Laws and interests: factory inspection relationships with owners and the administration of industrial enterprises of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century (based on materials from the Middle Volga region)

Introduction. Factory inspection was one of the key institutions that influenced the industrial development of Russia in the late XIX - early XX centuries. The factory inspection, closely integrated into the state management system, went through several stages of its formation and development. Being at the very center of social contradictions within the framework of an increasingly acute “work issue”, the factory inspectorate was often criticized by various political forces, as well as by entrepreneurs and the public. Research methods. The range of applied research methods when considering this topic is determined by the intersection of several subject areas: social, economic and legal. In order to reflect all the complexities of their interaction, the methods of socio-institutional analysis were used. The use of the modernization theory made it possible to include the approval of factory-labor legislation in Russia in the trend of industrial modernization. The method of micro-history allows you to see the specific practice of the relationship of factory inspection with the owners and administration of industrial enterprises. Results. In this article, based on the study of predominantly archival sources, an analysis was made of the activities of factory inspection of the provinces of the Middle Volga region in the beginning of the 20th century in the context of confrontation with entrepreneurs, the essence of which was the desire to oblige them to comply with the norms and rules of factory labor legislation. As the study showed, it was not unclouded, it raised many questions and controversial issues, often caused by the frank reluctance of the owners and administrations of industrial enterprises to comply with the requirements of factory-labor legislation, and in some cases the insufficient functioning of the factory’s institute inspection, as well as mechanisms for its implementation. Discussion and conclusion. As the study shows, carrying out mediation in resolving labor disputes and conflicts between workers and entrepreneurs, factory inspectors became essentially the main actors in the formation of the legal space in the sphere of industrial production in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Gradually, they became an effective force that could resist the desire of the owners and management of enterprises to preserve the so-called “old factory orders”, where the decisive role was played not by the “letter of the law”, but by the will of the owner and a well-established custom. The way in which the new practice of production and labor relations was successfully implemented largely depended on the personality of the factory inspector, on his principledness and desire to resist the entrepreneurs and the administration of factories in their desire not to comply with the norms of factory labor legislation.