignly decided on the wording of the Act on the Codification Commission, that deputies had adopted a law that sufficiently protected the autonomous status of the Commission and its apolitical nature.


Author(s):  
Irina Shilnikova

The topic of the living standards of population during the World War I remains polemical, namely due to the fact that worsening of food insecurity was traditionally regarded by Soviet historiography as one of the factors of escalation of revolutionary moods in the society. The article describes the dynamics of industrial protests during the wartime, which were caused shortage and costliness of food products. The research is based on the 2019 edition of the chronicle of industrial protests during the World War I, which contains information on the higher number of conflicts than that of materials used in earlier research. Assessment of the severity of food insecurity through the prism of industrial strikes demonstrates that the situation becomes critical by the beginning of 1917, gradually changing for the worse during the wartime. In the initial stages of the war, the demands for food provision and lowering the prices were expressed during the strikes in the remote provinces. Although in 1916, the provinces of the Central Industrial District take on the leading positions, the Moscow province is not among them. The employees of light industry, and particularly textile industry, were engaged in the strikes more often. By the end of 1916, the escalation of protest activity due to food insecurity issue is observed in Moscow and Petrograd provinces, involving the workers of metal industry and defense enterprises.


1978 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinhard R. Doerries

Since the early 1960s we have witnessed in West German historical writing noteworthy changes in the interpretation of the causes of the First World War and, therefore, of the meaning of that war for Germany. One is particularly struck by the refreshing debate which ensued among German scholars on Germany's war aims specifically and on Imperial Germany's foreign policy prior to the World War in general. The so-called captured German documents of the Foreign Office and other branches of the government were returned to Germany, and a younger generation of historians eagerly examined the newly available material. Remarkable, if at times controversial, studies were the result of the scholarly reexamination of the German imperial era. Yet, in all the commotion and controversy, there was one area of German foreign policy which conspicuously remained ignored or treated with astonishing marginality


Author(s):  
Elena Sevostyanova

During the World War I, due to the grand scale of mobilization, it would have not been possible to provide assistance to families of the soldiers without help received from charitable organizations, local authorities and individuals. Public and private charity became a part of supporting those in need. The object of this research is charity and donations during organized during the World War I. The subject of this research is the cooperation between the government and the public in the area of charity and donations. The forms, methods and specificity of such interactions are viewed based on the example of a remote administerial peripheral region – Zabaykalsky Krai, with consideration of the overall trends and regional peculiarities. The main forms and vectors of the work are described. Four key trends can be highlighted in interaction between the government and the city residents: 1) the organization of support for the families of mobilized soldiers (both, legal who received state rations, but also had the opportunity to use charitable support, and civil, who did not have the right to receive state rations); social assistance to children; aid to the refugees; collecting donations for the military needs (air fleet, Red Cross, mobile military infirmary, provision and shipment of things for the army). The author notes that due to a wide variety of charitable organizations (local and nationwide), secular and religious patronages, committees (established upon the local initiative and departments under the aegis of the Romanovs family), the composition of active participants often overlapped: same people were the members of several organizations. An important role in all organizations was played by the government officials; however, their motivation requires additional attention. Largest charity fundraisers were the events that received organizational and information support from the local authorities, or mass actions that became a part of public space of the cities.


1952 ◽  
Vol 139 (895) ◽  
pp. 208-235

The Associated Electrical Industries Ltd. comprises a group of independent comapanies concerned with the manufacture of prime movers, generators, power transmission equipment and practically every kind of electricity-consuming device. The two largest of the group of companies are the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co. Ltd. at TrafFord Park, Manchester, and the British Thomson-Houston Co. Ltd. at Rugby. While there are research facilities in each of the companies of the group, research has until recently been concentrated very largely in the laboratories of the two main companies, the laboratories being separate autonomous bodies independently directed. Both these laboratories have been developed since World War I and both played no insignificant part in the last war. Accounts of each are being presented by Mr Churcher and Mr Davies. I should like to make brief mention of one matter about which there is frequent misunderstanding. It is often said that industry takes the best men from the universities, but my experience has shown that this traffic is in fact two-way. It is true that our companies take hundreds of young graduate engineers from universities all over the world, and of these a good selection is recruited to thee research departments; but from our laboratories have also gone very many trained scientists into a large number of university positions, over a score into professorial chairs and senior positions throughout the government scientific services. It is my profound conviction that this flow in both directions is most desirable and should be encouraged as much as possible.


Author(s):  
Svetlana Vladimirovna Bukalova

The author examines the system of labor assistance to the families of soldiers during the World War I. The object of this research is the problem of decline in living standards of the families which members were called up to the army. Along with government ration, labor assistance was intended to compensate for the impact of this factor. The phenomenon of labor assistance that established during war in the Russian Empire was multi-component, including charitable initiatives, their encouragement by the government, as well as participation of the local structures of self-governance. The article summarizes the information on labor assistance in the agricultural Central Black Earth region. The author determines the differences in the types and designation of labor assistance in cities and rural areas. Labor assistance in rural areas, provided in the form of communal mutual aid, agronomic and technical assistance, work of student labor squads, was oriented towards supporting the potential of peasant economy. Labor assistance in cities consisted the distribution of orders for sewing of linens and establishment of sewing workshops, which was a form of social support for wives of the soldiers. It is demonstrated that creation of the system of labor assistance can be viewed as a vector of state policy of the Russian Empire in the social sphere.


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