The formation of industrial society occurred unevenly in different regions throughout the 20th century and is associated with scientific and technological revolution. The USA entered this stage in 1914 - 1929, Western Europe in the 3050s, Japan in the 50s - 60s, when productive labor began to be combined with scientific knowledge and the creation of the technical, economic and sociocultural base of industrial society took place, industrial society has various socio-economic options (“bourgeois”, “socialist”, a combination of “traditional” and “modern” and others).

A general description of industrial society was given by K. Marx. Its essence: there is industrial production associated with constantly developing technology, new goods are being produced, and a service sector is being created. All this played a huge civilizational role. As a result, the social structures of traditional society were broken, new social relations, a new way of life, a rhythm of work, discipline, and an expansion of literacy and horizons emerged. However, the development and functioning of industrial society are fundamentally different under capitalism and socialism.

An industrial society is characterized by the predominance of accumulated labor over living labor. Accumulated labor takes the form of means of production (or capital): tools, machines, technologies, land, resources - and is secured in the form of property (private, state, cooperative or public). Hence the importance of the institution of property, which is supported by the entire economic, political and legal system of a given society. The labor is mostly skilled and highly specialized. The person himself functions as a bearer of such partial labor as a worker (or entrepreneur), and the remaining components of his existence are separated from the production process. Developed commodity production means a high degree of division of labor and specialization of production functions. But such a division requires as a necessary complement either a market or a coherent social system of regulation.

A developed industrial society requires an appropriate political system; in a normal state it is democracy. To maintain it, adequate spiritual support in the form of a system of norms and values ​​is necessary.

Law plays a vital role in maintaining the existing order. The basic principles of the legal order are: 1) the subject of the legal order is an isolated individual seeking private benefit through “fair competition”; 2) freedom and equality of opportunity provided by commodity-exchange relations; 3) recognition of each individual’s right to life, liberty and property, which constitutes a relationship of personal independence, and the guarantee of this independence is private property.

The most important values ​​of a bourgeois industrial society are: 1) individualism: a person is the bearer of universally significant values ​​and bears responsibility for them, there is a priority of individual rights, his freedom, independence from the state (although this leads to inhumanity, antisociality, and anti-democraticism); 2) rationalism: reason is the main judge in all conflicts; 3) mechanism: the world is represented by a mechanism, God is its watchmaker, and as a result a mechanical model of the world arises; 4) naturalism: they try to explain the whole world by nature; 5) achievement and success, without ignoring morality: the requirement of “fair play” according to the rules; 6) private property as the basis of all rights; 7) law as a universal regulator; 8) activity and work, the consequence of which is the mobility of social relations, technologies, and spiritual life; 9) consumerism; 10) universalism: Western values ​​are transferred to other cultures; 11) faith in progress and respect for science and technology.

A developed industrial society attaches special importance to technology, even to the point of technocracy. The reasons for this are: 1) in society, accumulated labor prevails over living labor; 2) without technology it is impossible to achieve the level of production and consumption achieved in other countries; 3) in conditions of national rivalry, more technically developed countries can dictate their will to less developed ones; 4) spiritual, historical and cultural factors.

The Renaissance introduced into consciousness the idea of ​​man as an active creator, transformer of the world, and the Age of Enlightenment introduced the idea of ​​the active role of reason in comprehending reality and transforming it.

Social connections in bourgeois society are based on the social and class stratification of society. There are deep tensions between the division of labor or the increasing differences between different parts of society and the need to maintain interaction and unity. This problem is solved by the market with a system of commodity-money circulation with the necessary additions of law, state and bureaucracy.

Other social connections are subordinated to the main thing, but introduce specificity (religious, group, ethnic). Bourgeois society was influenced by Protestantism, evolving Catholicism, and then secular regulators of economic ethics acted to an increasing extent.

The prestige of entrepreneurship was high, and the national orientation of business activities was emphasized. As religion lost its importance as an integrating principle, the unity of society increasingly took shape as a national one on the basis of civil legal regulation.

In industrial society, the main carrier of culture was language; For such a society, national cultures are important, not world ones. The growth of nations and nationalism led to two world wars. The growth of enlightenment led to democracy. Protestantism marked the beginning of mass society: the need to read the Bible led to universal literacy and a common language. Education provided horizontal mobility and facilitated vertical cultural rapprochement. The main trend in culture was the development of education. In ideology, art, and philosophy, realism grew in place of the mythological and religious worldview, illusions were overcome, and utilitarianism grew (the symbol of success is money).

