Chrześcijański ruch robotniczy w Królestwie Polskim na przełomie XIX i XX wieku

Abstract

A working-class issue became part of a big social problem at the turn of the 19th century. This period is marked by migration of people from the country to towns. The fact that in 1864 about 70,000 workers migrated, while shortly before World War I as many as 400,000, shows die rapid rate of growth in number and quality of this social class. Working-class centres were particularly numerous in Warsaw and Piotrków provinces, where there were 30 workers for every 100 inhabitants. The new social class grew in number, but not in material well-being. It became less educated and impoverished, both materially and morally. Some factors which influenced this situation were: callousness of foreign capital, industrial changes, especially around 1900, and the fact that factory industry was not accompanied by political and social development. Until 1905 the working world remained at the mercy of three factors: socialism, government and good will of capitalists. It was only the 1905 revolution that showed the full condition of this new social stratum: its material poverty and moral decay.