Russia's Factory Children: State, Society, and Law, 1800-1917

Boris B. Gorshkov. Russia's Factory Children: State, Society, and Law, 1800-1917. Pittsburgh, Pennsyh'ania: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009. 216 pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Photographs. $60.00, cloth. $25.95, paper.With Russia 's Factory Children, the first study of child labour in Russia by a western scholar, Boris Gorshkov has made a noteworthy contribution to Russian labour history. Gorshkov argues that the deleterious effects on the growing numbers of child factory workers in industrializing Russia led to a transformation in attitudes toward child labour and efforts toward protective legislation, which in turn laid the basis for subsequent social legislation in Russia. Gorshkov' s analysis brings fresh insight to other important themes in the history of late imperial Russia, including the development of a public sphere, the functioning of the autocracy, and Russia's place in the broader context of European industrialization. This clearly written book demonstrates a comprehensive grasp of the sources: official and legal documents, records of commissions and debates, the periodical press, contemporary views and studies of labour, as well as secondary works. Despite the often frustrating gaps in statistical evidence, the author has provided a number of useful tables which shed light on questions of the number, percentage, ages, and industries of the children who worked in Russia's factories. A half dozen telling photographs complement the volume.The work is divided into four chapters. In chapter 1, Gorshko\' describes child labour in the premodern village, as well as in state and manorial factories, in the first half of the nineteenth century. His anthropological insights create a fascinating picture of Russian childhood. Countering the well-known views of Philippe Aries, Gorshkov argues that Russian peasants had distinct views on childhood as a life stage. Child labour, rather than driven solely by the impoverishment of the family economy, was seen as a form of education, apprenticeship, and preparation for adult life. This benign perception of child labour, held by the government as well as society, began to change with the rapid mechanization of industry, massive labour demand, and the employment of children in factories, beginning in the 1850s and continuing after the period of the Great Reforms. This is the topic of chapter 2. The author has combed the documentary evidence for statistical information in an effort to determine the number of child workers and the nature of work, illustrating the analysis with contrasting examples of child labour in workplaces ranging from bast-matting factories to textile mills. …

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