In bourgeois society, sociocultural contradictions have matured, the most important of which are: 1) social and spiritual alienation; 2) colonialism; 3) antagonism between man and technology; 4) environmental crisis.

As a result, a crisis of classical culture arose. It embraced both secular-educational trends in artistic culture and religious forms of spirituality. Even during its heyday, classical artistic culture remained the privilege of fairly educated people with a position in society. Education provided the key to mastering and understanding almost any type of literature and art; personal effort was necessary to master it. For the broad masses, meanings, norms and orientations were provided by the church. Folk culture was preserved in a greatly weakened state, as remnants of the mythological and magical layer of the previous culture.

At the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries, classical culture was replaced by decadence. The art of decadence is characterized by pessimism and denial of the meaning of life, a statement of the futility of human aspirations, admiration of the motives of decay and death, attempts to find a form of escape from life in refined aesthetics. The cult of beauty was combined in decadence with immorality and extreme pessimism. 7.3.

Since the 19th century, a new stage in the development of human civilization begins - industrial society, prepared by previous development from the end of the 15th to the end of the 18th centuries. (i.e. during the transition to the New Time and Early Modern Time). Industrial civilization is often also called machine civilization, because machines and mechanisms not only replace manual labor, but also become an asset in itself, since without the improvement of machines the existence of society itself is impossible. The machine industry begins to occupy perhaps the main place in the life of society, determining its economic well-being, military potential, and the international status of the country. Agrarian, pre-industrial civilizations were characterized by repetition, which boiled down to the assimilation of the experience of previous generations. Tools have not changed for centuries. Industrial civilization dictates the need for continuous technological renewal. Technical progress is the basis for the existence of a new type of civilization. The pace of change is becoming catastrophically fast. This rate of technological progress is made possible only by the close union between machine industry and science.

The increase in the rate of industrial production that occurred as a result of the Industrial Revolution required the development of new forms of transport based on machine traction. In 1807, the American inventor Robert Fulton created the first steamboat, and 12 years later the steamship crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. The ship covered the distance from New York to Liverpool, England in 20 days. Thus, ships appeared that did not depend on the vagaries of the wind. In 1830, traffic began in England on the first railway between the cities of Manchester and Liverpool, with a length of 50 km. And already in 1860, the total length of the railway network in the world was 10 thousand km. (Russia accounted for only 1.5 thousand km).

New sources of energy were found, as well as new, more economical ways to use it. In 1860, the Frenchman Etienne Lenoir invented the internal combustion engine, which made a real technological revolution in transport. A model running on liquid fuel was proposed in 1892 by the German engineer R. Diesel. In the mid-1880s. The first cars were created by German engineers Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler. At the very end of the 19th century. rubber tires appeared, made from a synthetic substance - rubber. In 1859, industrial oil production began in the United States, and subsequently the importance of oil production and oil refining steadily increased. If in 1870 800 thousand tons of it were mined, then in 1900 - already about 200 million tons.

Electricity was mastered, which gave production a new energy base and began to be widely used in transport and in everyday life. The discovery of electricity production is considered the starting point for the beginning of the second technological revolution in the world (the first is considered to be the introduction of steam engines; there have been three such revolutions in total in world history). Belt-driven machines were replaced by those equipped with electric motors, which were more productive and reliable. The source of electricity was a turbogenerator. The problem of transmitting electricity over long distances was solved. In 1891, as a result of an experiment, the Russian scientist M. Dolivo-Dobrovolsky was able to transmit alternating current over a distance of 175 km. Industries such as electrical engineering and electrochemistry emerged.

A new material, steel, was obtained, which was of great industrial importance (the method of melting cast iron into steel was discovered in 1878 by the Englishman Cindy Thomas). Being more durable, it began to rapidly displace iron and wood. Advances in the field of chemistry made possible the rapid development of the chemical industry - the production of dyes, artificial fertilizers, synthetic substances (rubber, artificial fiber), explosives (dynamite was invented in 1875 by the Swede A. Nobel). They switched from using organic substances to mineral ones.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, the face of life had changed. Based on the scientific discoveries made, electric lighting of houses and streets, radio, telephone, telegraph, aeronautics (airship), cinema, and automobiles came into common use. The appearance of cities has changed, people’s ideas about distance have changed thanks to transport and communication systems, and the flow of information has expanded.

