16% of the 1.8million who died at war were conscripted and all families were somehow impacted by the war, which consequently led to a decline in the popularity of the Royal Family. People famously said “what family is going to survive war with all six sons alive?” in reference to the Kaiser’s six sons as awareness was spreading that there was an inequality of sacrifice among classes. The divisions between classes which had previously existed were now even greater. Peasantry and rural producers felt alienated by government regulations and were now hampered by the lack of labour and there was also huge resentment towards the Junkers who maintained their tax privileges until 1916. The urban working class also suffered due to the rise of the black market, which was the source of
Some peasants left to work in the cities as the Tsar wanted Russia to be an industrial power, however the living conditions there hardly improved, which matched their dreadful working conditions. This poor treatment is what led to the 1917 strikes that helped force the Tsar to abdicate from the throne. This was an important factor in bringing down the Tsar because with so many people opposing him (over the years, because of food shortages and war failures, they were supported by women and army members, and the number of workers on strike rose to 250 000), he had no choice but to give up. However, I believe there is more causes behind this so I wouldn’t label it the most important factor of the Tsar’s abdication. Russia’s poor performance in WW1 played a very significant role in bringing down the Tsar too.
Many of the strikes were crushed and just failed. The two major labor unions that were formed were Kings of labor and American federation of labor (AFL). The knights fought for an 8-hour work day and to end child labor while the AFL had goals of a “bread and butter” union, which were better hours and wages along with better working conditions. Both of these unions attempted to achieve their goals by going on strike. One of the strikes was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877; it was the first nationwide strike.
However, since then, the workers were forced to work 10 hours a day, 12 hours, or 14 hours, which makes the law exists in name only. Because the head of the state cooled to this and showed unfriendly attitude, a strike that for 8 hours of work began. A study found an important cause of riot (Shelley, 2007) In April, 1886, 250,000 workers took part in the May Day protests. The protests was organized by non-governmental international workers’ union in Chicago where is the center of activity. The businessmen and government felt fear for this revolution, head of the local business requirements to increase the number of the police and the army.
1865-1914 * National Labour Union ( 8 hour day, banking reform, end convict labour, 30,000 members, FAILED) * Knights of Labour (allowed all trades, 8 hour day, women equal pay, abolish child labour, 700,000 members) * American Federation of Labour ( 8 hour day, no child labour, raise wage, 2million skilled, major trade union) * Industrial worker of the World (unite workers, violent, open to everyone) * Mass immigration hindered development of unions * 1881-1905 7million workers had 37,000 strikes * Molly Maguires (Irish workers who were violent) * African Americans discriminated against (white workers laid off blacks hired) * Laissez-faire * Sherman Anti-trust fund (outlawed business trusts, FAILED)
Tariffs making goods scarce and heavy taxation meant prices for Russian consumers increased, whilst their wages stayed low. Workers had poor living and working conditions, and their discontent was severely repressed.
On the other hand, conditions worsened for the urban workers Stalin’s Five Year plans as harsh and unprincipled methods were used. Stalin maintained a heavy12-hour day and introduced labour camps. The gulags were first established in 1919 under the Cheka, but it was not until the early 1930s that the camp population reached significant numbers: by 1934, the Gulags had several million
One aspect of the workers’ lives that needs to be considered in order to see whether the Communist leaders did less than the Tsars to improve them is their living standards. The quality of life generally declined for workers throughout the period, with the only period of significant change under Khrushchev, however even his reforms cannot out way the deterioration of standards earlier in the Communist period, whereby Lenin and Stalin seemed to show a complete disregard for the improvement of living standards; For instance, the amount of living space for a worker fell from 8.5m squared in 1905, to 5.8m squared by 1935. A significant motive for this seems to be due to ideology; Stalin in
An Inspector Calls is a play set in Spring 1912, just before the First World War, but written by J.B. Priestley just after the Second World War. In this time Britain had a capitalist ideal. Basically if you were well-off that was great, but the vast majority of people were poor and lived off tiny wages. Furthermore it was a sexist country, so women didn’t have the same rights as men. For example they were not permitted to vote until 1918, and even then they had to be over 30 until 1928 where the age was lowered to 21, equal to men.
The women and children were paid less than the men. Because of the horrible conditions, in 1833, the Factory Act was passed. It set the minimum age to work at 9 and children under 18 years of age, could not work more than 12 hours a day. Later on in 1844, the Excessive Work act was passed, stating that women, also could not work more than 12 hours a day. Diseases were very present during the Industrial Revolution, although they did not have much of an impact of America taking action to help the issue.