Kholunitsa Workers Disturbances

a strike by 1,500 workers at the Kholunitsa iron works in the Slobodskoi District of Viatka Province that lasted from Apr. 4 to May 3, 1871.

The crisis in the mining industry of the Urals had led to a cutback in iron production at the Kholunitsa plants, and the cutback had been followed by a reduction of the workers’ wages. At the beginning of April 1871, before their term of hire expired in August, the workers went on strike; they demanded that the managers of the works change the terms of hire and increase wages. A commission was sent from Viatka to investigate the reasons for the disturbances; in an effort to break the strike, the commission had several workers arrested. The strikers fought off the police and freed the arrested men. The strike ended only when it appeared that troops would be brought in. The ten leaders of the strike were subjected to corporal punishment and were sent to Arkhangel’sk, Novgorod, and Olonets provinces, where they remained under police surveillance.