Overall, economic growth rates have increased sharply. For the period from 1870 to 1900. global industrial production increased 4 times. The quality of economic growth has changed. In the last third of the 19th century. its most important property was determined. For the first time, technological progress based on scientific discoveries became a direct factor in economic development.

The intensive development of industry led to major social changes. Machines have changed the nature of work, the role of man in production and the attitude of people towards their activities. The time of medieval craftsmen, who slowly and lovingly created products that bore the stamp of individuality, is irrevocably a thing of the past. New production required the mobilization of human capabilities, his liberation from workshop and corporate ties. Flow production turned the worker into an appendage of the machine. Became obvious at the very beginning of the industrial revolution, it manifested itself especially clearly at the beginning of the twentieth century, when for the first time, at its automobile factories in the USA, G. Ford in 1912-13. introduced a conveyor belt. On the one hand, this led to a sharp increase in the level of productivity, on the other hand, labor was mechanized and impersonal to the limit. Back in the 19th century. German philosopher G. Hegel, anticipating these changes, wrote: “Labor is becoming more and more lifeless... the consciousness of the factory worker is brought to an extreme degree of dullness...”

Cities are becoming centers of economic and social life. By 1900, in advanced industrial countries, the urban population either approached or exceeded the rural population. The number of cities has increased sharply, and their appearance has changed (chimneys of factory boiler rooms, workers' quarters). The symbol of urbanization was the first skyscraper built in Chicago, USA. A special urban culture was formed, in which local traditions and speech dialects were eroded. The unhurried, measured way of rural life was replaced by a dynamic urban one.

Thus, the beginning of the process of formation of an industrial society occurs during the industrial revolution (industrial revolution), which mainly came in developed countries in the 19th century, and the subsequent industrialization (late 19th - early 20th centuries).

Industrialization is a regularly renewed process of technical re-equipment of production through the introduction of new advanced machines and production technologies through new scientific discoveries and technical improvements. Industrialization was manifested in the growth of mechanical engineering, increased import of cars, and technical re-equipment of factories. Initially, industrialization began with light industry, in which textiles played a leading role. The predominance of light industry was explained by the fact that capital in it turned over faster and brought more profit.

A developed industrial society is characterized by:

· intensive development of industry, the predominance of industrial production over agricultural production, the emergence of new industries, a high level of investment in the development of production, the establishment of a close connection between science, technology and production, the connection of national and world markets;

· predominance of the urban population over the rural, high level of social mobility, destruction of the class structure of society;

· consolidation of the principle of equality of all citizens before the law, the formation of a rule of law state, a developed structure of civil society;

· rationalization of the spiritual life of society, the growth of individualism, recognition of personal autonomy as the most important social value.

During the 19th century. Only a few countries went through the process of becoming an industrial society - Great Britain, the USA, France. In a number of rapidly developing states, certain features of industrial society coexisted with relations still characteristic of traditional civilization, including in the economy - Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan and some others.

One of the results of the Great Geographical Discoveries (late 15th – 17th centuries) (see Topic 9, Question 2) was the process of formation of the world market and the world economy. Its important manifestation was the colonial expansion of leading European countries and the formation of colonial empires. The first colonial powers were Spain and Portugal, from the middle of the 17th century. they were joined by Holland, England and France. In the last third of the 19th century. Germany, Italy and Belgium entered the struggle for possession of the colonies. The victories of the colonial powers were explained, first of all, by their military-technical superiority over the conquered peoples. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the colonial division of the world was completed, and almost the entire world was subordinated to the economic and political domination of the leading countries of Western Europe and the United States. Giant colonial empires emerged, which were much larger in size (tens or even hundreds of times) than the territories of the metropolis.

A few, as a rule, large states of the East, retained their statehood, but turned into semi-colonies, divided into spheres of influence by the colonial powers - China, the Ottoman Empire. Only one country in the East is Japan, which, after spending in the mid-19th century. a series of modernizing reforms in terms of their goals and content, managed to maintain its national independence, and at the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries. herself to take the path of participation in the colonial division of the world.

