Describe the condition of the industrial workers which influenced the Russian revolution.
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Answer:
There was little factory legislation to protect labour. The two most important factory laws - one in 1885 prohibiting the night-time employment of women and children, and the other in 1897 restricting the working day to eleven and a half hours - had to be wrenched from the government. Small workshops were excluded from the legislation, although they probably employed the majority of the country's workforce, and certainly most of its female contingent.
Shopfloors were crammed with dangerous machinery: there were frequent accidents. Yet most workers were denied a legal right to insurance and, if they lost an eye or limb, could expect no more than a few roubles' compensation. Workers' strikes were illegal. There were no legal trade unions until 1905. Many factory owners treated workers like their serfs.
Russian workers were the most strike-prone in Europe during the 1900s. Three-quarters of the factory workforce went on strike in the revolutionary years of 1905-6