The Petrograd synodal press in 1917

The article is devoted to the study of the situation taking place at the Petrograd Synodal Press afer the February Revolution of 1917. Among the workers, numbering about 350 people, there was a desire to actively participate in the management of the printing house. To protect workers’ rights, the Stewards Commitee was formed at the printing house, which, instead of the functions of the trade union organization assigned to it, began to establish control over production and finance without notifying and receiving consent from the administration. Afer this there began the disorganization of the production process and the frustration of the financial and economic state of the press. At the order of the Minister of Confessions, A. V. Kartashev, on August 4, 1917, a commission was established for the affairs of the printing house, headed by Archpriest A. Rozhdestvensky, chairman of the Publishing Council at the Holy Synod. Tis Commission thoroughly examined the situation created in the printing house and prepared a report compiled in late November 1917 and intended for the Local Council. Te report proposed measures “to eliminate the sad, catastrophic state of affairs of the Synodal printing house.” However, these measures could be implemented, as the Commission itself admited, only if the general political situation in the country changed. In these conditions, the highest ecclesiastical leadership in Moscow essentially took a wait-and-see atitude, confining itself to studying the situation taking place at the Petrograd Synodal Press. In January 1918 the printing house was requisitioned by the Soviet authorities.