Colonies were an important element in the development of capitalism. They were cheap sources of raw materials, labor (initially - the use of slave labor, imposing bonded dependence on the local population), and markets for industrial products. For quite a long time, the colonial authorities prohibited or seriously limited the development of local industry (this was one of the reasons for the war of independence of the North American colonies of England - the USA). National wealth was siphoned off in the form of precious metals - gold and silver.

However, for metropolises, owning vast colonies also had its downsides. Undivided dominance in colonial markets undermined incentives to improve their own technical production base, increase labor productivity, and update the range of products. Capital was invested in colonies and dependent countries that could be used in the metropolises. As a result, the economies of such developed countries as England and France began to show trends towards stagnation. On the contrary, in states that did not have extensive colonies, such as Germany, the USA, and Japan, most of the capital was directed to the development of national economies and they began to outstrip the previous leaders in the pace of their economic development.

In the colonies as a whole, until the middle of the 19th century. There were no fundamental changes in the economy and social structure of traditional societies. Europeans usually preserved local institutions of statehood and sought, above all, economic subordination. However, in the 19th century. Gradually, a capitalist infrastructure begins to form in the colonies. Railways and industrial enterprises are being built here, primarily for the primary processing of raw materials, and the process of forming new social strata of bourgeois society begins. These changes were most clearly manifested in England's colonial policy in India. Thus, in colonial countries, traditional society began to gradually and to varying degrees collapse. If in European countries this happened due to the natural process of economic development, then among the peoples of the East it happened under direct or indirect pressure from the civilization of the West.

The classic characteristic of industrial society suggests that it is formed as a result of the development of machine production and the emergence of new forms of mass labor organization. Historically, this stage corresponded to the social situation in Western Europe in 1800-1960.

General characteristics

The generally accepted characteristics of an industrial society include several fundamental features. What are they? First, an industrial society is based on developed industry. It has a division of labor that helps increase productivity. An important feature is competition. Without it, the description of industrial society would be incomplete.

Capitalism leads to the active growth of entrepreneurial activity of brave and enterprising people. At the same time, civil society is developing, as well as the state management system. It becomes more efficient and more complex. It is impossible to imagine an industrial society without modern means of communication, urbanized cities and a high quality of life for the average citizen.

Technology development

Any characteristic of an industrial society, in short, includes such a phenomenon as the industrial revolution. It was she who allowed Great Britain to cease being an agricultural country for the first time in human history. When the economy begins to rely not on the cultivation of agricultural crops, but on new industry, the first shoots of an industrial society appear.

At the same time, there is a noticeable redistribution of labor resources. The labor force leaves agriculture and goes to the cities to work in factories. Up to 15% of the state’s residents remain in the agricultural sector. The growth of the urban population also contributes to the revival of trade.

In production, entrepreneurial activity becomes the main factor. The presence of this phenomenon is a characteristic of industrial society. This relationship was first briefly described by the Austrian and American economist Joseph Schumpeter. On this path, society at a certain moment experiences a scientific and technological revolution. After this, the post-industrial period begins, which already corresponds to modernity.

Free society

With the advent of industrialization, society becomes socially mobile. This allows people to break the boundaries that exist under the traditional order characteristic of the Middle Ages and the agricultural economy. The boundaries between classes are blurring in the state. Caste disappears in them. In other words, people can get rich and become successful thanks to their efforts and skills, without looking back at their own origins.

The characteristic of an industrial society is significant economic growth, which occurs due to an increase in the number of highly qualified specialists. In society, in the first place are technicians and scientists who determine the future of the country. This order is also called technocracy or the power of technology. The work of traders, advertising specialists and other people occupying a special position in the social structure becomes more significant and significant.

The folding of nation states

Scientists have determined that the main characteristics of an industrial society boil down to the fact that industrial society becomes dominant in all areas of life from culture to economy. Along with urbanization and changes in social stratification comes the emergence of nation states built around a common language. The unique culture of the ethnic group also plays a large role in this process.

In medieval agrarian society, the national factor was not so significant. In the Catholic kingdoms of the 14th century, belonging to one or another feudal lord was much more important. Even armies existed on the principle of hiring. And only in the 19th century the principle of national recruitment into the state armed forces was finally formed.

Demography

The demographic situation is changing. What are the characteristics of an industrial society hidden here? Signs of change boil down to a decrease in the birth rate in one average family. People devote more time to their own education, standards in relation to the presence of offspring are changing. All this affects the number of children in one classic “unit of society.”

