Dissertation Information for Rebecca Woodward WendelkenNAME:
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SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: MPACT Status: Fully Complete Title: Red metal on the steppes: The Spassky Copper Mines, Ltd., 1904 to 1919 Abstract: The Spassky Copper Mines, Ltd., a British-owned company, operated in Russia\'s remote Kazak Steppes from 1904 to 1919. It continued to produce copper for Russian industry through three revolutions, a World War, a native uprising and a Civil War. Spassky\'s managers overcame enormous logistic and operational obstacles, while employing a workforce composed of Russian peasants and Kazak nomads. As a case study, Spassky shows that government incentives to attract foreign investment may actually have stifled native entrepreneurship. Additionally, Spassky shows that the periphery was not controlled by the center. Worker movements and strike activities were generated locally, but still exhibited the same types of consciousness development as urban areas. However, both Russians and Kazaks retained strong ties to their traditional, and separate, lifestyles. These cultural differences, combined with artificial divisions in the work environment such as job types, living quarters, and social activities, proved far stronger than needs for united action. Therefore each group developed its own exclusive consciousness as workers, but each could also shift from worker to traditional deferential modes and vice-versa. Kazak workers were found to have organizational abilities far in excess of what was previously believed, and they were responsible for numerous strikes conducted without help from Russians. They also show a much more intensive practice of Islam than was formerly thought. |
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