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not
survive for
long, having
been
repressed by
1892,
but
they
had
attracted
a
number of
women
workers who would continue
to concentrate
their efforts
:
on
organising
their
sisters,
notably
Vera Karelina in the 1905
Revolution,
as
well
as
female intellectuals
who would later
organise
women
workers
for
the Bolsheviks in
1917,
such
as
Nadezhda
Krupskaia.
Although
historical attention has been
on
Petersburg
Brusnev had
recognised
that
Moscow,
where he moved
in
the winter of
1891
to
take
a
job
as an
engineer
with
a
railway
company,
was an
important
centre
for
political propaganda.
The
nature
of the Moscow
economy,
which had
a
large
textile
base,
meant
that the Brusnev circles looked
to
weavers as
well
as
metal workers.
Despite
the
crushing
of the Brusnev group there
were
extensive
networks of circles in
Moscow
in the mid 1890s.
As
pointed
out
above there
were
female
circles,
but
most
circles
were
largely
run
by
skilled male
workers,
rather than intellectuals. Then the
focus
of activities shifted from the education of
a
few workers
(which,
however
necessary,
was
believed
to
isolate the
recipients
from their work
mates)
to
agitation
on
the
factory
floor. What the
politically
conscious workers
were
determined
to
do
was
to
overcome
the divisions in their class which
so
damaged
the labour
movement.

68
In
1892,
Sergei
Mitskevich
joined
a
group of Marxist
intelligentsia
in
Moscow. He had
already developed
the
view that the
intelligentsia
should
adopt
the
leading
role in the social democratic
movement.
Yet
it
was
not
until the
following
year
that he made any
contact
with workers'
circles,
and then
only
through
a
chance
meeting
with
a
female intellectual
who had
propagandised railway
workers. She
introduced
him
to
two
members of
an
established
workers' circle which consented
to
listen
to
his Marxist
propaganda.
Most of
the workers' circles Mitskevich and his
intellectual
comrades addressed consisted of skilled metal
workers,
and the
intelligentsia
did
not
attempt
to
reach
a
wider audience among
even
male workers.
Rather
it
was
workers who did
that,
without reference
to
the
intelligentsia.
These
Moscow workers
believed
that it
was
necessary
to
broaden the base of the social
democratic
movement to
the
less
skilled and less
developed
workers,
which entailed
a
huge
effort
to
break down the labour
hierarchy.
In
their view such divisions
were
harmful
to
the
working
class,
which
they
were
convinced had
to
be unified.
That
meant
that attention had
to
be
paid
to
women
workers. The Moscow
textile
industry
was
very
labour
intensive,
since
it
could draw
on a
huge
pool
of
cheap
labour from the
poor
agricultural
areas
in
the
region.
While the
intelligentsia
concentrated their efforts
on
skilled
workers,
Moscow's textile
industry
was
overwhelmingly
unskilled,
relying
on
large
numbers of
women
as
well
as
children.
The textile
industry
was
long
established in Moscow and contrasted
sharply
with the
metal
industry
which
depended
on a
core
of
highly
skilled literate
men.
Given the
division
of labour between the
sexes,
the
hierarchy
of skill
(which
was
monopolised
by men),
the fact that
men
and
women
not
only
worked in different
jobs
but lived
separately,
with
men
often
grouping together
and
hiring
a woman
to
cook and clean
I
for
them,
it
was
very difficult for those male worker activists
to
reach
working
;
women.
There
was
in any
case
a
huge
cultural
gap
between the skilled and the
unskilled,
and much
suspicion
held
by
the
latter towards the former
not
only
because
I
politically
conscious workers often refused
to
drink
alcohol,
but also because
they
were
considered
'godless'.
Even
as
the skilled worker tried
to
agitate
among the
unskilled,
he
often
despaired
of their
passivity
and conservatism
(of
male
as
well
as
female workers).
Despite
these
huge
obstacles,
workers' circles
developed,
and,
independently
of
the
intelligentsia,
the members established
a
central
circle
to
co-ordinate the
movement
which
became
the Moscow Workers Union. In the
following
year
the