But at the same time, the mortality rate is also falling. This is due to the development of medicine. Doctors' services and medicines are becoming more accessible to a wider segment of the population. Life expectancy increases. More people die in old age than in young people (for example, from disease or war).

Consumer society

The enrichment of people in the industrial era led to the emergence of the desire to buy and acquire as much as possible. A new value system is emerging, which is built around the importance of material wealth.

The term was coined by the German sociologist Erich Fromm. In this context, he emphasized the importance of reducing working hours, increasing the proportion of free time, and blurring the boundaries between classes. This is the characteristic of an industrial society. The table shows the main features of this period of human development.

Popular culture

The classic characteristic of an industrial society by spheres of life is that consumption increases in each of them. Production begins to focus on the standards determined by the so-called This phenomenon is one of the most striking signs of an industrial society.

What is it? Mass culture formulates the basic psychological attitudes of consumer society in the industrial era. Art becomes accessible to everyone. It, wittingly or unwittingly, promotes certain norms of behavior. They can be called fashion or lifestyle. In the West, the rise of mass culture was accompanied by its commercialization and the creation of show business.

John Galbraith's theory

Industrial society was carefully studied by many scientists of the 20th century. One of the outstanding economists in this row is John Galbraith. He substantiated several fundamental laws with the help of which the characteristics of industrial society are formulated. No less than 7 provisions of his theory have become fundamental for new trends of our time.

Galbraith believed that the development of industrial society led not only to the establishment of capitalism, but also to the creation of monopolies. Large corporations in free market economic conditions amass wealth and absorb competitors. They control production, trade, capital, as well as progress in science and technology.

Strengthening the economic role of the state

An important characteristic according to John Galbraith's theory is that in a country with such a system of relationships, the state increases its intervention in the economy. Before this, in the agrarian era of the Middle Ages, the authorities simply did not have the resources to radically influence the market. In an industrial society the situation is completely opposite.

The economist, in his own way, noted the development of technology in the new era. By this term he meant the application of systematized new knowledge in production. The demands lead to the triumph of corporations and the state in the economy. This is due to the fact that they become the owners of unique scientific production developments.

At the same time, Galbraith believed that under industrial capitalism the capitalists themselves had lost their former influence. Now having money did not mean power and importance at all. Instead of owners, scientific and technical specialists come to the fore, who can offer new modern inventions and production techniques. This is the characteristic of an industrial society. According to Galbraith's plan, the former working class is being eroded under these conditions. The strained relations between proletarians and capitalists are fading away thanks to technological progress and equalization of incomes for graduates.

In modern social science, a theoretical and methodological approach has become widespread, according to which various countries successively go through such general stages in their evolutionary development as pre-industrial (primitive, agrarian), industrial and post-industrial (information).

This approach, called historical-technological or modernization, is characterized by the idea of ​​​​the leading role in social progress of such factors as the development of technology and life-support technologies. Modern theories of industrial society are, in fact, a type of technological determinism. According to D. Bell, depending on what production technologies are implemented by society in world history, three main types of social organization can be distinguished: pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial.

The term “industrial society” itself was first used in the works of the French utopian socialist A. Saint-Simon at the beginning of the 19th century. The concept of an industrial society, which replaces the traditional (pre-industrial agrarian) society, was first put forward by the French scientist J. Fourastier in the middle of the 20th century. Later, this concept was developed in the works of other scientists, in particular, R. Aron, who focused on the fact that if an agrarian (traditional) society is characterized by the dominance of agriculture and animal husbandry, subsistence farming, the existence of classes, and an authoritarian mode of government, then an industrial society inherent in the dominance of industrial production, the market, equality of citizens before the law and democracy. In the works of famous social scientists (for example, O. Comte, E. Durkheim, W. Rostow, etc.) there are slightly different characteristics of industrial society, but at the same time the most general parameters of this society were identified.

So, an industrial society is a type of society whose economy is characterized by complete industrialization, which means the creation of large, technically developed industry and, above all, industries producing tools and means of production (i.e., heavy industry) as the basis and leading sector of the country's economy. Industrialization ensures the transformation of the entire economic sphere on the basis of large-scale industrial production and the predominance of the industrial sector with developed machine production over the agricultural sector.

