Tag Archives: economics

Worker’s social benefits in Russia seen through a 1913 recruitment advertisement

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Today I came across a copy of a recruitment advertisement from 1913 Russia published by the Russo-American rubber company “Triangle”. The company was recruiting female workers and listed some pretty decent social benefits. They advertise themselves as a prosperous company, yet to stay competitive and within the legal framework of the country they had to offer such incentives. In a capitalist world, that Russia was entering at that time, a company, even a wealthy one, would have naturally tired to cut costs.

This reminded me of a series of articles that I translated in 2017 When Rouble Was Golden – Russia that we lost in the ashes of WWI and the coup d’etats of 1914-1917 and how well it illustrates that Russia was not some backward country before 1917, as is the common view in the West and in Russia alike.

Partnership “Triangle” in St. Petersburg.

The largest and wealthiest rubber factories in Russia.

Always needed healthy female workers aged 18-30.

8-10 working hours per day.

Until own accommodation is found – full accommodation free of charge in up to ___ weeks.

Our factories constantly employ 15000 people.
Our factories have:
 Free nursery for 500 children of the workers,
 Free school for 500 children of the workers,
 Free medical assistance to male and female workers,
 Own medical cabinet, doctors, nurses, midwives,
 Free apothecary,
 In the city hospitals there are reserved free beds for our male and female workers,
 After illness, in case health restitution is needed, there is free rest in our special colony in a healthy dry forest area.
 Support for the old age, accident insurance.
 Premiums for long-term employment.
 Several large houses with well-equipped apartments for workers with families.

The factories are located along the Ring Canal of St.Petersburg.

The Partnership of the Russo-American Rubber Manufacture under the trade mark of “Triangle”

When Rouble Was Golden – Russia that we lost in the ashes of WWI and the coup d’etats of 1914-1917

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On the 6th of March (21st of February by the old style) 1917, the colour “bread” revolution was started, which heralded a great disaster, spanning a century…

In the years before Russia got drawn into WWI, it was displaying fabulous growth, both socially and economically. WWI, also known as the “War of 4 cousins” – as all heads of the warring states were blood relatives – was a disaster for Russia, and weakened it sufficiently to facilitate the second – internal – disaster of 1917, which all but destroyed it.

One of the contemporary writers said that “Pity that we have Nikolai the Second, and not the second Nikolai”, referring to the strong in the will Nikolai I. Nikolai II, while being praised by the Western (British) powers, delivered Russia on a platter, and then was dumped by the Brits to be executed by the followers of their agent – Lenin. There was only one other Russian ruler, who was praised as highly by the West – Yeltsin, who caused destruction of Russia almost to the point of no return in the “Wild 90s”.

In November 1914 the Austrian Foreign Minister Leopold Berchtold wrote: “Our main goal in this war lies in the long-term weakening of Russia.” Oh, how well they succeeded!

What did Russia lose? Marking the coming 100th anniversary of the two coup d’etats of 1917, Russian weekly “Argumenty and Fakty” publishes in 2016 a series of articles – “When Rouble was Golden” – showing some key points of Russian life before WWI. Here I want to present the translation of the entire series.

Contents:

Publication of 03.02.2016, regarding the foundations of the Russian economics.


Harvest. Urals, 1907

What was the country, that was lost forever? What was the foundation of its economy, when oil was not the main article of Russian exports nor the main source of state revenues? Argumenty i Fakty got at its disposal a unique booklet, first published in 1958 in New York City in 8 thousand copies. Edited by B. Brazol, it compiled statistics showing that over the last 15-20 years before the First World War, Russia made giant steps forward both in the economy, and in the development of the social and educational systems.

“AiF” starts a series of articles in which we will talk about how our country developed in the early twentieth century. In this edition we will focus on the golden rouble and gold reserves, revenues and expenditures of the state budget, taxes and savings.

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Andrey Karaulov: “Those, who laughed at us yesterday, are no longer laughing today”

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Below is my translation of an interview with Andrei Karaulov, published in “Argumenty i Fakty” on the 30th of January 2016. The information in this interview underlines and strengthens what I previously wrote in the articles, pertaining to the Wild 90s: The ”Wild 90s” in Russia, as reflected in people’s memory and another of Karaulov’s articles that I translated, For Russia 90’s Were Worse Than WWII.

One highlight from the article below:

Liberal historian Boris Sokolov counted how many people died over the course of only two years – 1992 and 1993 – during the so-called “reforms” of Gaidar and Chubais. 150.000 more than during the executions of 1937-1938.

Andrey Karaulov was born in 1958 in town Korolev. Journalist and writer, winner of TEFI, Author of TV programmes “The Moment of Truth”, “Russian century”. Author of the documentary films “Unknown Putin”, “Khodorkovskij. Pipes(dead bodies)” (translator note: the inserted character creates the pun), “A Common Fascism”. Author of the books “Around Kremlin”, Russian hell”, and other.

Olga Shablinsky, “AIF”: “It looks as if a new war is coming! We’ve quarreled with almost the whole world,” – it’s a conversation that I recently overheard, expressing the mood of so many… And at the same timet Karaulov writes on his page on the social networks: “Why is Putin not afraid of isolation?” Andrey, are you not worried with these feeling of a coming war?

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