Gerald D Surh 1905 in St. Petersburg sku-589798397

Gerald D Surh's 1905 in St. Petersburg: Labor, Society, and Revolution is a hardcover in General Political Books, SKU sku-589798397. It examines the sources of labor militancy during the First Russian Revolution. More Russian workers went on strike in 1905 than in any earlier year, and almost a quarter of them were in the capital.

Surh considers workers' own initiatives alongside those of moderate opposition groups and revolutionary parties, rather than attributing the strikes chiefly to Social Democratic leadership. Chapters on earlier labor action and the reasons workers turned to political protest precede studies of strikes, worker leaders, factory and union organizing, liberal overtures and the breakdown of public order.

The book examines the parties' role in political education and their failure to reach most workers. It ends with the October General Strike and the formation of the first Soviet of Workers' Deputies, bringing together workers' autonomous action and the ideas and leadership of their socialist and liberal allies.