69
Union
turned
to
mass
agitation.
The
suspicion
of
even
skilled
workers towards the
intelligentsia
was
largely
class-based:
that
the
intelligentsia
were
essentially
bourgeois,
that
they
did
not treat
workers
as
equals,
and that
ultimately they
would
betray
the workers. The circles
were
overwhelmingly
made
up
of male
workers,
partly
because of the
way
the activists made
contact
with
others, by
using
their
skills
to
secure
jobs
in the 'male'
metal
and
construction
industries,
setting
up workers' circles
and
then
moving
on
to
repeat
the
process.
Even in the
female
textile
industry,
it
was
the skilled male
workers,
such
as
pattern
makers,
who
were
drawn into the circles.
Given the intense
police surveillance,
it
was
difficult
to
penetrate
beyond
the
workshop.
Still,
they
tried hard
to
agitate
among the
mass
of workers
by
means
of
leaflets written in
a
style
which would
appeal
to
poorly
educated
workers,
and
starting
from their
everyday grievances.
In
all,
the
emphasis
was
on
the need
for
unity
and
solidarity
among
workers,
while the
content
of many of the leaflets could have been
addressed
to
female
as
much
as
male
workers,
since
concern
over
working
and
living
conditions
was common
to
both:
'Comrades,
let
us
forget
the
quarrels
and
disagreements
amongst
ourselves,
let
us
unite and
establish
funds and
together
hand
in
hand demand
a
reduction of the
working
day
from
our
enemies.' The form of the
address, however,
was
often
explicitly
masculine:
'Comrades,
we
get
drunk and
see
how the
capitalists
rob
us,
how
our
blood is
drunk.'12
One
agitational
leaflet
addressed
directly
the
issue of male
hostility
towards
female
workers:
We
must
never
separate
male from female workers.
In
many
factories
in Russia
women
workers
already
constitute the
majority
of the
workforce,
and
they
are even more
cruelly exploited by
the
factory
owners.
Their interests
are
no
different from the
interests
of
male
workers. Male and female workers
must
grasp each other
by
the hand
and
together struggle
for their
liberation.13
The Union
supported
the establishment of
a
number of workers'
circles,
such
as one
run
by
Mania
Boie,
the sister of
a
leading
member
of the
Union,
the metal worker
Konstantin
Boie. Given the
very
low level of
literacy
among
women
workers,
such
Literatura
Moskovskogo
Rabochego
Soiuza,
71
ibid.,68

70
circles
were
usually
conducted
by
female students. Rather than
attempt
to
infiltrate
the factories
as
had been tried
unsuccessfully
in the
1870s,
these
women
contacted
workers
through
Sunday Schools,
as
Muralova did. From
a
starting
point
of
as
few
as
three textile
workers, by
the middle of 1895
as
many
as
50
women
has been drawn
to
the
circles,
which
affiliated
to
the Union.
In
1895,
in
StPetersburg
as a
result of the
confluence
between several
independent
social democratic circles the Union of
Struggle
was
established. The
Union took its
propaganda
work from within the confines of
study
circles
to
the
factories
and
mass
agitation.
There
were
four
women
among its 17
founding
members:
Krupskaia,
Radchenko,
Nevzorova and Iakubova.
Krupskaia,
Nevzorova
and Iakubova
were
assigned
to
different
Petersburg
districts while Radchenko
(who
later
joined
the
Mensheviks)
and her husband
were
made
responsible
for the
administrative
affairs in the
organisation,
looking
after the finances and technical
work
of the Union. More
women
joined
the Union and took
part
in
its activities. But
their work is best described
as
that
of'foot soldiers' rather than
'party
lieutenants'.
The
majority
was
either teachers
or
students,
with
a
smaller number of
women
workers,
who became
responsible
for the 'technical' issues in the
organisation.
Some
were
engaged
in
printing
and
distributing
leaflets,
others collected funds and
donations.
The male
intellectuals
were more
involved in theoretical debates while
male workers from the
organisation
were
more
responsible
for the
co-ordination
of
the
practical
work.
In
fact,
as a
result of many
arrests
among the ranks of active male
and
women
workers,
there
were
few of them left in St
Petersburg by
the end of 1895.
But the
new
'division of
labour'
was
setting
a
pattern
for the
way
the
two
genders
would
fare
in the
RSDRP,
the
party
which would become the
spiritual
successor
to
the Union of
Struggle.
Efforts
to
unite smaller social
democratic
circles
were
made elsewhere in the
country.
In
1895
Olga
Varentsova founded
a
Workers' Union in Ivanovo-Voznesensk.
It
lasted
until 1897 when its
leading
members, including
Varentsova
herself,
were
arrested and exiled for
three
years.
On her
return
she
was
barred from
living
in
Ivanovo
and had
to
settle in Voronezh. With
a
group of other social democrats she
came
up
with
an
idea
to set
up
a
larger
organisation
which could co-ordinate
revolutionary
work in all textile
centres
outside
Moscow,
such
as
Ivanovo-
Voznesensk,
Kostroma,
IaroslavF and smaller industrial
towns
such
as
Shuia and
Kineshma.
The idea
was
to
ease
the pressure
on
smaller groups which often lacked