At the same time, corresponding social and political public structures are being formed. The establishment of the industrial technological structure as dominant in all social spheres is accompanied by 1) a significant reduction in the share of people employed in agriculture (up to 3-5%) and an increase in the share of people employed in industry (up to 50-60%), as well as in the service sector (up to 40 -45%); 2) intensive urbanization; 3) the formation of national centralized states based on a common culture; 4) establishment of political rights and freedoms; 5) the spread of universal literacy and the formation of national educational systems; 6) rapid development of science and technology; 7) an increase in the level of consumption in conditions of mass production of goods; changing the structure of working and free time - the formation of a “consumer society”, etc. The formation of an industrial society was directly related to the industrial revolution (industrial revolution).

The term “industrial revolution” was introduced into scientific circulation by the famous French economist J. Blanqui. The main content of the industrial revolution is the transition from manufacturing production to machine factory production, which was accompanied by the rapid development of productive forces on the basis of a large machine industry, a sharp increase in labor productivity, and an increase in the living standards of the population. The Industrial Revolution is associated not just with the beginning of the mass use of machines, but also with a change in the entire structure of the social system.

At the same time, capitalism, based on private property, wage labor, a free market, and the political dominance of the class of private owners of the means of production, is established as the dominant mode of production. The industrial revolution is associated with a production revolution in agriculture, which causes a sharp increase in labor productivity in the agricultural sector, and also provides the opportunity to move significant masses of the population from the agricultural sector to the industrial sector. For the first time in world history, the industrial revolution began in England, where in the second half of the 18th century. The steam engine was invented.

In conditions of market relations already quite developed by this time and the active activity of the formed entrepreneurial layer, English society turned out to be prepared for the widespread introduction of this effective technical invention into production. In addition, by owning colonies and leading world trade, England had large financial resources necessary for industrialization. The transformation of English society from a traditional, agrarian one into an industrial society was also facilitated by the traditions of the Protestant work ethic, and a liberal political system conducive to the development of economic activity of the population. In 1810, there were about 5 thousand steam engines in England, and in the next 15 years their number tripled.

From 1830 to 1847, metal production in England increased more than 3 times. It should be noted that although the beginning of the industrial revolution in England dates back to the 18th century, a full-fledged industrial society was formed here only in the 19th century. and other countries have already followed England. So, starting in the 18th century. in England, the industrial revolution already in the first half of the 19th century. has become widespread, covering a number of countries in Europe and America. In modern social science, the concept of “industrial society” is closely related to the concept of “modernization”, by which some scientists understood the process of “Europeanization” or “Westernization”, i.e. direct borrowing of the achievements of advanced Western countries (where an industrial society has already developed) by others, less developed countries.

But along with this, a broader understanding of modernization has emerged, according to which modernization as an objective process of the formation and development of an industrial society initially took place in Western Europe, and the rest of the countries, with more or less delay, simply repeat the path that has already been traversed by Western countries. The American sociologist N. Smelser drew attention to the fact that the term “modernization” means a complex set of changes occurring in almost every part of society in the process of its industrialization: in economics, politics, education, in the sphere of traditions and religious life of society.

If, for example, N. Smelser, W. Rostow and many other researchers considered industrialization as the main process in modernization, then other scientists interpreted modernization, first of all, as the process of the formation of capitalist socio-economic relations. Eisenstadt and other scholars defined modernization as the process of change that leads to the types of social, economic and political systems that developed in Western Europe and North America between the 17th and 19th centuries. and then spread to all countries and continents. Western countries embarked on the path of modernization a long time ago and therefore have made significant progress along it, while all other countries have to follow this path with some delay, as if catching up with the leaders of the world modernization process.

Accordingly, in recent years the concepts of “organic” and “inorganic” (or “catch-up”) modernization have become widespread in the literature. “Organic” modernization, associated with the natural internal development of capitalism and the formation of an industrial society, is characteristic of leading Western European countries. “Inorganic”, “catch-up” modernization is, as a rule, a response to the challenge of other countries that are more powerful economically and militarily. It is in the context of this concept of “catch-up modernization” that the features of Russian modernization and the specifics of the formation of an industrial society in our country are often considered.

