Professional trade unions of textile workers emerged during the 1905–1907 Revolution in Russia—one of the oldest detachments of the working class in our country. On November 7, 1905, the first meeting of workers’ delegates from Moscow textile enterprises took place, where a decision was made to establish the Moscow Trade Union of Textile Industry Workers.
On November 22, 1905, the St. Petersburg Trade Union of Male and Female Workers in the Processing of Fibrous Materials was established. In the same period, unions of leather goods workers and knitting factory workers were formed. In August 1906, the tailors’ union was officially registered; that same year, the 1st All-Russian Conference of Professional Unions of Tailoring Industry Workers was held, attended by delegates from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov, Odessa, and other cities. By 1907, there were 88 tanners’ unions across Russia, with a membership of about 20,000 people.
From the first days of the February Revolution of 1917, the trade union movement in these sectors gained enormous momentum and numbered hundreds of thousands of members. The trade unions of textile workers, tanners, and garment workers took an active part in forming workers’ combat detachments that fought to establish Soviet power.
The First All-Russian Congress of the Textile Workers’ Trade Union took place in January 1918.