Russian Labor law in the Twentieth Century: Patterns of Development and Historical Lessons

• Author: Nelli Diveeva - Evgeniy Khokhlov - Marina Filippova
• Position: St. Petersburg University (St. Petersburg, Russia)
• Pages: 6-38

BRICS LAW JOURNAL Volume IV (2017) Issue 4

ARTICLES

RuSSIan LaBoR Law In THE Tw EnTIETH CEn TuRY:

PaTTERnS oF DEVELoPMEnT anD HISToRICaL LESSonS

NELLI DIVEEVA,

St. Petersburg University (St. Petersburg, Russia)

EVGENIY KHOKHLOV,

St. Petersburg University (St. Petersburg, Russia)

MARINA FILIPPOVA,

St. Petersburg University (St. Petersburg, Russia)

DOI: 10.21684/2412-2343-2017-4-4-6-38

The revolution that took place in Russia on 25 October (or, according to the new st yle,

on 7 November) 1917 is believed to have been the most important political event of the

20th century and to have had a great inuence on all aspects of life both within the

country and worldwide. This article discusses the extent to which the Russian socialist

revolution aected the relatively narrow, although extremely important, area of the

mechanism for the legal regulation of labor. For this purpose, the authors compared the

concept of socialism and the practice of its implementation in Russia with the practice of

the legal regulation of labor in the countries that did not experience a socialist revolution

and therefore were considered by socialists as “bourgeois” countries. At the same time,

the authors challenged the view of the majorit y of Russian researchers of the Soviet

period, including the researchers of the history of the legal regulation of labor, that

Soviet economic history was a process of linear progressive development (when applied

to the sphere of labor). The article shows and analyzes the dissimilarity in the qualitative

characteristics of the history of the economy and the history of the legal regulation of

labor in Soviet Russia. On this basis, the conclusions are drawn as to the inuence of the

Soviet experience on other countries in the sphere of the legal regulation of social labor

and the relevance of this experience for the current times.

NELLI DIVEEVA, EVGENIY KHOKHLOV, MARINA FILIPPOVA 7

Keywords: Socialist revolution; mechanism of the legal regulation of labor; application

of labor; history of Russian labor law; history of the Russian economy; Soviet experience

of labor management.

Recommended citation: Nelli Diveeva et al., Russian Labor Law in the Twentieth

Century: Patterns of Development and Historical Lessons, 4(4) BRICS Law Journal 6–38

(2017).

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Socialist Theory and the History of “Real Socialism” in the USSR

2. The Use of Labor in the Era of “Military Communism”

3. The Mechanism of Legal Regulation of Labor in the Context

of the New Economic Policy

4. Governance of Labor after the “Great Break”

5. The Evolution of the Economic Mechanism in the 1950s–1980s

Conclusion

Introduction

The revolution that took place in Russia on 25 October (or, according to the new

style, on 7 November) 1917, was referred to in the Soviet Union as the Great October

Socialist Revolution. It is also believed that it was the most important political event

of the 20th century and that it had a great inuence on all aspects of life both within

the coun try and worldwide. This belief is probably quite correct, but our task is

smaller: we will try to determine to what extent the Russian socialist revolution

aected the relatively narrow, though extremely important, area of the mechanism

of the legal regulation of labor. But for this we will have to, at least in very general

terms, compare the concept of socialism – to the extent that the thinkers developed

it mainly in the 19th century – and the practice of its implementation in Russia, with

the practice of the legal regulation of labor in the countries where there was no

socialist revolution and therefore considered “bourgeois countries” by socialists.

On the mechanism of the legal regulation of labor in a market economy, it can be

considered indisputable that it was generally established in the second half of the

19th century. What it embraced were mainly the relations surrounding wage labor

that took place in the area of industrial (factory) production.

This mechanism is based on three methods of regulation: (a) individual-

contractual regulation, (b) collective-contractual regulation, and (c) state regulation.

BRICS LAW JOURNAL Volume IV (2017) Issue 4 8

Individual-contractual regulation, governed by the principle of freedom of contract is

the principal method of the three, and the only one as of the end of the 18th century

and the rst half of the 19th century. However, as demonstrated by the practice of

using social labor during this period, one should not overestimate the principle of

freedom of contract in relation to labor relations, since it entails very high social costs

(such as the widespread use of child and female labor, the absence of any satisfactory

protection of it, etc.). In turn, this at the very least impedes the social development

of a huge layer of wage workers if not leads to their degradation. And this situation

already poses a threat to the public interest.

Therefore, in order to protect socially signicant interests, both individual and

general social ones, it becomes necessary to restrict the operation of the principle of

freedom of contract in labor relations (that is, in the relations of applied labor). The

role of such “restrictors” is exercised by the state and trade unions. The state adopts

labor legislation and establishes labor inspectorates to monitor the implementation

of this legislation; with the participation of trade unions, a system of collective

bargaining agreements is formed. Both are eective means of limiting the freedom

of labor contract, primarily in the interests of an employee as the weaker player in

the labor market.

Thus, the existing mechanism of the legal regulation of labor is a necessary stage

in the evolution of the market (capitalist) economy and, therefore, has an objective

character.1

In Russia, as well as in other European countries, this mechanism started to take

shape, in the second half of the 19th century, albeit with some delay. Beginning in

the 1880s, a number of labor laws were adopted relating to, for instance, the labor

of minors, employment contracts, working time, social insurance, and the labor in

specic branches of the economy. Ultimately, the standards of labor that were mainly

established in the Industry Charter and the Mining Charter were consolidated in the

Charter on Industrial Labor (edited in 1913).

At the same time, the system of the legal regulation of labor that developed

in Russia possessed one essential feature that, together with other factors, played

a fatal role in the destiny of the Russian state: the system lacked the indispensable

component of the collective bargaining agreement. The activity of the Russian

trade unions was legitimized by the state in 1906. However, the emerging trade

unions were under the inuence of revolutionary radicals of various kinds and

1 We believe it is important to emphasize a point of objectivity in the genesis of the mechanism of the

legal regulation of labor, which is in contrast to the l ong tradition of super-li beralism in economic

theory, originating in the work of T. Malthus and D. Ricardo and represented at dierent times by

such thinkers as H. Spencer, G. de Molinari, F. Bastiat and others, and in our times by L. von Mises and

F.A. Hayek. The liberal economist K. Marx showed where the evolution of the liberal economic model

could, and moreover, will go. The only reason this forecast has not yet come true is that this model has

been replaced by a new one, which is based on the more or less broad interventionism of the social

welfare state and (in the sphere of labor) on the activities of trade unions.