The dynamics of the real wages of miners in Siberia in the late 19th - early 20th centuries

This article analyzes the real wages of miners in Siberia in the late 19th - early 20th centuries basing on the information from mining reporting and works of district mining engineers, health officers, from surveys of the economic situation of workers that the Mining Office carried out before and during the First World War. The real wages is an important indicator of the evolution of the living standards of employees. It is obtained by comparing the dynamic series of prices for consumer goods and the same number of indices of the nominal wages. The analysis of the performance of the real wages of miners in Siberia confirms the general trend of workers' living standard growth in the period of capitalism. The percent of workers in the distribution of national income in the industrialized countries of the twentieth century grew considerably, forming the middle class. The indices of the nominal wages of miners in Siberia from 1895 till 1914 increased by more than 40 %, and by 1917 by almost four times. However, the dynamics of real wages was different: in 1914 it grew by 17 % from the level of the previous five years of the 19th century, and by 1917 reduced to 70-80% of the same. The calculations also refuted the assertion of V.I. Lenin that in 1905 the workers' living standard in Russia raised dramatically. In fact, the real wages of workers in Russia decreased by six points to the level of the late 19th century. In 19051909 the real wages of Siberian miners reduced in comparison with the five-years period of 1900-1904 from 123 points (the end of the 19th century) to 107. During the First World War, the real wages of miners had a pronounced downward tendency. In 1915, the actual payment of miners dropped almost to the level of the two decades before, and it was equal to the index of 104.91 %, in the mines 101.29 %, in the gold-fields 106.69 %. In the leading coal-producing areas, such as Anzhero-Sudzhensk the real wages subsided off the level of the end of the 19th century. In 1916, the falling of wages was even more pronounced, the index in the mines was 92 %, in the gold-fields 100.63 %, on average 96.62 %, below the all-Russian level at 97.6 %. The indices of the real wages are given for the January and February of 1917. These months the real wages of miners amounted to 77.47 % from the level of the end of the 19th century. If the level of the prewar five-year period is 100 %, the falling of the real wages will be even more expressive: 19101914: 100 %; 1915: 89.95 %; 1916: 82.84 %; January - February 1917: 66.42 %. This index is similar for the workers of the Russian South, where in February 1917, the level of the real wages in the mines was 50-70% and in the factories 43-87 % of the pre-war period. Later on, the real wages of miners reduced even more and amounted to 42.5 % in Kuzbass region, 50 % in the Lena gold-fields, 47 % in the Mariinsky gold-fields. Thus, during the First World War, the absolute impoverishment of the miners was evident.

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