71
funds
for
wider
and
more
rigorous
propaganda work,
and
to
provide
these smaller
groups
with clandestine
literature,
set
up
a
chain of safe houses both
to
print
and
store
it
as
well
as
to
provide
shelter and false
passports
for comrades who needed them. The
area
was
by
now
predominantly
industrial
but until the
start
of the twentieth
century
political
activities had been
highly
localised and
often
ceased
as a
result of successful
police
operations
which netted the
agitators.
To
overcome
this
isolation,
a
decision
was
taken
to
invite
representatives
from all social democratic
organisations
in the
area
to
Kineshma
to
inaugurate
the
new
organisation
which
was
to
be known
as
the
Northern Workers' Union. The first official congress of
representatives
from the four
main
districts took
place
in the
summer
of
1901,
with Ivanovo
being represented by
the
woman
worker
E.Volodina. At that
meeting
Varentsova
was
elected
one
of the
Union
leaders.
In Kharkov
one
of the
leading
social democrats
was
Evdokiia
Sysoeva-Levina.
In 1893 she
joined
a
Marxist
organisation
which had
developed
from
a
number of
study
circles. Sofia Pomeranets-Perazich became
a
committed female
revolutionary
while
studying dentistry
abroad. In 1893 she returned
to
Kiev where she devoted her
time and
efforts
to
agitation
in worker's
circles, paying
particular
attention
to
women
workers. After the revolution she recollected the difficult conditions in which she had
to
carry
out
propaganda
among
women:
I remember
one
circle
in Podol.
Somebody
introduced
me
to
a woman
worker from
a
seamstresses'
workshop. Through
her
I
was
able
to start
a
circle
consisting
of
eight
people.
These
were
young
Jewish
women
seamstresses
forced
to
work under terrible conditions.
They
slept
on
the floor and
ate
in the
room
where
they
also had
to
work;
the
only
time
we
had for
our
studies
was
when the
workshop
owners,
a
childless
couple,
went to
see
their
friends.
I4
She
also remembered another group of young
women
workers. When Pomeranets-
Perazich
came
for the second lesson she
saw
several
army
cadets and officers
drinking
beer and vodka there. This
scene
brought
her
to
the conclusion that
to
continue work with these frivolous
young seamstresses
would be
a
waste
of time.
A
S.
Tsederbaum,
Zhenshchina
v
nisskom revoliutsionnom
dvizhenii,
177-178

72
woman
worker from the Kiev social democratic
organisation,
Raisa
Strazh,
was more
persistent.
She used
to
help
her
fellow
workers,
with
considerable
success, to
demand
improvement
in their
pay
and
living
conditions. She would
take
up
a
position
in
one
of
the less attractive
workshops.
After
a
while she would
organise
a
strike
among
the
workers
and
once
the demands of the workers
were
met
she would leave for another
place.
The
growth
in
intensity
and
changes
in the methods of
agitation
and
propaganda
now
employed by
the social democrats in their
approach
to
revolutionary
activity
among workers
came
to
fruition in the mid
1890s,
during
the
wave
of strikes
which
affected
the main industrial
centres
in the
country.
Nor
was
it
simply
isolated
strikes in
individual
factories.
Instead,
there
were
general
strikes in the textile
industry,
a
major employer
of female labour.
Indeed,
the
more
skilled and better
organised
metal
workers,
whom revolutionaries tended
to
see as
the natural leaders of
the labour
movement,
were
much less
militant in the mid 1890s than the
more
backward
textile workers.
During
the 1896
general
strike in
Petersburg
30,000
textile
workers took
part.
In
1898 the Maxwell
factory
workers
went
on
strike
not
only
with
economic demands but also
political
ones,
such
as:
freedom
to
strike and
to
hold
meetings.
These
demands
were
included in
spite
of
opposition
from the Union of
Straggle
which believed that the workers
were
not
ready
for such action.
According
to
eyewitness
accounts,
not
only
did
women-employees participate,
but also the wives of
male workers
were
actively
involved in the
protest,
encouraging
their
men,
supplying
them
with
firewood,
boiling
water
for
use as a
weapon,
and
throwing
stones
and
bricks
at
the
police.
Among
those arrested for
taking
part
in the strike
were
many
women.
The strike
movement,
however,
weakened
as
the economy entered
a
cycle
of
depression
and
unemployment
increased
at
the end of the
century.
In
addition,
the
authorities had succeeded in
crushing
the labour
movement
and
severely
disrupting
the links which had been
forged
between it and the
professional
revolutionaries.
Given
the
strength
of the
state,
revolutionaries
were
forced
to
reconsider their
organisational
strategies.
On the
one
hand,
they
continued
to
view skilled male
workers
as
the
key
to
the
development
of the socialist revolution. On the other
hand,
the
strikes of the mid 1890s had shown that it
was
the less
politically
conscious
unskilled
workers who
were
at
the forefront of the
protest
movement.
Social
democrats
in
particular
were
suspicious
of
spontaneous protest,
partly
because it
was

73
so
difficult
to
control,
and
partly
because
experience
so
far showed that it
was
not
sufficient
to
undermine
the tsarist
regime,
whose
repression
of such action
was
brutal.
Nevertheless,
while the
nascent
workers'
organisations
had been
crushed,
workers
did
not
simply
submit
to
the
superior
force
of the authorities. For
example,
in
the
summer
of 1903
a wave
of strikes had
spread
across
the south of Russia. In
Ekaterinoslav
one
of the
most
frequent
speakers
at
gatherings
of
striking
workers
was
Ekaterina Groman,
a
Bolshevik
agitator,
who had
only
recently
arrived in
town
after
running
away from her
place
of exile in Siberia. Groman did