The Third All Russian Conference of Trade Unions(Третья Всероссийская конференция профессиональных союзов) was the first national conference of trade unions held in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

following the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

. It was held in

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

20–28 June 1917.

Delegates

The conference was attended by 211 delegates representing 380,000 workers. These delegates were 73

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

, 36

Mensheviks The Mensheviks ('the Minority') were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903. Mensheviks held more moderate and reformist ...

, 6 Menshevik Internationalists, 11

Bund Bund, BUND, or the Bund may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Der Bund'', a German-language newspaper published in Bern, Switzerland * Shanghai Bund (TV series), ''Shanghai Bund'' (TV series), a 2007 Chinese television remake of the 19 ...

ists, 31 non-fractional

Social Democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...

, 25

Social Revolutionaries Social revolutions are sudden changes in the structure and nature of society. These revolutions are usually recognized as having transformed society, economy, culture, philosophy, and technology along with but more than just the political system ...

and 7 delegates of no known party affiliation.

Discussions

V. P. Grinevich, a Menshevik started the discussion on the role of the

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

s, which he characterised as conducting the economic struggle of the working class, depicting the

strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) * Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm * Airstrike, ...

as the principal weapon while under capitalism. He argued that they should not involve themselves in the organisation of production, a role he allocated to the state. The Internationalists criticised this view as supporting state control rather than

workers' control Workers' control is participation in the management of factories and other commercial enterprises by the people who work there. It has been variously advocated by anarchists, socialists, communists, social democrats, distributists and Christi ...

Nikolai Glebov-Avilov Nikolai Pavlovich Glebov-Avilov (; 11 October 1887 – 13 March 1937) was a prominent Bolshevik revolutionary and the first People's Commissar of Posts and Telegraphs. He was executed during the Great Purge. Early career Born in Kaluga in ...

presented the Bolshevik positions at this conference: *Economic Control Commissions should be attached to the central administration of the unions *these Commissions should be made up of members of the Factory Committee *these Commissions should co-operate with the Factory Committees in each individual enterprise. *the Factory Committees should also be financially dependent upon the union.

Influence of metalworkers union

The

All-Russian Metalworkers Union The All-Russian Metalworkers Union was a Russian Trade Union founded in 1918. The Metalworkers played a major role in the Third All Russian Conference of Trade Unions (20–28 June 1917). They organised their own conference to run in parallel wit ...

played a prominent role at the conference. It was during this conference they elected their Temporary Central Committee.

References

*''Tretzia Vserossiiskaia konferentsiia professional nykh soiuzov'', Moskva Knigoizd-vo VTSSPS, 1927. *Reprinted as ''Vserossiiskaia konferentsiia professionalnykh soiuzov (3rd: 1917: Petrograd, R.S.F.S.R.)'' - ''Third All-Russian Conference of Trade Unions: 3–11 July (20–28 June, old style) 1917: stenographic report'', Koenker, Diane, ed. Millwood, N.Y., by Kraus International Publications, 1982 {{All Russian Conferences of Trade Unions 1917 conferences Conferences of the Russian Revolution 1917 in Russia *