On April 17, 1912, events took place that went down in history as the Lena massacre.
The soldiers opened fire on the participants of the strike of the workers of the Lena mines, as a result of which up to 270 people were killed.
Historians still do not have an unambiguous position regarding the reasons for the start of the protests.
According to one version, they were caused by the extremely difficult working conditions of the workers, according to another, the workers were provoked by representatives of a part of the shareholders who fought for control of the enterprise in order to reduce the value of shares.
As a result, according to historians, the Lena massacre led to the radicalization of the labor movement in Russia.
Reasons for the protests
According to the researchers, the Lena gold mines belonged to the Lena Gold Industry Partnership (Lenzoto), most of whose shares, in turn, were owned by the London-based company Lena Goldfields.
The gold mining enterprise was run by English businessmen and Russian industrialists, headed by representatives of the influential family of Jewish financiers, the Gunzburgs.
“The salary at the Lena mines was about twice as high as that of workers in Moscow or St. Petersburg, but this was payment for labor in inhuman conditions.
People worked in mines in permafrost conditions, melting the glacier with fires and constantly pumping out water.
The mechanization of production was at a low level.
People often worked knee-deep in icy water, ”Dmitry Surzhik, associate professor at GAUGN, told RT.
According to him, the length of the working day at the mines reached 11 hours 30 minutes a day, but in practice, due to overtime work, gold miners often had to work much longer.
The level of industrial injuries at the mines was extremely high.
“The living conditions of the workers could not be called favorable.
The barracks, already unsuitable for long-term living, were overcrowded, unsanitary conditions reigned in them.
A worker could bring a family only with the permission of the manager, and this put the wives of the workers in a dependent position from the employees of the administration of the mines.
They were often forced to work for little or no pay.
There were also cases of sexual harassment,” said Dmitry Surzhik.
As historians note, the position of the workers was complicated by the fact that Lenzoto completely controlled trade in the region, and part of the salary for employees of the mines was given out in coupons that could only be bought in the company's stores - at high prices and without the possibility of exchange.
All this led to an increase in protest moods in the Lena mines.
According to the historian Yevgeny Spitsyn, the organization of labor at the Lena mines was characterized by many vices that were characteristic of the enterprises of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century, but in a more pronounced form.
Protests at the Lena mines
© Wikimedia
“The immediate cause for the mass strike of 1912 was a story known in several versions: either a worker was given rotten meat, or a horse leg was found in a cauldron in the kitchen, or a piece of meat was sold to one of the women, resembling a horse’s genitals in appearance.
Obviously, in any case, this story was connected with the low quality of the products supplied to the mines,” Dmitry Surzhik said.
On March 13, 1912, the indignant workers of the Andreevsky mine went on a spontaneous strike.
Neighbors began to join them.
By March 17, 6,000 workers from 48 mines were on strike.
The strikers elected the Central Strike Committee and the Central Bureau.
A petition containing a number of socio-economic demands was sent to the administration of the Lena mines.
The workers, in particular, insisted on the introduction of an 8-hour working day, higher wages, overtime pay, better living conditions and the quality of medical care.
In addition, they demanded respect from the employees of the administration of the mines and a ban on dismissal during the winter months, which, given the harsh climatic conditions, meant certain death.
Attempts by the authorities to resolve the conflict did not give any result: the administration of the mines demanded that the strikers return to their jobs, and only after that promised to consider their demands.
On the night of April 17, 1912, by order of the gendarme captain Nikolai Treschenkov, 11 members of the Central Bureau were arrested.
Lena execution
Contrary to the expectations of the authorities, the arrest of the leaders of the mining labor movement did not lead to an end to the strike.
On April 17, 1912, several thousand workers moved to the Nadezhda mine to hand over to a comrade (deputy) provincial prosecutor a petition for the release of the detainees.
About a hundred soldiers blocked the road for the procession participants.
When the workers refused to stop, Treshchenkov ordered the soldiers to open fire on the protesters.
The order was carried out.
According to historians, the exact number of dead and injured workers is unknown.
According to various estimates, during the Lena massacre, from 83 to 270 people were killed, from 100 to 250 workers were injured.
The Irkutsk governor-general Leonid Knyazev immediately arrived at the mines and initiated an investigation into the tragic events.
In St. Petersburg, two commissions were created to investigate the Lena massacre: a government commission headed by Senator Sergei Manukhin and a Duma commission headed by Alexander Kerensky.
Both commissions recognized the working conditions at the Lena mines as incompatible with human dignity.
Claims for the incident were made both to the management of the mines and to Treshchenkov, who was dismissed from the gendarmerie corps and demoted to ordinary militias.
However, in the final version of the official government report on the Lena massacre, the main blame was placed on "local workers' organizations."
“The events at the Lena mines fit into the general concept of the attitude of the authorities to any protests after the Revolution of 1905 and before the February events of 1917.
A hard line was taken on intimidation, suppression of any labor movement and brutal reprisals against protesters.
It was a kind of demonstration action, ”Yevgeny Spitsyn told RT.
However, another version of events is also widespread among historians, according to which the workers were deliberately provoked to protest in order to redistribute the shares of the company's shares.
At that time, shareholders associated with the International and Russian-Asian Banks were just buying up securities, and the conflict at the mines made it possible to carry out a deal at a lower price.
Supporters of this version of the development of events, according to experts, do not exclude that in this case the rotten meat could have been delivered to the mines on purpose.
Victims of the Lena Massacre
© Wikimedia
Protests at the Lena mines continued until August 1912, after which about 80% of the workers working in the gold mines refused to continue working and left the mines.
Actions of solidarity with gold miners swept across Russia, covering about 300 thousand people.
Left parties openly blamed the tsarist government for what had happened.
“It is believed that the events at the Lena mines marked the beginning of a new growth of revolutionary sentiment in Russia.
The strike movement began to grow at the enterprises of the country, temporarily suspended by a wave of patriotic sentiments against the background of the First World War, ”said in a conversation with RT an associate professor at Moscow State University.
M.V.
Lomonosov Yuri Shchetinov.
Memorial at the site of the Lena massacre
© Wikimedia
According to Yevgeny Spitsyn, the shooting at the workers at the Lena mines had the opposite effect of what the authorities expected.
“The fire opened on unarmed people, outraged by inhuman working conditions, led to a surge of indignation and radicalization of the labor movement, which became the forerunner of the October Revolution of 1917,” Yevgeny Spitsyn summed up.