Craft workshops in St. Petersburg: from a semi-closed corporation to a semi-open institution in the era of early industrialization (second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries)

A brief overview of St. Petersburg workshop crafts in the 18th - first half of the 19th centuries, followed by an in-depth analysis of their situation during the period of industrialization, makes it possible to look at them in the perspective of long-term development to identify growth dynamics and general trends. The fact that workshops existed as an institution that had no historical roots in Russia should not provoke skepticism. Even more so, they should not be regarded as a failed project of Peter the Great. As an institution of professional development of the modern era, workshops in Russia had a great future as their subsequent history was to demonstrate. The dynamics of the development of St Petersburg shop craftsmen can be traced over almost two centuries, when their number increased from 1,566 in 1724 to 57,500 in 1910, with a total number of craftsmen of about 150,000. The difference of opinion in the post-reform period split the workshops, society, and government into three camps. The conservative part of the Russian government tried to mothball the workshops, while the liberal part systematically closed the workshops, which extremely destabilized the social situation of urban crafts. The proposals of reform-minded shop heads to transform the workshops did not receive substantial support. This circumstance left no chance for reformist forces to reorganize the workshops according to principles close to modern professional communities, which most adequately met the challenges of the time.