The “catching up” type of modernization is characterized by a more compressed historical period of implementation, selective borrowing of organizational and technical achievements of advanced countries and at the same time the conservation of a number of traditional social structures, resulting in a kind of “overlap of eras” (industrial and pre-industrial). At the same time, modernization is accompanied by the establishment of a heterogeneous economic space, an overstrain of all the country’s forces, an aggravation of social and political problems, and an excessive strengthening of the role of state regulation. According to a number of researchers, the catching-up model of the formation of an industrial society in Russia was largely due to the fact that, due to the large territorial extent of the country, as well as a fairly long expansion of borders, the process of its extensive agrarian colonization dragged on.

Therefore, in Russia, in the conditions of incomplete extensive agrarian development of society, an accelerated process of its industrial transformation began. This led to the incompleteness and unevenness of industrial transformations in different sectors of the economy, and, in general, to a multi-structured economy of the country. In the process of formation of the Russian industrial society, obviously, it is possible to distinguish such historical periods as 1) the period of emergence of prerequisites for the industrial revolution, 2) the industrial revolution itself, 3) unfinished pre-revolutionary industrialization at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, 4) industrialization, completed in the conditions already the Soviet socialist system. The Russian history of the second half of the 19th century, which is discussed in this lecture, includes the period of the industrial revolution. The preconditions for the industrial revolution took shape in Russia from the mid-18th century. in connection with scientific and technological achievements, as well as in connection with the emergence of such important elements of the capitalist structure as the initial accumulation of capital and the formation of a hired labor market.

However, the serfdom that existed in Russia restrained these processes. The industrial revolution in Russia, according to most researchers, began at the end. 30's - early 40s XIX century, i.e. later than in Western Europe (in England, for example, it began in the 60s of the 18th century, and in France - at the beginning of the 19th century). In the history of the Russian industrial revolution, as a rule, two stages are distinguished: the first stage (pre-reform) covers the 30-50s. XIX century, and the second stage (post-reform) - 60-80s. XIX century An essential criterion for the completion of the industrial revolution, that is, the completion, basically, of the technical renewal of industry is considered to be the situation when more than half of all industrial products are produced by enterprises that are equipped with machines and engines that drive these machines.

In Russia, such a situation arose in the 80s. XIX century It should be noted that in contrast to Western countries, where, as a result of bourgeois revolutions, a revolution in agrarian-production relations first took place, and only then an industrial revolution, in Russia, on the contrary, the industrial revolution preceded the bourgeois-democratic revolution and the agrarian-capitalist revolution. A special feature of the industrial revolution in Russia was that it was accomplished in a shorter period of time than in the countries of Western Europe (England spent about 100 years, France - 70 years), since Russia had the opportunity to borrow advanced technology and progressive technologies from Western countries. ideas and technologies. Machinery was imported to Russia from England, Belgium and other European countries. At the same time, domestic mechanical engineering was also emerging, for example, in St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod. New forms of production organization were primarily introduced in light industry, for example, textiles, and then gradually covered other industries.

At the same time, the technical re-equipment of industry was carried out, the widespread introduction of various engines and advanced technologies into production, due to which the use of manual labor was sharply reduced. Since the industrial revolution in Russia began under the dominance of a feudal economy, a number of factors restrained its pace, caused uneven distribution of industrial enterprises across the country and prevented the rapid formation of large entrepreneurial capital. Under the conditions of serfdom in pre-reform Russia, despite the beginning of the industrial revolution, new social class strata characteristic of a capitalist society - the industrial bourgeoisie and the industrial proletariat - were formed relatively slowly. The market for hired labor in Russia at the first stage of the industrial revolution could have developed mainly only at the expense of state and serf peasants who went to work.

Unlike Western European workers, Russian workers depended not only on entrepreneurs, but also on their owners or on the community that sent them out to earn money. A characteristic feature of the process of formation of an industrial society in Russia was that the industrial revolution took place with the active participation of the state, both directly, through government orders and investment of public funds, and indirectly, through protectionist tariffs, for example. The transition to the second stage of the industrial revolution in Russia is associated with the peasant reform of 1861, which abolished serfdom and thereby removed many obstacles to the formation of an industrial society in the country.

The peasant reform of 1861 is considered as a progressive event in Russian history, which marked the beginning of the accelerated modernization of the country, that is, the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society. In the post-reform period, the process of formation of an industrial society in Russia continued under much more favorable conditions. "Great Reforms" of the second half of the 19th century. many researchers define it as the boundary between traditional (agrarian) and modern (industrial) society.

