General Strike of 1903 in Southern Russia

a mass political strike in July and August 1903 in which up to 200,000 workers of Transcaucasia and the Ukraine participated. The general strike indicated that the workers’ movement had risen to a new and higher level and that the proletariat’s struggle had progressed beyond its local origins to extend over one of the country’s large industrial regions. An economic crisis, which had an especially strong impact on the coal, oil, and metallurgical industries of southern Russia, had caused a deterioration in the condition of the workers and drastically intensified class contradictions. The general strike began as a strike of the Baku workers on July 1, 1903. Then the proletariat of Tbilisi, the Transcaucasian Railroad, Poti, Batumi, the Chiatura Mining District, Odessa, Nikolaev, Kiev, Ekaterinoslav, Kerch’, and Kharkov joined the struggle. The movement was led by the lskra committees of the RSDLP. The committees issued leaflets and, with workers’ representatives, worked out economic political demands. However, sometimes the strikes began spontaneously. In a number of areas there was an absence of social democratic influence. On the whole the general strike had a political character. The struggle was conducted under the slogan “Down with autocracy! Long live the democratic republic!” The strikers’ demands included the establishment of an eight-hour workday and higher wages. The metalworkers played a leading role in the strikes. The strikes were combined with demonstrations and mass rallies and meetings. The general strike contributed to the unification and political education of the multinational working masses of southern Russia. It swept zubatovshchina (trade unionism supervised by police) from the path of the labor movement, strengthened the ties between the RSDLP committees in different cities, contributed to the growth of solidarity among workers, influenced the peasantry, and played a great role in the intensification of the revolutionary crisis in the country.