Occupational diseases in industrial enterprises of St. Petersburg at the beginning of the twentieth century

The subject of the study is occupational diseases in industrial enterprises of St. Petersburg in the early twentieth century. The problem of acquiring occupational diseases has deep historical roots, has not lost its relevance today, but unlike the issue of occupational injuries, it is not widely reflected in historiography. The source base is also very limited. The study of the problem of the acquisition of occupational diseases as a certain indicator of working conditions, as well as the analysis of measures to reduce the risk of their acquisition, allows for a more in-depth study of the formation and development of occupational safety at industrial enterprises in St. Petersburg in the early twentieth century. An important task is to establish the reasons for the inability to bring occupational diseases and the consequences of industrial accidents under a single database.  The following methods are used in the article: analysis, synthesis, comparison, analogy, deduction. Chronologically problematic, dialectical and historical methods were used, the latter was supplemented by logical ones. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that previously the issue of occupational diseases was considered by researchers most often as a side story or historical "background" to highlight other problems. In this article, the problem of acquiring occupational diseases is equivalent to the problem of industrial injuries, its causes and consequences. The article concludes about the imperfection and limitations of legislation in the field under study and about the improper setting of the labor protection system at industrial enterprises in St. Petersburg in the early twentieth century, as well as the reluctance of business owners to invest in labor protection measures. The reasons for the impossibility of considering occupational diseases and the consequences of occupational injuries as identical phenomena have been established. The article may be useful to researchers of the situation of workers in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century.

occupational diseases, labor protection, industrial enterprises, legislation, women's work, improvement of working conditions, St. Petersburg, industrial injuries, working conditions, violations of sanitary standards