An important phenomenon in the industrial development of Russia was the beginning in the 30-50s. XIX century industrial revolution, that is, the transition to an industrial mode of production using machine technology and hired labor. The use of machines from 1826 to 1860 across Russia increased 86 times, but machine production became predominant only in some sectors of the light and manufacturing industries, such as textiles (cotton) and distilleries, focused on products of mass demand. Thanks to the use of machines, labor productivity in industry in the 50s. increased 3 times.

At the same time, for Russia in the first half of the 19th century. It was characterized by the predominance of small-scale, mostly handicraft, production and peasant crafts, which provided 2/3 of the output of the manufacturing industry. In conditions of serfdom and the cheapness of free-hired labor of peasant otkhodniks, the use of expensive machines was unprofitable for the owners of industrial enterprises.

The abolition of serfdom in 1861 and the formation of a market for free civilian labor radically changed the situation. In the 70-90s. XIX century In all branches of industry, the industrial revolution was basically completed and the industrial mode of production was established. This was also facilitated by such factors as the completion of the initial accumulation of capital (mainly in the field of trade); development of the domestic market and communications; protectionist government policies and the technical experience of advanced Western countries that have already embarked on the path of industrial development.

For 40 years, from 1860 to 1900, the volume of industrial production in Russia increased more than 7 times (while in England - only 2 times). At the end of the century, in terms of growth rates, Russian industry lagged only behind the United States. The economic recovery of the 90s was especially rapid: during this decade alone, industrial production in Russia increased more than 2 times, 40% of the enterprises operating by 1900 were built.
By the end of the century, light industry still accounted for more than half of output, but heavy industry was growing at an accelerated pace. It was here that modern technology was used, specialists were attracted and fixed capital (including foreign) was invested. Coal production has increased by 25 times over 25 years, and oil production by 226 times. However, in terms of the general level of development, Russia was still far behind the West. Thus, in terms of one resident, Russia produced 13 times less iron than in England.


A characteristic feature of the development of Russian industry was its high concentration. Large factories and factories employed 3/4 of all workers.

The large-scale construction of railways that unfolded during the post-reform period provided the industry with a stable sales market for a decade and thereby accelerated the process of industrialization. Public and private capital was involved in the construction of railways, and stable annual profits were guaranteed to shareholders. In the 90s 22 thousand miles of railways were built out of the 56 thousand miles available in the country in 1901. At the same time, the state invested about 3.5 billion rubles in this construction.

During the post-reform period, the financial system of Russia was formed. In 1860, the State Bank was created, in 1882 - the Peasant Land Bank, and in 1885 - the Noble Land Bank. By 1879, 39 joint-stock commercial and 235 city public banks had emerged. The government sought to implement a tough financial policy; the wine monopoly, as well as loans from abroad, were used to replenish the state budget. Since 1888, the Russian budget began to be deficit-free.

Thanks to the development of industry, the domestic market expanded, into which the countryside was drawn in, with demand for factory fabrics, more advanced tools and machines. In foreign trade, an active trade balance was maintained (the excess of exports over imports); over the 40 post-reform years, foreign trade turnover increased 3 times, although Russia mainly continued to export agricultural products (47% of exports were grain).


Economic development also affected changes in the social structure. According to the 1897 census, the population of Russia was 125.6 million people. The productive population was 94.5% (employed in agriculture, industry, trade and transport). The process of urbanization of the population was gaining momentum: in 1863, 9.94% of the population lived in cities, and in 1897 - 12.76%. Russia was distinguished by a high birth rate (per 1 thousand inhabitants - 48.7 people) and high mortality rate (per 1 thousand inhabitants - 38.2 people).

In the post-reform period, the process of formation of new social groups characteristic of capitalism is completed. The industrial proletariat, according to the census, amounted to 5.2 million people. It was formed mainly by people from the villages, as well as city residents (primarily artisans). Most workers were peasants by class status. They kept an allotment in the village, and their family often lived there. Gradually, the proletariat became a cadre: by the end of the century, 55% of the workers were hereditary (children of workers).

The industrial bourgeoisie consisted of traders, nobles, and townspeople, but one of the main sources of its replenishment were peasant entrepreneurs. The largest industrial dynasties (Morozovs, Ryabushinskys, Prokhorovs, Guchkovs, Konovalovs) were founded by people from the peasant class.