Activities of factory inspection for juvenile and female labor protection in 1882–1905 (on the example of Voronezh and Kursk Governorates)

Abstract

The first factory law regulating the juvenile labor was issued in Russia in 1882; and the factory inspection was established to control the observance of factory laws. It became possible to make wider use of cheap women and children’s labor in the factory industry in Russia with the expansion of machine production. Due to a lack of research, the author examined the enterprises in Kursk and Voronezh Governorates, which were supervised by the factory inspection. The enterprises in these territories were mainly engaged in the processing of agricultural products and juvenile and female labor was used in it. According to the results of the study, the author concludes that the factory inspectors drew up protocols on the facts of established violations and recorded accidents at work. As a result of the activities of the factory inspection, they collected extensive statistical data on the use of women and children’s labor at the enterprises of the factory-and-works industry in Russia in the late 19th – early 20th centuries.