The Politics of Industrial Mobilization in Russia, 1914-1917

The First World War necessitated not only the mobilization of troops, but the industrial resources of all the Great Powers.This book analyses the political constraints and ramifications of industrial mobilization in Russia.It focuses on the War-Industries Committees, an organization founded in 1915 ostensibly to assist in the war effort but also incorporating the aspirations of the Russian industrial bourgeoisie for greater control over the administration of the war economy and, ultimately, political power.Drawing on Soviet and Western archives, contemporary newspapers, the publications of the War-Industries Committees, and a wide range of monographic literature, the author pieces together the ways in which industrial mobilization became a highly charged political issue, one that contributed towards the downfall of the old regime.After an introductory chapter on the 'making' of the Russian industrial bourgeoisie, the author examines initial efforts to mobilize industry, the crisis which brought about the creation of a network of War-Industries Committees, and the challenge they posed to the Tsarist government.The next two chapters explore the Committees' involvement in war-industrial production and the regulation of the war economy.This is followed by a consideration of the workers' groups and their attempts to put industrial relations on a 'European' footing.A final chapter discusses the role of both the Committees and their workers' groups in the social and political upheavals which preceded the February Revolution, and their respective fates in 1917

Economic history · Economic system · Economics · Economy · Mobilization · Political economy · Political mobilization · Political science · Politics · Indian Economic and Social Development · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Russia and Soviet political economy