Key words: child labor, child labor legislation, NEP, children’s rights, children’s health protection, RSFSR, USSR, labor inspection, overexploitation, unemployment
Annotation. This article analyzes child labor legislation in Soviet Russia and the USSR during the New Economic Policy (NEP). The partial restoration of capitalism during the NEP led to the need to create new labor legislation, particularly regarding child labor, as many social problems associated with capitalist relations resurfaced in Soviet society. These problems included, on the one hand, the overexploitation of workers, and on the other, rising unemployment.
To address these issues, the Soviet state during the NEP created a comprehensive set of legislative acts, among which child labor laws occupied a special place. Child labor legislation was drafted in the interests of child workers and protected their rights in the context of the restoration of market relations. The Soviet state took up the protection of child labor for a number of political, social, and ideological reasons.
Oronovsky Vladislav Stanislavovich
Child labor legislation during the NEP years
This article analyzes child labor legislation in Soviet Russia and the USSR during the New Economic Policy (NEP). The partial restoration of capitalism during the NEP led to the need for new labor legislation, particularly regarding child labor, as many social problems associated with capitalist relations resurfaced in Soviet society. These problems included, on the one hand, the overexploitation of workers, and on the other, rising unemployment.
To address these issues, the Soviet state during the NEP years created a comprehensive set of legislative acts, among which child labor laws occupied a special place. These laws included the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of May 2, 1922, “On Establishing a Minimum Number of Adolescents in Enterprises,” the Labor Code of the RSFSR of November 15, 1922, the Regulation “On the Protection of the Health of Adolescents and Children of the RSFSR” of September 15, 1921, and the Resolution of the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR “On the Medical Examination of Adolescent Workers” of October 13, 1922. The purpose of these laws was to protect child workers from overexploitation and unemployment, and to safeguard their lives and health.
In the 1920s, the working hours of underage workers were limited, but for a shortened workday, children received the same wages as for a full day. Children were free to spend their earnings, were protected from layoffs at enterprises, and underwent mandatory medical examinations upon hiring. The Labor Inspectorate, established in 1918, monitored the rights of underage workers and could prosecute employers for violations.
In the 1920s, a somewhat paradoxical situation developed in the USSR. On the one hand, the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was in power, proclaiming communist ideology, which implied the abolition of private ownership of the means of production and private enterprise. On the other hand, this same government was implementing the New Economic Policy, which was characterized by a partial return to capitalist relations. At the same time, the state sided with the exploited majority, that is, the working class, and protected it from the negative aspects of capitalism, such as super-exploitation and unemployment.
Despite the partial restoration of capitalist relations, the Soviet state continued its socially oriented policy aimed at protecting the rights of child laborers. There were several reasons for this. Firstly, despite the adjustments to socioeconomic policy, the ruling party’s ideology remained unchanged, and the Soviet government was forced to act within its framework. The Soviet state, albeit in official propaganda, remained a state of workers and peasants, where the NEPmen were perceived as class enemies. Therefore, the state authorities created labor legislation in the interests of the former, not the latter. Secondly, the working class remained the main social support of the Soviet government, whose interests it was obliged to protect. Thirdly, the state authorities’ attitude toward the younger generation was also important. Children were perceived as the future builders of communism, and therefore their education and upbringing required special attention. As a result, adolescent workers, on the one hand, should not be subjected to excessive exploitation in the workplace, so that they have time and energy for education and self-development. On the other hand, excessive reductions in the number of children working in factories and plants should be prevented, as skilled workers in production must be replenished. Labor also became an important factor in children’s upbringing. In the 1920s, compulsory labor was abolished, but labor education remained in school education and as a means of re-education in juvenile labor colonies.
The combination of these factors led to the creation of highly progressive child labor legislation in the USSR in the 1920s, which protected the interests of child workers during the Soviet state’s partial return to a market economy.